Chalk up another one for Bernard Lewis.


If you think about it, Muslims are like everybody else. They want peace, freedom and the ability to meet their needs. The problem is that they are led by people who oppress those desires in the name of Islam. Islam means submission to the will of God. I believe in submission to God. The trick is to know what his will is. True prophets care about their people and encourage education, achievement and progress, but in the ways, and within the limits, that God has always set.

The number of Islamic Americans grows because they appreciate opportunity and the fruits of freedom. They may disapprove of the excesses of American society. So do I. But if the leader of my religion were blowing up buildings, killing women and children and causing the stagnation of society as we see in the Middle East, I wouldn't trust them or follow them. I'd find a new mosque. Islam preaches equality, but it has too many radical clergy. The Jewish religion has a few such leaders as well, but they don't take over nations.

The real God chooses his own representatives, and they follow principles of authority and order. It seems too often that the choice of who will become priests, rabbis and mullahs is left up to the ambitions of those who choose those roles, and nobody asks the Lord. That is the mark of apostasy. God will not condemn us for failing to honor such men.