"Whoa, Doug– those are some pretty strong words! Listen to yourself, man– you’re insulting someone’s RELIGION!"
First of all, those are not MY words– it happens to have been the topic of an absolutely enthralling intellectual debate I had the privilege of attending last week at the Thomas Moore Liberal Arts College here in NH.
As announced over at the Jihad Watch blog, The Edmund Campion Debate Society presented its third debate of the academic year 2010-11 between two keynote speakers: Robert Spencer, Director, Jihad Watch & Professor Peter Kreeft of Boston College On the topic:
Resolved: That the Only Good Muslim is a Bad Muslim.
Speaking in the affirmative will be Mr. Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, frequent guest on Fox News, ABC, BBC, and many other media, and author of nine books on Islam, including NY Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. Spencer will contend that orthodox Islam is intrinsically intolerant of other faiths and incompatible with a free society, such that when individual Muslims grow secularized and less observant, they may become less of a danger to free societies.
Speaking in the negative will be Prof. Peter Kreeft of the philosophy department at Boston College, author of more than 45 books, including the recently released Between Allah and Jesus: What Christians Can Learn from Muslims. One of Mr. Spencer’s former teachers, Prof. Kreeft will argue that Catholics and Muslims belong to sister, Abrahamic faiths, and should cooperate to resist the secularization and moral decay that prevail in the postmodern, post-Christian West.
Now, I could sit here and pen an extended piece about what I heard and learned, which, basically, is yes, from the point of view of a citizen of our Constitutional Republic, indeed, the only good Muslim is a bad Muslim. Because, the more strictly a devout member of the Islam religion sticks to its basic tenets, the WORSE it becomes for us, the infidels, or, as they put it, "the people of the book."
But don’t take my word for it– thanks to the magic of Youtube, you can watch it all for yourself. The intros in the first few minutes may seem a bit mundane, but I promise you– the ensuing debate– albeit very respectful and polite–is anything but:
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