U.S. President Barack Obama has made many comments regarding Islam’s “role” in the foundation of America. (Reuters)
As originally presented on Charisma News.
In the ’70s, Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, wrote a song called “Teach Your Children Well.” It emphasized the societal impact of messages given to children. The smooth as silk melody continues to have airplay. Recall the words?
“You who are on the road must have a code that you can live by, and so become your self because the past is just a goodbye. Teach your children well… Just look at them and sigh and know they love you.”
In a few days my daughter embarks on a three-week mission to Uganda to teach leaders Christian principles. My wife and I did our best to teach her well by being faithful to Scripture and history. Now she continues on that path of integrity.
I wish I could say the same concerning our president and what he communicates about Islam and its role in America’s founding. The truth be known, he is both inaccurate and dishonest in what he communicates to Americans and others overseas.
• “Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding.” (2015)
• “Islam has always been part of America.” (2010)
• “I also know that Islam has always been a part of our American story.” (2009)
• “This holiday (Muslim Eid) reminds us of the many achievements and contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy.” (2014)
The impression created is one of Muslims being instrumental in establishing the United States of America right from its inception. The narrative highlights their supposed accomplishments and contributions in making our great nation what it is today.
It sounds sentimental and politically correct but it isn’t true no matter how many times it’s reiterated and affirmed by uninformed, planted people nodding their affirmation as they stand behind the president as he speaks.
At the outset, let me say as a true Christian, I love every person no matter what and am passionate about sharing the gospel with everyone. A wonderful experience my wife and I shared a while ago was opening our home repeatedly to a Muslim couple for meals and conversation and then seeing them come to Christ and be baptized weeks later. It’s critical to believe there are “moderate” Muslims who are reachable as we engage them with the love and truth of mankind’s only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
It’s also important to recognize that it is not just a miniscule minority of Muslims who support jihad and global domination. Pew Research revealed 22 percent of the Muslim population are in this camp—more than the entire population of the United States of America! Islamic ideology is frightening and forthright in its core tenets.
Moment of Truth: Expose the Myths
President John F. Kennedy said the following in the ’60s: “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived or dishonest, but the myth—persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion, without the discomfort of thought.”
Communist revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin, said, “If you can separate people from their history, they are easily persuaded.”
English author and poet, Samuel Johnson, said, “People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed.”
So let’s not be separated from our history by reminding ourselves of our nation’s founding and dispel any myths, even if they come from the president of the United States. And remember Barack Hussein Obama has been shaped by Islam: His dad was a Muslim; he was given a Muslim name; his mother remarried another Muslim; and he was educated in Indonesia by Muslims.
Criticism in a right spirit is not unpatriotic. One of the greatest leaders of all time, Winston Churchill, told us, “Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”
Wasn’t it interesting that after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke the truth to Congress recently about Iran and its nuclear capabilities, he was presented with a bust of Winston Churchill. Contrast this with President Obama who upon his election returned the bust of Winston Churchill to England that had been given to Pres. George W. Bush!
“Just the Facts, Ma’am.”
Sgt. Joe Friday on the classic police drama “Dragnet” always insisted, “Just the facts.” So what are the facts on America’s founding and any Muslim role?
• No Muslims were signers of the Declaration of Independence. All but two or three of the 56 signers of the Declaration and Constitution were Bible-believing Christians. Many were ministers and those who weren’t (like Ben Franklin) shared a basic biblical worldview.
• The Quran had no place or even mention in the founding of the United States. Our founders had a Christian view of law—God and the Scriptures were the source of law for our nation.
• The Mayflower Compact stated the reason the Pilgrims came to America: “For the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.” There is absolutely no mention of Islam in any of our founding documents!
• The constitutions of all the original 13 colonies acknowledged Jesus Christ and mandated scriptural education in the public schools. The one textbook used by nearly every public school student was the McGuffey Reader, which said, “The Scriptures are especially designed to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.” There is no mention of Mohammed or Allah or the Muslim faith.
• “George Washington took his oath of office with his hand on an open Bible and he added his own words, “So help me God,” (not Allah) repeated by every president since.
• Christian chaplains were appointed in the Congress and military and Bibles were printed at taxpayer expense.
