That fact that President Obama told a series of brazen lies about Islam in his December 3 Baltimore speech is being well documented by experts on Islam. Why he did it, and why the Left in America is defending those lies, is more important for patriots to understand.
Obama chose as the venue for his praise of Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance the same Baltimore mosque that in 2012 was under FBI scrutiny because its former imam condoned suicide bombing and one of its members was arrested for plotting to bomb a federal building. Why did Obama feel a need to help “rehabilitate” the mosque reputation by selecting it as the site for his speech?
The full text of Obama’s speech at the Baltimore mosque is available on the White House website and has been helpfully reprinted by the New York Times. Anyone who thinks my criticism of the speech is unwarranted is invited to read the full text and tell me where I have misrepresented his remarks.
Of course, the speech had some platitudes about our nation’s history of tolerance and freedom of speech, and we all support the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of worship. But even in recounting America’s historic commitment to religious tolerance, Obama misrepresents the Founders’ views of Islam.
- Jefferson did indeed include “Mohammadans” – as Muslims were known in those times– as entitled to freedom of worship, but he included them for the purpose of making clear that even the most extreme, non-Christian religions were welcome in America.
- But in 1805, President Jefferson had a different encounter with Islam when he sent the U.S. Marines to fight the young nation’s first battle on foreign soil –against Muslims in Tunisia and Tripoli who were kidnapping American, French and British sailors and holding them for ransom. They were called the Barbary Pirates.
But Obama’s gift for fabrication was not limited to mischaracterizing Islam’s place in American history. He also misquoted the Koran—more than once.
- Obama bizarrely invented a new translation of the word “Islam” itself, saying incorrectly that the word comes from the same root as the Muslim word for peace—salam, as in, “peace be with you.” In fact, in Arabic, the word “Islam” means “submission,” not peace, meaning submission to Allah and the teachings of his prophet, Mohammad.
- This is remarkably – and not accidentally—parallel to orthodox Marxist-Leninist doctrine as spelled out in the Communist Manifesto that true world peace is possible only with the worldwide victory of communism, which brings the “classless society” — the end of the presumed source of all conflict, private property and capitalism. To the disciples of the Prophet Mohammad, peace is possible only with the subjugation of all infidels.
- Obama also misquoted Islamic scripture in parts of his speech, even going so far as to suggest that Islamic teaching on killing is the same as the Christian, which is patently untrue. Several sections of the Koran and other sacred texts teach that infidels and “apostates” must be killed if they do not submit to Islam.
- Contrary to Obama, Islam has no equivalent to the Christian biblical teaching of the Golden Rule. Obama’s efforts to suggest a kindred spirit uniting Islam and Christianity is pure hogwash and can only be called propaganda.
Similar lies and whitewashes of Islam have been chronicled by respected scholars of Islam like Robert Spencer. You can start with Spencer’s The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran, and then read The Muslim Brotherhood in America.
It is true that many Muslims – indeed, a majority of Muslims– do not follow the teachings of the Koran and the words of the Prophet Mohammad. There are indeed millions of “moderate Muslims” in the United States who do not support the goals of jihadists.
But the important point is that those millions of “moderate” Muslims are moderate precisely because they are not devout and do not follow all of the teachings of the Koran. That is one of the truths that Obama denies in his Baltimore speech.
But it’s not enough to list the many lies in the Baltimore speech; that’s the easy part. The more important thing is to understand WHY Obama and the entire liberal-left establishment would want to lie about Islam.
- Why does the President of the United States distort and defend the ideological fountainhead of America’s number one enemy, radical Islam?
- Why does the Left and practically the entire media establishment continually mislead Americans about the true character of Islam?
- Why does Obama insist on saying “Islam must not be blamed for the actions of a few,” when legitimate polls reveal that from 15% to 30% of all Muslims sympathize with the goals of the jihadists?
Why, Mr. President?
The easy answer would be if Obama is a secret Muslim and so, psychologically, cannot admit the truth about his own chosen religion when so many of his brethren are engaged in murderous attacks on this country. That may be true, but since we cannot read Obama’s heart, we can’t know that for certain.
Even if that were true, it would not explain the duplicity of millions of other Americans and Europeans who willingly put on blinders each morning, who knowingly and continuously spout lies about the “religion of peace.”
The fundamental reason for the Orwellian passion for not only accepting the lie but actively promoting it is the commitment to the universal leftist maxim — blame the victim.
- To a leftist crusader for “social justice,” when a man walking down the street minding his own business is attacked, robbed and beaten to death by a gang of thugs, it was his own fault: he invited the attack by tolerating a society with inequality of wealth.
- In the same way, to devout Muslims, a woman walking alone without a male escort is inviting rape. This is not a tenet of “radical” Islam, it is a tent of orthodox Islam.
In the same vein, to the Left, America is immutably and irredeemably so sinful and so guilty of so many historical wrongs that Islam is right to reject assimilation.
- There are no “innocent civilians” killed by terrorists: Leftist University of Colorado pseudo scholar Ward Churchill was right when he said the 2000 Americans who died in the Twin Towers on 9/11 “deserved what they got.”
- America’s historical sins of racism, sexism, and capitalist exploitation disqualify us from rendering any moral judgment against Islam.
While it is true that Islam’s religious beliefs about women, gays and all “infidels” are repugnant to progressives, this does not mean progressives should criticize Islam. To serious progressives, Islam is a victim, not an aggressor. Because Islam is waging war on the corrupt and sinful West, the maxim, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” rules the day.
The Left has formed an unwritten but soulful strategic alliance with Islam against the traditional values and institutions of Western Civilization.
- This unspoken strategic political alliance justifies – indeed requires– remaining silent about Islam’s transgressions. It justifies calling the most intolerant religion on the planet a religion of peace.
- It justifies telling fairy tales about Islam, a religion which in its most sacred texts calls for the conquest and killing of other religious faithful if they will not voluntarily convert or submit to Islam and Islamic Sharia law.
Obama lies about Islam because admitting the truth would jeopardize the alliance between Islam and the Left, an alliance that threatens not only Israel but every nation on the plant that does not agree to shout “Allahu Akbar!” which translates not as Allah is great but “Allah is the greatest!”
Obama’s speech to the Islamic Society of Baltimore was a predictable follow-up to his 2009 speech to the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, where he asked forgiveness for America’s past sins and pledged to be an equal partner with Islamic nations.
The real question, then is not why Obama lies about Islam, it is why so many people tolerate it, applaud it, and join in the lies and the smears against those who dare to tell the truth.
Tom Tancredo is the founder of the Rocky Mountain Foundation and founder and co-chairman of Team America PAC.
Tom represented Colorado’s sixth congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2009, and he is a former presidential candidate.
He is the author of In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America’s Border and Security.
