Reclaiming America

photo © 2007 Adele M. Stan for Americans United

Now it can be told; it was your blogstress who broke the news last month of Ann Coulter's bad night at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. Your cyberscribe's story of threats and soul-searching in sunny South Florida now appears on the Web site of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the venerable organization that sent your écrivaine into the lion's den.

With regard to the all-round Christian love and acceptance claimed by propagators of this particular brand of faith were the misrepresentations of Islam by Ann Coulter and Tony Perkins, lo, of the Family Research Council. Herewith, a taste:

Both stirred the pot against Muslims, as well, with Coulter repeating her post-9/11 remark that the leaders of Muslim countries should be forcibly converted to Christianity, and Perkins complaining that the Muslim call to prayer is "now broadcast over American cities." (The use of the word "broadcast" is a bit of a stretch; it’s most commonly announced over a mosque’s own public address system, much like the digital loops of chimes played in the bell towers of modern churches.)

Perkins read the call to prayer aloud, implying it to be something to which a Christian should take offense since it declares that there is no god but Allah. (He omitted the fact that Allah translates from Arabic to English as the word "God.") Then he repeated it in Arabic.

"Allah akbar," he said, derisively. "That’s what Islamic terrorists say before they cut off your head."

Which correlates with your blogstress's assertion: "God is great;" that's what Christian terrorists say before they "perform a procedure" on you "with a rifle," to borrow a phrase from La Coulter.

Mon Dieu!