News outlets are reporting that President-elect Donald Trump has offered the position of national security adviser to retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and that Flynn has accepted. On the campaign trail, Flynn has made a series of inflammatory comments, especially about Islam. In August, the Dallas Morning News reported that Flynn had delivered a speech to a Dallas gathering of the anti-Muslim group ACT for America, in which he had called Islam “a political ideology” that hides behind “being a religion,” and “a cancer.”
“It’s fine where it originated, I have no problem with Islam staying where it was founded, as I’m sure Americans throughout the country have no problem with that either,” Flynn could be heard saying. “However, what I do have a problem with is the fact that it has, for some time, been trying to infiltrate our society peacefully, and when that was a no-go, that’s when the terrorist attacks and suicide bombings started. And that’s a typical example of someone, something, call it what you will, that can’t take no for an answer. We don’t want Islam here, we don’t need it and we won’t have anything to do with it, now or in the future.”
That’s when Flynn reportedly let go of the brakes and went on a rant, comparing Islam with other, “pacifist” religions. “I don’t know how well you know ancient history, folks, but I’d like to talk about a certain historical fact for a moment, if I may,” the retired Lt. General said. “Now, Judaism is among the oldest religions in the world, right, and Christianity started off as a sect, a cult that derived from Judaism. And then shortly after, Islam was also founded as another religion. Yet – and here’s the money shot – even though Jews tortured and persecuted Christians for their then ‘blasphemous’ beliefs, neither of the two religions ever called for the mass murdering of people.”
“Furthermore,” he continued, “they have always been peaceful, pacifist religions. As a matter of fact, wasn’t it Jesus who allegedly said, ‘If someone slaps you, turn the other cheek,’ or something like that? So, you tell me – how can that be a religion that’s violent and that, supposedly, calls for mass deaths? On the other hand, Islam is mostly about Jihad, the holy war against infidels. All of a sudden, here’s this religion that’s so cruel and rigorous in its teachings that it actually doesn’t allow its disciples to cherish diversity and the existence of other, contradicting beliefs.”
“And today it has evolved to the point where it’s causing Muslims to target innocent people of other religions and beliefs in mass murders, terrorist attacks and lone-wolf incidents throughout America. And if you want to tell me that that’s a good thing and that the way to fix that problem is with dialogue or rhetoric, I’m going to call you a liar and a crazy person, whoever you may be. Because the only way to eradicate this cancer from our midst is to use a good, old-fashioned scalpel and carve it out of our society one Muslim at a time. And don’t get me wrong – I’m a firm believer in the position that there’s a time for diplomacy and a time for action. It’s just that, unfortunately – diplomacy is dead,” Flynn concluded.
