I will be the first to admit that I know next-to-nothing about Islam, which is why I recently picked up a copy of "Memories of Muhammad: Why the Prophet Matters" by Omid Safi.
Now, obviously reading one book makes me only slightly less uninformed than I was before, but it has helped me to realize that the AFA's Bryan Fischer not only has no idea what he is talking about when it comes to Islam and Muslims, but that he just doesn't even care if anything he says is even remotely truthful.
Even though the book was written last year, there are passages that address the Islamophobia that is currently sweeping the Right and seem perfectly directed at people like Fischer, who use innuendo, half-truths, and outright lies to paint all Muslims as violent terrorists:
One of the most common mistakes made in cross-religious conversations is that people end up comparing the loftiest and noblest aspects of their own tradition with the most hideous aspects of others.
...
A common ploy by Islamophobes is to go to a predictable list of verses in the Qur'an and the words of Muhammad and to argue that these verses - with no context, no interpretation, and no alternative set of verses - represent the essence of Islam for all eternity, no matter what Muslims may say or why they may protest.
This new post by Fischer today is a perfect example of this tendency in action.
Fischer takes the story of Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al-Soofi and Hezam al-Murisi, who were detained on suspicion of planning a terror attack but released when authorities found no such evidence, and uses it to "prove" that all Muslims are, in fact, terrorists:
What officials don’t realize is the fact al Soofi apparently acted on his own makes the case against the theory that there are any truly moderate Muslims in America crumble like a cheap Bedouin tent in a mild breeze.
In other words, al Soofi was a classic moderate Muslim, someone we’re told is not a threat to anyone, not a part of any terrorist cell, is a follower of the religion of peace and a man who only wants to contribute to America and realize the American dream.
Now it looks like he was trying to figure out a way to blow 300 of us to kingdom come.
The bottom line is this: if we can’t even trust “moderate” Muslims, which members of the Islamic persuasion can we trust? If a convenience store clerk in Tuscaloosa can go jihadi on us with no warning, how many other Muslims like him do we have to worry about?
The constant, constant danger is that a “moderate” Muslim may suddenly begin to take his religion seriously and get about the business of blasting some of us infidels to our final reward as his god and his religion teaches him to do. If a guy like al Soofi can’t be trusted, then no “moderate” Muslim in America can be trusted. We have to be cautious with them all.
Fischer has long been convinced that every Muslim is a terrorist, so it comes as no surprise that he would seize on this article. But it is absolutely remarkable how he manages to present a case in which a Muslim was released after authorities determined that there was no evidence he was plotting an attack as proof that all Muslims are plotting terrorist attacks!
For Fischer, a complete lack of evidence that al Soofi was plotting an attack or had any ties to terrorist organization is simply more evidence that every Muslims is violent radical at heart.
