A writer giving soft treatment to
Islamists wouldn’t be a new
development, but Ben Daniel isn’t
just any writer. He’s the pastor of a
church and his book was published
by the Presbyterian Church USA. This
church of 1.8 million has become an
ally of Islamists.
Pastor Ben Daniel leads Foothill
Presbyterian Church of San Jose and
his book, The Search for Truth About
Islam: A Christian Pastor Separates
Fact from Fiction, was released on
March 25 by the official publisher of
the Presbyterian Church USA.
His book “explores what he calls ‘the
American cult of fear,’ particularly as
it relates to the rise of Islamophobia
in the United States.”
Islamists have used the term
“Islamophobia” to gain political
influence and bash opponents –
including ant-Islamists Muslims --
long before the 9/11 attacks. Now,
even Muslims are speaking out
against the abuse of the term.
At an August 22 speaking
engagement at Sunnyvale
Presbyterian Church, which was
attended by almost 150 people,
Pastor Daniel said that the CIA
estimates there are less than 20,000
terrorists in the entire world.
That’s incorrect, but many Christians
in the audience won’t know that. The
UN says Al-Shabaab in Somalia alone
has 5,000 members. Jabhat al-Nusra
in Syria has around 7,000 members.
There are over 50 groups designated
as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by
the U.S. State Department, most of
which are Islamic.
Pastor Daniel’s willful blindness to
the greater Islamist threat is apparent
in his book when he upholds Imam
Zaid Shakir as an admirable
moderate. He says that Shakir’s
Zaytuna College in California is
“filling an important niche in
American higher education.” There
are plenty of reasons to be concerned
about the education there – including
one from earlier this year, when
Shakir said that Sharia-based
governance is superior to the U.S.
Constitution.
Specifically, Shakir said that
constitution-based citizenship is “a
lofty ideal but after 200, 300 years of
experimentation, we find that
inequality is greater than it has ever
been in the history of humanity.”
Instead, governance based on Islamic
law is what should be pursued, he
asserted.
“Secularism says we keep religion
out. Why? Because if we have religion
and religion is the basis of
membership in the community, we
can’t have perfect equality. We can’t
have perfect equality. If Islam is the
basis, the kafir won’t be equal with
the Muslim. The Christian or the Jew
will be a dhimmi. They won’t be
equal with the Muslim,” he preached.
In 2006, Shakir told the New York
Times “he still hoped that one day
the United States would be a Muslim
country ruled by Islamic law.” Shakir
is also famous for writing anti-
American poems, justifying attacks on
U.S. soldiers, being a 9/11 conspiracy
theorist and preaching that a new
Caliphate is needed that will wage
jihad with “weaponry against the
enemies of Islam.”
Pastor Daniel’s book is just an
example of what is happening in the
Presbyterian Church USA overall.
(The Presbyterian Church USA is one
of about 14 large denominations of
Presbyterians in the U.S. and about
the same number of smaller ones.)
The Presbyterian Church USA is an
official interfaith partner of the
Islamic Society of North America
(ISNA), a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood
entity and unindicted co-conspirator
in the largest terrorism financing trial
in American history.
The two are also both members of the
Shoulder-to-Shoulder Campaign.
ISNA is so proud of the interfaith
coalition that it bragged about it
during a meeting with Islamist
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan this
year.
The Presbyterian Church also is part
of the Religions for Peace USA
coalition that also has a heavy
Islamist component including ISNA.
The Church has a representative on
its Executive Council and Council of
Presidents.
In July 2012, the Presbyterian Church
Office of Public Witness blasted Rep.
Michele Bachmann and four other
members of Congress as essentially
being bigoted “Joseph McCarthys.”
The legistalors’ offense was
requesting a review of the Muslim
Brotherhood-linked organizations’
involvement with the U.S.
government. The Church passionately
defended ISNA, the Muslim Public
Affairs Council and Huma Abedin.
The Presbyterian Mission Agency
website’s "interfaith links of interest"
include ISNA, the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR),
the Islamic Circle of North America
(ICNA) and the Muslim Public Affairs
Council (MPAC). All four have Muslim
Brotherhood origins and three of the
four appear in a 1991 list of the U.S.
Muslim Brotherhood’s fronts.
The Presbyterian Church is currently
updating its 2010 study on Christian-
Muslim relations that was prompted
by “alarming anti-Muslim statements
and actions.” The list of advisors and
sources for the study includes
various Islamists including Tariq
Ramadan, the grandson of the Muslim
Brotherhood’s founder.
We don’t have to speculate about
what the ultimate objective is for
ISNA, including its interfaith
campaigns. The current leader of its
interfaith office was videotaped in
2006 saying, “Our job is to change
the constitution of America.”
The Presbyterian Church USA has
around 1.8 million members, over
10,000 congregations and 14,000
ministers. Although its membership
has been shrinking yearly, its pro-
Islamist political activity should not
be ignored.
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