American Family Association: No More Muslims In The Military

In a post following the tragic events at Fort Hood last week, Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, wrote that Muslims should be barred from the military. 

It it is time, I suggest, to stop the practice of allowing Muslims to serve in the U.S. military. The reason is simple: the more devout a Muslim is, the more of a threat he is to national security. Devout Muslims, who accept the teachings of the Prophet as divinely inspired, believe it is their duty to kill infidels. Yesterday's massacre is living proof.  And yesterday's incident is not the first fragging incident involving a Muslim taking out his fellow U.S. soldiers.

Of course, most U.S. Muslims don't shoot up their fellow soldiers. Fine. As soon as Muslims give us a foolproof way to identify their jihadis from their moderates, we'll go back to allowing them to serve. You tell us who the ones are that we have to worry about, prove you're right, and Muslims can once again serve. Until that day comes, we simply cannot afford the risk. You invent a jihadi-detector that works every time it's used, and we'll welcome you back with open arms.

His words illustrate a disturbing and growing trend, which has found refuge within the American conservative movement.  In fact, his opinion mirrors that of commentators like Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade who wondered last week, "if I'm going to be deployed in a foxhole, if I'm going to be sitting in an outpost, I've got to know that the guy next to me is not going to want to kill me." 

This sort of rhetoric is not new for Fischer, a former chaplain of the Idaho State Senate, who before coming to AFA, served with the Idaho Values Alliance.  Fischer has called Democratic health care reform proposals "MussoliniCare," has argued that separation of church and state is in fact a Nazi idea, and commented that a tragic plane crash in Montana, which killed three families, occurred in part because a doctor who performed abortions was aboard the plane, writing "if you do not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you."

In August, Fischer asked the question: "Can a devout Muslim be a good American?"  His conclusion, "I submit that the answer to this extremely important question is 'No.'"

Values such as liberty, freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, a shared faith in the Creator, persuasion, and female worth and dignity are absolutely essential, non-negotiable parts of what it means to be an American. These values reflect the essence of the American spirit and the American experiment. Without these values, America is not America, and is not the country bequeathed us by the Founding Fathers.

The religion of Mohammed shares none of these values, and as long as a Muslim clings to the values of his religion, he cannot embrace the values of America. In fact, the only way a Muslim can become a good American is by forsaking Islam altogether.

The American Family Association hails itself as "one of the largest and most effective pro-family organizations in the country."  One wonders what spreading hate and suspicion towards thousands of Muslims who proudly and bravely serve in the military has to do with being pro-family. 

(h/t Right Wing Watch)

UPDATE: Discussing the Fort Hood tragedy today, Fischer went one step further: not only should we purge Muslims from the military, but we should in fact stop all Muslim immigration.