Republican Reaction to Obama’s Prayer Breakfast: Many Conservatives Don’t Think Christianity Has Anything to Apologize For.
This message of humility has infuriated the GOP. Several past and current Republican presidential candidates—Rick Santorum, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, Jim Gilmore—have attacked the speech. So have dozens of conservative commentators. They reject the suggestion that Christianity has anything to apologize for. Many go further. They claim that Islam sanctions violence, that Islam is our enemy, or that Christianity is the only true faith. In issuing these declarations, Obama’s critics validate the propaganda of ISIS and al-Qaida. They’re not just pandering to the Christian right. They’re aiding the Islamic right.
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2. The Inquisition wasn’t that bad. Donohue says the body count was only 1,394. Goldberg says there were different versions of the term “inquisition,” some milder or more enlightened than others. (You could say the same about “jihad”—but conservatives don’t.) Erickson says the Inquisition was “a Catholic thing,” so it shouldn’t be used to lecture “us Protestants.” (Not that this gets in the way of holding Shia responsible for Sunni crimes.) Donohue says the Inquisition was an abuse of religion by kings, and “the Catholic Church had almost nothing to do with it.”
5. Islam commands violence. Muslims have long debated whether their scripture sanctions brutality. Bush, Obama, and most Muslims say it doesn’t. But today’s Republicans agree with ISIS that it does. “The Islamic State uses brutal violence that is not antithetical to Islam,” says Santorum. Giuliani goes further: “When we see Muslim atrocities today, there are words in the Quran … that support some of what they’re doing,” such as “beheading” and “killing in the name of the faith.” Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, says “true followers of Mohammed emulate Mohammed,” who “killed many innocent people.”
My emphasis added.