Fatuity watch indeed: The Wall Street Journal’s opinion page blog Best of the Web Today, by James Taranto, took to task a piece by Nicholas Kristof on the New York Times Op-Ed page a few days ago for drawing an “absurd moral equivalence” between our own Christian bigots and Muslim bigots. According to the WSJ, when American bigots sound off, they are nobly exercising their freedom of speech, but when Muslim bigots do the same, they are Saudi operatives. All of them, apparently. Hence no moral equivalence between a Christian minister calling Islam “a very evil and wicked religion” and a Muslim Imam calling Christianity the same.

Bigots start by generalizing. All Muslims are evil. All Americans are warmongers. Such opinions attempt to sever any empathy for the “other,” but ends up denying individuals the responsibility for their actions. In this context, when Taranto defends his point by reminding us that the Sept 11 terrorism attacks were, after all, perpetrated by Muslims in the name of Islam, what he is in effect doing is shielding the individual responsibility of the terrorist with a mantle of presumed collective guilt on the part of Muslims. Not that he is a bigot, of course:

The Weyrich/Lind characterization of Islam as “a religion of war” is far from an accurate description of the whole of Islam, which like any major religion has many theological and cultural varieties. But to a considerable number of Muslims, theirs is a religion of war.

And where have the considerable number of Christian bigots gone, all of a sudden? Oh, right, they’re all individuals.

But the heights of disingenuousness are only reached when Taranto tells us:

Now, we’re with Kristof in finding most of these [anti-Muslim] statements disagreeable.

Which is why I’m sure he must have forgotten this piece on the WSJ opinion page nary 2 weeks ago. Chuck Colson, who brings prisoners to Jesus via his Prison Fellowship Ministries, seems peeved that Islam is making inroads onto his turf. His screed starts innocuously enough:

Islam, which offers brotherhood and solidarity, especially for people of color, is for the most part a law-abiding religion. But not always.

Soon enough, we get to the guts of his problem with Islam:

Those who take the Koran seriously are taught to hate the Christian and the Jew; lands taken from Islam must be recaptured.

…

It’s no accident that Islam’s influence is growing behind bars. The National Islamic Prison Foundation and a Muslim prison outreach program were organized specifically to convert American inmates to Islam.

You don’t say? Just like Prison Fellowship Ministries, only different? The gall of it.

I have no doubt many born-again prisoners take the bible seriously–as in seriously looking for a favorable parole board decision. For Chuck to even start having a case, he’d have to begin by showing recidivism rates for Christians are lower than those of Muslims. I’m willing to bet they’re not.