Misgovernment, Not #Religion, Has Sunk Middle East | Al Jazeera America
▻http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/2/misgovernment-not-religion-has-sunk-the-middle-east.html
U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent comments at the National Prayer Breakfast that compared savage deeds by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the Middle East with Christian-anchored brutality such as the Crusades, the Inquisition and Jim Crow laws have sparked major controversy in the United States. Commentators have debated whether and to what extent the president’s comparison was justified.
But this American debate has missed more important point: By using religion to frame this juxtaposition of all these cases of vulgar brutality, Obama, following Islamophobic leaders he would criticize, once again sadly misguides Americans by making religion the key that explains some people’s criminal conduct.