my life

What follows is an argument against tolerance by one Brigitte Gabriel.

My grandmother forwarded it to me not long ago. I read a paragraph or two, skimmed the rest, then--as I didn't have time or enough interest to point out the myriad weaknesses of the argument it proposed--replied with one sentence. Here's the piece in question. Perhaps you've seen it:

I have heard this lady speak on TV. She is legitimate. And speaks true.

Brigitte Gabriel (see credits below)

We gather here today to share information and knowledge. Intelligence is not merely cold hard data about numerical strength or armament or disposition of military forces. The most important element of intelligence has to be understanding the mindset and intention of the enemy. The West has been wallowing in a state of ignorance and denial for thirty years as Muslim extremist perpetrated evil against innocent victims in the name of Allah.

I was ten years old when my home exploded around me, burying me under the rubble and leaving me to drink my blood to survive, as the perpetrators shouted "Allah Akbar!" My only crime was that I was a Christian living in a Christian town. At 10 years old, I learned the meaning of the word "infidel."

I had a crash course in survival. Not in the Girl Scouts, but in a bomb shelter where I lived for seven years in pitch darkness, freezing cold, drinking stale water and eating grass to live. At the age of 13 I dressed in my burial clothes going to bed at night, waiting to be slaughtered. By the age of 20, I had buried most of my friends--killed by Muslims. We were not Americans living in New York, or Britons in London. We were Arab Christians living in Lebanon.

As a victim of Islamic terror, I was amazed when I saw Americans waking up on September 12, 2001, and asking themselves "Why do they hate us?" The psychoanalyst experts were coming up with all sorts of excuses as to what did we do to offend the Muslim World. But if America and the West were paying attention to the Middle East they would not have had to ask the question. Simply put, they hate us because we are defined in their eyes by one simple word: "infidels."

Under the banner of Islam "la, ilaha illa all ah, muhammad rasoulu allah," (None is god except Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah) they murdered Jewish children in Israel, massacred Christians in Lebanon, killed Copts in Egypt, Assyrians in Syria, Hindus in India, and expelled almost 900,000 Jews from Muslim lands. We Middle Eastern infidels paid the price then. Now infidels worldwide are paying the price for indifference and shortsightedness.

Tolerating evil is a crime. Appeasing murderers doesn't buy protection. It earns one disrespect and loathing in the enemy's eyes. Yet apathy is the weapon by which the West is committing suicide. Political correctness forms the shackles around our ankles, by which Islamists are leading us to our demise.

America and the West are doomed to failure in this war unless they stand up and identify the real enemy: Islam. You hear about Wahabbi and Salafi Islam as the only extreme form of Islam. All the other Muslims, supposedly, are wonderful moderates. Closer to the truth are the pictures of the irrational eruption of violence in reaction to the cartoons of Mohammed printed by a Danish newspaper. From burning embassies, to calls to butcher those who mock Islam, to warnings that the West be prepared for another holocaust, those pictures have given us a glimpse into the real face of the enemy. News pictures and video of these events represent a canvas of hate decorated by different nationalities who share one common ideology of hate, bigotry and intolerance derived from one source: authentic Islam. An Islam that is awakening from centuries of slumber to re-ignite its wrath against the infidel and dominate the world. An Islam which has declared "Intifada" on the West.

America and the West can no longer afford to lay in their lazy state of overweight ignorance. The consequences of this mental disease are starting to attack the body, and if they don't take the necessary steps now to control it, death will be knocking soon. If you want to understand the nature of the enemy we face, visualize a tapestry of snakes. They slither and they hiss, and they would eat each other alive, but they will unite in a hideous mass to achieve their common goal of imposing Islam on the world.

This is the ugly face of the enemy we are fighting. We are fighting a powerful ideology that is capable of altering basic human instincts. An ideology that can turn a mother into a launching pad of death. A perfect example is a recently elected Hamas official in the Palestinian Territories who raves in heavenly joy about sending her three sons to death and offering the ones who are still alive for the cause. It is an ideology that is capable of offering highly educated individuals such as doctors and lawyers far more joy in attaining death than any respect and stature, life in society is ever capable of giving them.

