{"id":35127,"date":"2016-05-16T00:35:12","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T03:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/?p=35127"},"modified":"2016-11-24T21:37:23","modified_gmt":"2016-11-25T00:37:23","slug":"petraeus-anti-muslim-bigotry-aids-islamist-terrorists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/16\/petraeus-anti-muslim-bigotry-aids-islamist-terrorists\/","title":{"rendered":"Petraeus: Anti-Muslim bigotry aids Islamist terrorists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-35129\" src=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/petraeus.jpg\" alt=\"petraeus\" width=\"858\" height=\"383\" srcset=\"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/petraeus.jpg 858w, https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/petraeus-300x134.jpg 300w, https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/petraeus-768x343.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 858px) 100vw, 858px\" \/>In a column at the Washington Post, former US Army General and CIA Director David Petraeus rails against &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.stripes.com\/opinion\/anti-muslim-bigotry-aids-islamist-terrorists-1.409434\">inflammatory political discourse&#8230;against Muslims and Islam<\/a>:&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Those who flirt with hate speech against Muslims should realize they are playing directly into the hands of al-Qaida and the Islamic State.<\/p>\n<p>The terrorists&#8217; explicit hope has been to try to provoke a clash of civilizations \u2014 telling Muslims that the United States is at war with them and their religion. When Western politicians propose blanket discrimination against Islam, they bolster the terrorists&#8217; propaganda.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Petraeus doesn&#8217;t say what Americans should <em>do<\/em> about this objection to <!--more-->the exercise of their freedom &#8212; he just warns\u00a0that it endangers national security:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Because the danger of Islamist extremism is so great&#8230;politicians&#8230;must consider the effects of their rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p>Demonizing a religious faith and its adherents not only runs contrary to our most cherished and fundamental values as a country; it is also corrosive to our vital national security interests&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Regrettably, this is not too far from the rhetoric of Michael &#8220;Mikey&#8221; Weinstein, who claims the bad guys knowing there are Christians in the US military somehow &#8220;aids terrorist propaganda&#8221; as well.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s an interesting thought&#8230; but who cares?<\/p>\n<p>The existence of Playboy, a non-Muslim government, and pork rinds at the military Exchange all &#8220;aid terrorist propaganda.&#8221; What should we do about our Western American culture that would satisfy Petraeus (and Weinstein)?<\/p>\n<p>Weinstein has previously demanded that Christians be silenced and their religious freedoms be restricted &#8212; for reasons of national security, of course.<\/p>\n<p>Petraeus says only that politicians must &#8220;consider the effects of their rhetoric&#8221; &#8212; vague tripe indicating he hasn&#8217;t considered the logical effects of his <em>own<\/em> rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p>One does not protect freedom by restricting it.<\/p>\n<p>Freedom is protected by its exercise.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-share=\"true\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-size=\"small\" data-action=\"like\" data-layout=\"standard\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\"><strong>ADVERTISEMENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><!-- blogpost --><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-ad-slot=\"2728423835\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6450825356098669\"><\/ins><script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a column at the Washington Post, former US Army General and CIA Director David Petraeus rails against &#8220;inflammatory political discourse&#8230;against Muslims and Islam:&#8221; Those who flirt with hate speech against Muslims should realize they are playing directly into the hands of al-Qaida and the Islamic State. The terrorists&#8217; explicit hope has been to try to provoke a clash of [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[894,96,676,4872,44,85,2,5218,7,10,171],"class_list":["post-35127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-al-qaeda","tag-christian","tag-david-petraeus","tag-isis","tag-islam","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}