One of America’s funniest goofballs, Jerry Falwell, is at it again. Hopping on the Conservative Christian bashing of Islam, he’s told Sixty Minutes in an interview to be broadcast Sunday), that Muhammad was “a terrorist … a violent man, a man of war.”
Jesus set the example for love, as did Moses,” Falwell adds. “I think Muhammad set an opposite example.”
As Eugene Volokh delightfully puts it, the case for Moses, at least, is a bit dubious.
Hey, I’m no Biblical scholar, but wasn’t Moses involved with that whole smiting of the first-born thing, plus of course a wide variety of biological warfare? And weren’t there lots of other figures in the Old Testament — figures who are generally viewed quite positively — who were also “violent [men], . . . [men] of war”?
Indeed, including most of the successors of Moses, starting with Joshua and running down to and through Saul and David.
Falwell — who made headlines in September 2001 by blaming liberals, gays, pro-choice folks and the like for 9-11 attack, then more or less backpedalled — was quick to note in a followup AP interview that “he would never state his opinion in a sermon or book.”
How nice of him. He’ll limit his preaching on the subject to just Sixty Minutes.
What a maroon.