Muhammed Was Not God
Islam's most fundamental statement of the faith is the shahada, most simply stated as, "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his messenger". A messenger is not a god, much less the sole God of Islam. So why are the protestors against the odious video The Innocence of Muslims treating Muhammed as God? That is HERESY.
+
It's bad enuf that there is no God of any kind — not one, not many — so all these protests are idiocy. But for these rioters to KILL people in pursuit of heretical deification of an ordinary man, in absolute contravention of THE most important principle of Islam, is appalling.
+
For fanatical morons to insist that the United States Government is responsible for the actions of every single individual — all 313 million of them — who resides within our territory, is inexcusable nonsense. They can't believe that, unless they are completely ignorant of the devotion of the United States to free speech. And if that is the problem, then it is up to the U.S. to make this legal right known by forceful information by all media, including YouTube, thru which the objectionable video became known in the Arab world.
+
President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton must issue a very public reminder to President Morsi that he, who was educated, in part, in the United States, knows full well that the First Amendment forbids the Government from censoring people's political and religious speech.
+
That public statement should also tell the people of the Moslem world that they need to respect differences of opinion on religion — and everything else — as the only way to join the civilized world and gain the benefits that tolerance gives all societies, for allowing new ideas to flourish. Instead of wasting their time fiting over nonsense, the people of all countries need to focus on their own lives and their responsibility to others, not wall themselves off from others by pretending to be high and mighty. The Government could say,

Only God is high and mighty. Moslems are supposed to be humble. If you bow down to your God five times a day, maybe you should realize that you do so to remind yourself of how insignificant you, or any individual, is in the grand scheme of things. Give to your fellow men — and women and children — a tenth the honor you give your God, and your society, your life, will improve immensely. Don't worry about offenses to God. He can take care of those things Himself. God does NOT need your help. Nor do you have the right to assume you know God's mind. You do not. God has not authorized you to speak for him. Leave to God what is God's.

- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 7:47 PM