Islam Has Its Inquisition


This spring I came home and found the gift of a book on my front porch.  The book, Hunger’s Brides: A Novel of the Baroque by Paul Anderson is 1,323 pages of text.  It weighs a little more than a Pomeranian.  Not only is this a heavy book physically, it is a heavy book intellectually.  It is two novels in one, each centered on the life of Mexico’s leading poet, Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz.  Besides all of the history, and poetry and stream of consciousness writing (which I usually hate, but accept as valid in this case) there is an almost constant presentation of philosophy, not as holy writ, but as cause for thought. 

            Sor Juana herself is someone you will want to meet.  She was born in 1651, and had taught herself to read by the age of 3.  At nineteen she entered the convent and became a prolific, world renowned writer and poet.  She died, ministering to fellow sisters struck down with plague in 1695.   What would cause a beautiful woman to give up both life at the court of Mexico, and numerous offers of marriage so she could enter the convent?  What would cause a scholar, who owned thousands of books, to sell them all and take on the life of a penitent?   What would cause a genius who attracted the greatest minds of both the new and old world to her salon to take a vow of silence?  The answer comes in one word: Inquisition.  At the height of her fame and writing prowess, Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, a rare woman in any age, ran afoul of the Mexican Inquisition and wisely chose silence over torture and a painful death. 

            The Inquisition is a blot on the history of Christianity.  It ran from the 1200’s until well into the 1600’s, getting more politically and sadistically convoluted the whole time.  When the Spanish Inquisition transferred to Mexico it was immediately manned by the usual array of over-achievers who used the power of fear and moral superiority as an excuse to indulge every vile vice and perversion imaginable.  Just as the Inquisition silenced Sor Juana, likewise a modern Inquisition is silencing, killing, torturing and twisting the true message of an otherwise valid religion.  That Inquisition is radical Islam.  

Let me make this very clear: God is real, grace is God’s gift to us and faith is our gift to Him.  But God did not create religion, man created religion and men, no matter how well intentioned, make mistakes.  Islam, as it is being envisioned by the thugs of the Muslim Brotherhood is a big mistake.  I knew that the Arab Spring was nothing more than an excuse for extremists to spread violence and hatred.  They are proving me right my attacking women, Christians, anyone who doesn’t fit their political agenda.  Trust me; religion is just the vehicle these pusillanimous pigs use to get what they want.  God may forgive them, but I won’t. 

I desperately wish the jejune, poorly educated, leftist marionettes in this administration had read enough about the Inquisition to recognize it when they see it.  Militant Islam hates the world and loves power.  This is not about faith; it is about using the tools of the Inquisition to take over both lives and minds. Cruelty has two uses, to punish and the instill fear of punishment.  Juana Inez de la Cruz knew all about this.  The Inquisition silenced a brilliant mind.  At the White House it has silenced a very ordinary one.

            Speak against the Inquisition and keep the faith.

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