The United States has been a prime target for radical Islamic hatred and terror. Every Friday, mosques in the Middle East ring with shrill prayers and monotonous chants calling death, destruction and damnation down on America and its people. The radical Islamists deeds have been as vile as their words. Since the Iran hostage crisis, more than three thousand Americans have died in a terror campaign almost unprecedented in its calculated cruelty along with thousands of other citizens worldwide. Even the Nazis did not turn their own children into human bombs, and then rejoice at their deaths as well the deaths of their victims. This intentional, indiscriminate and wholesale murder of innocent American citizens is justified and glorified in the name of Islam.

America cannot effectively defend itself in this war unless and until the American people understand the nature of the enemy that we face. Even after 9/11 there are those who say that we must "engage" our terrorist enemies, that we must "address their grievances." Their grievance is our freedom of religion. Their grievance is our freedom of speech. Their grievance is our democratic process where the rule of law comes from the voices of many not that of just one prophet. It is the respect we instill in our children towards all religions. It is the equality we grant each other as human beings sharing a planet and striving to make the world a better place for all humanity. Their grievance is the kindness and respect a man shows a woman, the justice we practice as equals under the law, and the mercy we grant our enemy. Their grievance cannot be answered by an apology for who or what we are.

Our mediocre attitude of not confronting Islamic forces of bigotry and hatred wherever they raised their ugly head in the last 30 years, has empowered and strengthened our enemy to launch a full scale attack on the very freedoms we cherish in their effort to impose their values and way of life on our civilization.

If we don't wake up and challenge our Muslim community to take action against the terrorists within it, if we don't believe in ourselves as Americans and in the standards we should hold every patriotic American to, we are going to pay a price for our delusion. For the sake of our children and our country, we must wake up and take action. In the face of a torrent of hateful invective and terrorist murder, America's learning curve since the Iran hostage crisis is so shallow that it is almost flat. The longer we lay supine, the more difficult it will be to stand erect.

Ms. Gabriel began her career as the News Anchor for "World News" the evening news broadcast for Middle East Television seen weeknights throughout Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Cyprus and Lebanon. She is the former Production Coordinator for ARD (German Television) in South Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. She is also the former Satellite Video Distribution Coordinator for METV/WTN (Worldwide Television News) studios in London for daily Eurovision Satellite Distribution to networks worldwide. She relocated to the United States in 1989 where she founded an entertainment company providing services to national and international media clients. Ms. Gabriel founded ACT, "American Congress For Truth," in 2002 to provide information about the Middle East conflict. She has appeared on news and information TV shows, talk radio and made numerous public speaking engagements. She speaks four languages, Arabic, French, English and Hebrew. Ms. Gabriel is available as a speaker.

I'd give the source if I knew it. Alas...I received it as spam.

My response was this: "Unless you would say that the 'real enemy' in the Crusades was Christianity, I suggest you think twice before agreeing with anyone who claims that our 'real enemy' right now is Islam."

Grandmother sends me this stuff from time to time, and I respond as I see fit. As far as my responses go, this is easily the most polite and downright innocuous one I've sent. Further, I thought the point was fairly clear, if not obvious. How wrong I was.

Today, I went into my Hotmail account to clean out the boatloads of spam it accumulates, and she'd replied as follows:

Subject: Whoa! Who's side are you on?

My dear Phylis, I know you should know enough about the Bible, having picked it to pieces, to know that there is not one word ordering Christians to take up arms physically against anyone. Paul makes an analogy to arms in Eph. 6:12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Verses 13-17 --(paraphrasing)," Put on the whole Armour of God and stand with loins girt with truth, the breastplate of righteousness. Your feet shod with preparation of the gospel --taking up the shield of faith to quench darts of the wicked; take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God." In whom you, Phylis, do not believe.

I see plainly that you are doing the same thing with history that you are doing with the Bible. I know a little ancient history, as well as scripture, and am aware of the senseless Crusades and the horrible Inquisitions. It was written by men who , not knowing the scriptures themselves, reported the instigators of these wars as Christians which they claimed to be -- and still do. But they were Catholics who failed to apply the scriptures to themselves. They applied their own wishes as ordered by kings and by potentates of the Catholic church.