• The US Supreme Court building served as a church every Sunday until the 1850s and during President Thomas Jefferson’s two terms, the largest church in America met every Sunday in the U.S. Capitol building. It is interesting to note that the Muslim’s first mosque in America was built in North Dakota in 1929!
• John Jay, the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, declared, “The Bible (not the Quran) is the best of all books, for it is the Word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts … Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”
• Beginning at the establishing of our nation in 1620 by the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock and scanning 250 years, can you find even a handful of prominent Muslim innovators and achievements of significance? You will find thousands of innovations, achievements and innovations from the patriots of our country—those who were Judeo-Christian adherents. This is the true fabric of America, not some trumped up fantasy figures!
• As the United States of America was being founded, Muslims were primarily slave traders in Africa enslaving blacks, kidnapping them and sending them here by the Dutch.
• Upon in-depth research, one can discover that in 1732 there is mention of a Muslim slave sent back to England by James Oglethorpe of Georgia; in 1807 there is reference to a Muslim who bought some shares in a bank; in 1828 there is mention of a Muslim in jail visited by John Owen who later became governor of South Carolina; and, in 1856 during the Western advance Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of war, hired a Muslim to help in raising camels who were well-suited for extended battles on the plain.
• During the early decades of America’s founding, our leaders faced four decades of Muslim terrorism. In modern-day Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia, Muslims kidnapped American sailors, looted American ships and captured Americans to sell them as slaves. The Heritage Foundation states, “During America’s founding it was dragged into the affairs of the Islamic world by an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on America by Muslim pirates, the terrorists of the era.”
Finally, in 1804, President Thomas Jefferson ordered the U.S. Navy and Marines into Tripoli to stop the terrorism of Islamists. The military engagement marked the first time that a U.S. flag was raised on foreign soil and the first time that U.S. power was projected abroad. To this day the United States Marine anthem begins with, “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli.” The very nickname for Marines as “Leathernecks” came from the leather neck-piece that was part of their uniform to protect them from beheadings (sound familiar?).
President Jefferson was a brilliant academic and did something it would do us well to imitate. He secured a copy of the Quran from England and studied its tenets. He then called Muhammad a “military fanatic” and one who “denies that laws were made for him; he arrogates everything to himself by force of arms.”
• Finally, when President Obama lectured the Christians at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2015 concerning the Crusades (Christian leader Star Parker labeled it “verbal rape”), let’s establish that in the 800s Muslims were taking control of the entire Mediterranean territory. Paris almost fell. It was not until 250 years later that the first Crusade was initiated to stop Muslim aggression, advancement and destruction of human lives. My friend Nicholas Papanicolaou, author of Islam vs. the United States, says it best: “We must immediately change the narrative that our president is presenting and stop indicting Christians falsely for their response to terrorism and destruction by Muslims during the era of the Crusades.”
Exactly 100 years ago Armenian Christians were being slaughtered by Islamic militants during a seven-year period. The parallels to ISIS and their savage aggression today are frighteningly similar. One major difference: America did not remain silent or retreat. We were the Armenians biggest defender! Pastors across this nation informed their congregations and financial aid along with prayers and volunteers helped bring about rescue and recovery.
Today the drumbeat gets louder each day with militant jihadis drawing their ideology from the Quran and their perceived lack of morality in the West—pornography, fornication, adultery, cohabitation, homosexuality and casual divorce. Many ISIS young men are recruited as they serve to cleanse themselves of guilt for earlier viewing of pornography coming from us.
Here’s the deal: We must start by understanding and facing the disturbing reality of this ideology and changing the narrative being rolled out by politicians today. It’s not too late but the clock is ticking. The challenge of Islam is the defining issue of our generation. May we teach our children well and may we pass along this commentary to awaken unaware multitudes.
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians, not on other religions but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.” —Patrick Henry, American patriot
Larry Tomczak is a best-selling author and cultural commentator with more than 41 years of trusted ministry experience. His passion is to bring perspective, analysis and insight from a biblical worldview (see “Is Gay OK? 10 Things Everyone Needs to Know” now on YouTube). He loves awakening people to today’s cultural realities and responses needed for a restored, influential church. Please visit larrytomczak.com.
