No Shit, Sherlock

G. Gordon Liddy is a lying, hatemongering, twit.

Earthshaking news, I know. Has your world been sufficiently rocked?
Though somewhat familiar with the man and his ridiculous take on the world, I had never heard him speak until this morning. Appearing as a guest on the Opie and Anthony XM radio show, Liddy spewed mistruth after mistruth and got me far more agitated than I should have been at 7 am. In fact, though I listen to their intentionally offensive show on a daily basis, today was the first time that distasteful content forced me to tune out O&A (luckily I had by trust Abba mix on standby to chase away my morning blues).

In the two minutes I heard Liddy rant, he fired off a “fact” on Islam and Muslims that made me cringe. I’m sure this isn’t the first time he’s said something like this (or worse):

“The Koran is all about hate. Nowhere in the book can you find anything about forgiveness – the whole thing is about war, killing and retribution.”

Sure, the Koran casts a favorable light on a lot of war, killing and retribution. But does it do so any more than either the Old or New Testaments? As an experiment, I Googled “Koran peace” and found these tidbits on the first link that popped up (my favorite is #4):

1. Chapter 3, verse 172: "Of those who answered the call of Allah and the messenger, even after being wounded, those who do right and refrain from wrong have a great reward."

...

2. Chapter 2, Verse 190: "Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loves not transgressors."

...

3. "If people are intent on using religion to motivate terror or violence, they'll find an excuse there no matter what the actual text says," says David Rodier of American University in Washington, D.C., who is an expert on the world's religions. Like the Koran, he says, most holy scriptures are filled with stories of war and warriors, and these images have been used throughout history by some members of every faith to justify bloodshed. [accents added by PaTroW]

...

4. "Religion, after all, speaks to our most basic and ultimate convictions, and if you are wanting to use violence, if you can find a religious justification, then you can find a very powerful motivation," says Rodier.

The "full picture" of Islam and the Koran, say [scholars], is captured by Chapter 5, Verse 32: "[I]f anyone slew a person…it would be as if he slew the whole people. And if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people."

You’re right, Liddy. That Koran sounds like pure hatred to me.

Not only is his misinformation strikingly McClellanesque, but it’s dangerous as well. In fact, it wasn’t too long ago that Liddy himself advocated taking up arms against the US government:

“Now if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they're going to be wearing bulletproof vests…They've got a big target on there, ATF. Don't shoot at that, because they've got a vest on underneath that. Head shots, head shots…Kill the sons of bitches.” 8/26/94 – on his nationally syndicated radio show

Let’s see…violence? Check. Killing? Check? Retribution? Check. If I’m not mistaken, that sounds like terrorist doctrine. Liddy must be a Muslim – I mean, it’s the only explanation for his insidious beliefs, right?

Asshole.