Let's Not Incite Would-Be Terrorists

I think some viewers may have misinterpreted my criticism of the Baptist Rev. Jerry Vines.

To read that article, click here.

I don't pretend to know the truth about the prophet Mohammed. What Vines said I've heard before… and maybe it's just as he says.

But I think peaceful Muslims would say, "If Mohammed was possessed by a demon, does that make him unqualified to pass the word of god to man? If Mohammed had 12 wives in a time and place where men did that, and if one of them was nine years old, does that disqualify him to hear god?"

I don't know, and I'm not going to make that judgment... not because I'm trying to be P.C., but because I'm trying not to make judgments about someone else's religion.

What I will make judgments about is someone else's actions, and that's what I wanted the Rev. Vines to do.

Condemn the terrorists because they should know killing innocents is wrong, even if in some dusty passage of the Koran it says to kill the infidel. We require of modern people that they reinterpret ancient commandments to fit our times, and in our times killing innocents is wrong.

But more than that, I wanted the reverend to consider the situation of people who live in the terrorists' line of fire.

Al Qaeda's bulls-eye is not Jacksonville, Florida, where the reverend is from, or Beaverton, Oregon... The bulls-eye is New York or Washington, D.C.

For those of us who live in and around those two bulls-eyes, we would like to beg the indulgence of our fellow citizens: Don't rattle the cage, please.

We're already making war on the people who would carry out terrorist attacks. We are making some progress, I might add... and we here don't think it's such a great idea for you out there to turn even more Muslim men into active bombers by calling their prophet names that they find horribly offensive. If you don't mind, I don't need even one more crazed bomber.

So that's the limit of my criticism of the reverend. I don't know whether he's right or wrong about Mohammed, but he's preaching to the already converted. The followers of the guy he's slamming are only going to get even angrier, so please. Give us bulls-eye people a break.

That's My Word.

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