Time of Testing

Nations, individuals, and families all face trying times. America has been irresolute in spending and the printing of fiat currency and even refuses to acknowledge that Islamism is the enemy in an existential war. Barack Hussein Obama deliberately distorts facts with his sophistry about the US not being at war with Islam during his speech in Indonesia. Of course, the United States has never been at war with the Muslim faith but elements of that religion vastly larger than al-Qaeda have been at war with us. Does President Obama not recall that the bombing of the US Marines' barracks in Lebanon which prior to the September 11, 2001 outrage was the deadliest terror attack on Americans was carried out not by al-Qaeda and its Sunni sympathizers but by Shia supporters of Iran under the auspices of Hizbollah? The problem of jihad runs much wider and deeper than al-Qaeda and unfortunately will be far more enduring. Indonesia has been far from the beacon of tolerance that President Obama suggested, just look at their treatment (including fatal torture) administered to the Catholics of East Timor, the murder of Australian journalists in Balibo there, and the persecution of the residents of Indonesian-occupied West Papua, along with countrywide instances of discrimination against Christians across Indonesia. If this is Obama's model of Islamic tolerance, he sets a low standard and the rest of the West should look somewhere else. Perhaps Iraq is the example of much vaunted Muslim tolerance, freed with American blood and treasure, where Christians were relatively safe under the thugship of Saddam Hussein- no to find the paradigm of Islamic tolerance, we can not look there with more than fifty Catholics murdered in a hostage taking last week at a major church and with at least three more Christians killed in bomb and mortar attacks against their tiny, scattered enclaves in Baghdad today. How about erstwhile ally Pakistan as the model for Islamic tolerance- nope not there either with two Christian brothers shot dead by a defender of the Islamic faith as they left their trial on a trumped up charge and a Christian woman (named Asia Bibi) being sentenced to hang this very day there for blasphemy. Perhaps enlightened Turkey is where Muslim tolerance shines, no wait... a Christian publishing house was slaughtered there with three believers tortured and beheaded in a country that pretends European aspirations. No Mr. President, the West is not at war with Islam, but Islam to a shocking degree is and has been at war with us. On a personal note in a matter of testing for me and my family, I beseech my readers to say a prayer for Lily, our seven year old Keeshond who was at my father's side guarding and protecting him through five spinal fusion procedures. Lily is having a complex operation today to remove cancer from her liver and spleen. She is a grand companion and gentle comforter and in many ways the heart of our household. Please pray with me that she has the opportunity to come home with us. Thank you.