Dan Philpott and I both have posted on how to think about the relation of ISIS to Islam, and noted that President Obama has presumed to declare that â??ISIL is not â??Islamic.â??â? The President has made similar proclamations since â?? saying last month at the Summit on Countering Violent Extremism that: â??They are not religious leaders â?? theyâ??re terrorists. (Applause.) And we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.â? President Bush made similar statements, e.g., on September 17, 2001: â??These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith.â?
Nor has the Obama administration limited its doctrinal pronouncements to Islam. Early in 2012, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, President of the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops, published a letter reporting discussions the Council had with White House staff over the â??Obamacareâ? mandate that employers pay for contraception and other procedures to which the Catholic Church has grave objections. According to Dolan, White House staff â??advised the bishopsâ?? conference that we should listen to the â??enlightenedâ?? voices of accommodation â?¦. The White House seems to think we bishops simply do not know or understand Catholic teaching and so â?¦ now has nominated its own handpicked official Catholic teachers.â?
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