All I can expect of your answer is what you have already told me you believe (because you want to believe it.) Most of the World believes it and they also believe that the Jews are supposed to go back to the "Holy Land" and some think that the Messiah is coming to Jerusalem to rule over His kingdom; ignoring the statement made by Jesus himself that His kingdom is not of this world. It is a spiritual kingdom. He rules in the hearts of men (people) who obey His Gospel. They are just as wrong as the atheist.

Phylis, I have read all of your blogs. I know how gleefully you picked up on everything in the scriptures that you did not understand and how you rejoice in all those who agree with you. And I know there are reams of literature on all the "Mistakes" and questions about the authors of the books of the bible. The Pentatude (or Pentateuch) for one: How can anyone presume that several different authors did it ? I am positive that any number of scribes transposed the entire bible many times but to blatantly say that the one who claims to be the author is nothing but brash.

It would be very interesting to know exactly why so many are going to so much trouble to "prove " the Bible to be false. What are they afraid of that they feel such an urge to do away with it? What are you afraid of? You are so sure of yourself ! What proof do you (not being omniscient) there is no God as the Bible claims? The world is so eager to disprove the Holy Word that I am not going to be surprised when folks start quoting The De Vinci Code as the truth. It, though it is acknowledged to be fiction, is just about as accurate as the commentary you sent me by a certain Rabbi made on Isaiah 53. But you take him as authentic. Don't you? Surely you know he is just as eager as you are to prove Jesus a fraud. The Jews are still looking for the Messiah although their own profits told them that to look for. You do know that they killed those they didn't want to believe and all those things came to pass anyway.

My dear one, I implore you that you go back and read the bible with just as much zeal as you looked for mistakes only this time read the message. Please do.

I fear what you will impart to your students ( though it may not be in their text books). The education system is full of teachers who are taking your view and it makes me shudder to think of the poor souls who will swallow you hook, line and sinker. I hope you will at least respect them enough to leave atheism out of the class room.

I love you and I think the dear person inside you will help you see what I know God would have you be. You see, I believe you are worth saving.

Your Grandmother

Obviously--and as usual--there is much to reply to here. However, Grandmother and I have been through this many times. It works like this: she sends me something chock full of claims and questions very much like this email. I reply very carefully to each point with my logical reasons for my position. More often than not, she drops the conversation at that point. At a later date, the "conversation"--if you can call it that--erupts again and follows an identical pattern.

Thus, I thought I'd just post the whole thing in all its glory, respond to one point and one point only, then leave it for the crows.*

* Unless anyone wishes me to respond to one or more points she has raised. If you feel she's made a good point, I'll be happy to address it.

The point that interests me is this: "I fear what you will impart to your students ( though it may not be in their text books). The education system is full of teachers who are taking your view and it makes me shudder to think of the poor souls who will swallow you hook, line and sinker. I hope you will at least respect them enough to leave atheism out of the class room."

Dear Grandmother,

You will be happy to learn that, as a flaming liberal, I firmly believe that matters of belief--as opposed to knowledge--have no place in the classroom, one way or the other. I think I differ in this respect from my more conservative counterparts. To clarify: the students will frequently insert matters of belief into class discussions. It is my duty to be neutral in respect to those beliefs, and ensure that no one's beliefs are marginalized.

That includes Islam.

I will be teaching literature and composition. As you are no doubt aware, argument is an integral part of composition. As such, we will study good and bad examples of argument, and learn how to spot basic logical mistakes. To that end, I will ensure they understand the importance of consistency and fairness, as well as the logical paucity of appeals to emotion and the more common fallacies to avoid. I will strive to expose my literature students to works from different cultures and religions--not in an effort to change their cultures or religions, but to expand their minds and help them understand why others do not believe as they do.

Although I'd have to do it with a caveat that I am not using this as anti-Islamic hate material but instead as an example of how not to argue convincingly, I'm considering using the piece you forwarded as a reading assignment, after which we will discuss in class what sorts of rhetoric the writer employs, what her bias is, what unsupported assertions she makes, and what specific fallacies she commits.

d