Tell the lie often enough and people will begin to believe it. The totalitarians of the last century understood that well.

Our President-Theologian
By Fr. Mark A. Pilon

Fr. Mark Pilon looks to George Orwell, prophet of Newspeak and Doublethink, to understand what Mr. Obama says when he talks about Islam.

Whatever else may be said about the terrorists who are slaughtering Christians, fellow Muslims, and people of other religions, it strikes me as extremely arrogant that the President of the United States should take it upon himself to declare who is and who is not a true Muslim, or who is and who is not a Muslim religious leader. In his address to a White House gathering last week, the president stated with something like ex cathedra certitude that the leaders of ISIS are not religious leaders but simply terrorists who have falsely interpreted the Muslim religion: “They are not religious leaders” he said, and “. .we are at war with people who have perverted Islam.”

That assertion may be true, or it may not be true, but it depends upon how someone interprets the religious writings of Islam. For instance, what weight does one give to the earlier writings versus the later writings? So, for a non-Muslim, who is certainly not a religious scholar and who does not read the sacred books in their original language (very important for Muslim scholars) to set himself up as the judge of who is and who is not a true Muslim reveals both “extreme” arrogance and ignorance. What the precise interpretation of these ancient texts is – which will greatly determine who is a faithful Muslim – is surely a question that ultimately can only be resolved from within this ancient religion.

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