This week, Donald Trump laid out his vision of how to combat the spread of Islam and it’s growing threat to the United States. He had some excellent things to say (and some not so excellent, as we’ll see in a moment). Here’s the kernel of his philosophy (emphasis mine):
A Trump Administration will establish a clear principle that will govern all decisions pertaining to immigration: We should only admit into this country those who share our values and respect our people.
In the Cold War, we had an ideological screening test. The time is overdue to develop a new screening test for the threats we face today.
In addition to screening out all members or sympathizers of terrorist groups, we must also screen out any who have hostile attitudes toward our country or its principles – or who believe that Sharia law should supplant American law.
Those who do not believe in our Constitution, or who support bigotry and hatred, will not be admitted for immigration into the country.
Simply put, Trump is retooling and refining his pledge to suspend Islamic immigration, stressing ideology this time rather than religion. But of course, religion is ideology. What else could it be?
As Trump points out, we have banned immigration in the past based on the ideology would-be immigrants want to bring with them into the United States. That’s why communists are forbidden to immigrate to the U.S. even today. This is entirely appropriate, in fact necessary, to preserve the essence of what it means to be an American. For what binds us together as one people is not blood or ethnic heritage but a commitment to certain ideas and certain values.
If we wish to preserve America’s uniqueness and America’s greatness, it is imperative that we only admit newcomers who share our fundamental values. These values have always been rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition and its emphasis on belief in God, adherence to His moral standards, and ordered liberty with respect for the rule of law.
The problem is that Islam, by its very nature, is inimical to every treasured American value. Islam is a totalitarian ideology that has no place for freedom and liberty.
So how do we identify those immigrants who have this totalitarian ideology so we can screen them out and protect the integrity of American culture?
A listener to our radio network left me a voicemail yesterday; it included a list of suggested questions she had gleaned from another broadcast on our network. They are very good. In fact, they are so good that these are the questions Donald Trump should be using.
Here are the questions to ask any would-be immigrant:
- Do you believe the 9/11 attack was carried out by Muslims or by Jews? Muslims who don’t celebrate 9/11 as a victory for the forces of jihad blame it on the Jews.
- Do you renounce all Palestinian acts of terror against Israel and Israelis? They’ll break into an all-out sweat on this one, as their view is that Israel deserves every bad, horrible thing that can be done to it.
- Do you believe in Israel’s right to exist? This will test their willingness to accept a classic American value – support for the nation of Israel. Muslims will struggle mightily with this. Palestinian school children learn from textbooks with regional maps that don’t include Israel, even though Israel is their next-door neighbor.
- Do you believe the Holocaust occurred? Most Muslims deny the Holocaust even happened. Denial of this magnitude is indication of an obsession with Islamic thought.
- Do you support legal punishment for those who leave the Islamic faith? This will test their commitment to the free exercise of religion, particularly the free exercise of the Christian faith.
- Do you want the United States one day to be governed by Sharia law? This will test their willingness to embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land rather than Islamic law.
- Are you willing to give up the “right” to have Muslim holidays on school calendars and halal food in school cafeterias and prisons? This will test their willingness to assimilate into American culture and adopt American cultural values.
- Do you believe anyone who creates an image of Muhammad should be punished? Since this is considered a punishable crime under Islam but is not considered a crime in the Christian West, the answer to this question reveals much about whether an immigrant is willing to assimilate to Western culture.
So what do we do with would-be immigrants and refugees who fail this simple but necessary ideological test? Well, if Islam is a religion of peace, as we are constantly told, then among the 57 Muslim nations around the world there must literally be dozens of countries that are havens of stability, peace, and tranquility. Let’s use our resources to direct these immigrants to one of those havens and help them get there. They will be happier, and we will be safer.
One question Trump floated is perfectly horrible and must be rejected with alacrity. He wants to insist that every immigrant support “gay rights,” that is, the granting of special “rights” based entirely on sexually abnormal behavior. While we support equal rights for homosexuals, we must vigorously oppose any effort to give homosexuality special status and recognition in law. This is true for many reasons but especially because of the lethal threat the LGBT agenda poses to religious liberty.
If Trump manages to include support of gay rights on immigration forms, that would be the end of immigration to the United States by anyone who believes in sexual normalcy and natural marriage. Not only would this be the end of Christian immigration to the United States, a Christian country, there would be a lot of Christians who would not even be allowed to re-enter the country from foreign travel. This proposal should die a mercifully quick death.
When I pastored in the city of Boise, the local imam invited me out to lunch one time and asked me one main question: What can we, as members of our local mosque, do to improve our standing and reputation in the community?
I replied, “That’s easy. Publicly declare that Israel has a right to exist and publicly denounce all Palestinian acts of terror against Israel.” He was stunned, his eyes grew wide, and he just about choked on his food. He admitted that there was absolutely no way he could ever get a majority of the members of his mosque to sign on to either of those two statements.
The truth is that radical Islam by its very nature is un-American. It is utterly incompatible with the values of Western civilization. And the sooner we prevent carriers of this subversive ideology from entering our culture, the better.
