Last week, the Islamic State (ISIS) beheaded
another American; and the response of the President of the United States (POTUS)
reveals a stubborn determination to deny reality.
Peter Kassig was a former U.S. Army
Ranger and emergency medical technician who became empathic to the suffering of
Syria’s civilians, and returned to the region after his discharge to provide
aid. He helped some of the 1-million
Syrian refugees who have fled into Lebanon, using his own funds to buy supplies
(like diapers and other necessities) and driving an ambulance into Syria. He was kidnapped in October of 2013.
According to those who analyze such
things, something went wrong with the video of Kassig’s beheading – It wasn’t
caught on tape. We can speculate that
the former Ranger had enough strength left to fight back. Perhaps his was not the only blood on the
sand. In any case, ISIS felt obliged to
offer video of Syrian soldiers’ beheadings instead, together with a tutorial on
the history of ISIS, which began as an al-Qaida cell. The ISIS executioner joked over Kassig’s
severed head, “He doesn’t have much to say.”
President Obama condemned the
atrocity, saying that Kassig “was taken from us in an act of pure evil by a
terrorist group.” He continued, “While
ISIL revels in the slaughter of innocents, including Muslims, and is bent only
on sowing death and destruction, Abdul-Rahman was a humanitarian who worked to
save the lives of Syrians injured and dispossessed by the Syrian conflict.”
Wait a minute! Kassig converted to Islam and took the name
Abdul-Rahman … but only in captivity. Obama’s
insistence upon using his Islamic name reflects his continuing belief that by
denying Islamic extremism, he can promote peace. “ISIL’s actions represent no faith,” he said,
“least of all the Muslim faith, which Abdul-Rahman adopted as his own.”
When someone converts at the point
of sword, in hopes of saving his life, is that adopting the Muslim faith “as
his own?” Who is Obama respecting by
using the Islamic name: Kassig or his executioners?
The New York Times explained it this way: “The President used the
Muslim name that Mr. Kassig adopted after his capture, making the point that
the Islamic State had killed a fellow Muslim.” If that’s the motive for using the Islamic
name, it raises this question: Who does Obama imagine is unaware that the
Islamic State kills Muslims? Certainly
in the very tape confirming the beheading of Kassig, ISIS provided graphic and
high-definition evidence of the execution of 13 Syrian soldiers. They weren’t Baptists. A recent UN report depicts widespread ISIS
terror and horror across Syria and Iraq. “Executions have been recorded in Aleppo,
Raqqa, Idlib, Al-Hassakeh and Deir Al-Zor provinces,” according to a Reuters account. “Witnesses saw scenes of still-bleeding bodies
hanging from crosses and of heads placed on spikes along park railings.”
But Obama is still at pains to
protect the ‘good name’ of Islam. He
condemns the barbarism of ISIS and other terrorists, but feels the need to
quickly add that their crimes “represent no faith, least of all the Muslim
faith.”
Really? The President is oblivious to reality. Throughout the Muslim world, extremism is in
full bloom. Only a minority of Sunni
extremists travel under the name al-Qaida. Others are called al-Nusra (Syria) and AQIM
(North Africa) and IS (Iraq and Syria) and Wahhabi (Saudi Arabia) and Boko
Haram (Nigeria) and Abu Sayyaf (Philippines) and Taliban (Afghanistan and
Pakistan) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (Pakistan) and al-Fatah (Palestinian territories)
and Hamas (Gaza). The Shia extremists
include the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hezbollah (Lebanon) and the Mahdi Army of
Iraq.
I’ll grant you that perhaps most
Muslims worldwide want only to be left in peace. They are the first, but far from the only
victims of a movement that has taken the Islamic world by storm; and that
Barack Obama thinks he can wish away by denying.
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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