If
you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are
oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing
-Malcolm
X
After taking my time to read Femi Fani-Kayode’s
article titled ‘Is Obama the Anti-Christ?’ on a Nigerian national newspaper, I
felt compelled to write a rejoinder against it because it is filled with
Christian far-right rhetoric, propaganda and agenda devoid of objectivity and rationality,
views imported into Nigerian media that can mislead the public in a harmful way.
It’s like Mr. Fani-Kayode has been watching Fox News channel on his satellite
dish too much and swallowed the conservative ideals hook, line and sinker. He
has obviously been brainwashed and also lacks knowledge of American politics.
I believe Mr. Fani-Kayode is a Christian
right-winger based on the religious political group views and stances that has
reflected in his article, I do not intend to write this article to draw a
debate with him seeing that it will be futile but I would like to enlighten the
Nigerians on this right-wing group who has hijacked the Republican Party and
influence their toxic policies in US that affects the rest of the world
negatively for decades but before I start, allow me the chance to explain the American
political system that I will use to debunk his implied statements that US is
founded as a Christian nation with Christian values seeing that he is
criticizing President Barrack Obama for violating the so called ‘Christian
values’ and 'faith values’ which I find it silly.
One of the erroneous statements that the Christian
right-wingers are fond of asserting or implying is that US is a Christian nation.
Contrary to that, USA is founded as a secular country that separates Religion
from the state by the founding fathers whom most of them are not orthodox
Christians; Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, George Washington and Thomas
Jefferson (who was critical of organized religions), were known as deist. What
is Deism? Deism is a belief system that rejects religious knowledge based on
revelations such as holy scriptures and supernatural events such as miracles
but depends on reason and observation of natural world to determine the
existence of a creator, also they don’t believe that God intervenes with the
functioning of the natural world but rather allow it to run in accordance with
the laws of nature.
Was USA founded as a Christian nation? NO, the first
amendment has made it clear that ‘Congress
shall make NO law respecting an establishment of religion’. Thomas Jefferson
(3rd President of the United States) has wrote to say the 1st
amendment made ‘a wall of separation
between the church and state’. One of the founding fathers who was the 4th
President, James Madison was quoted as saying ‘Strongly guarded…is the separation between religion and government in
the constitution of United States’ Not convincing enough? Ok, here is
another quote from an International treaty, the treaty of Tripoli drafted in
the 1700s that states;
“As
the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on
the Christian religion, as it has in itself no character
against the laws, religion or tranquility of Mussulmen (Muslims) and as the
said state never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan
Nation (Islamic nation) it is declared by both parties that no pretext arising
from religion opinions shall ever produce an interpretation of harmony existing
between the two countries”
This disproves the implied statements made by Mr.
Fani-Kayode that US was founded as Christian nation.
Classical Liberalism has always been the dominant
ideology of US ever since it was founded, which Mr. Fani-Kayode is blindly
opposing an ideology that espouses Freedom of religion that has been the
cornerstone of every secular country that separates religion from the state. It
is inane of Mr. Fani-Kayode to criticize President Obama for violating the so
called ‘Christian values” which is the subject of criticism
that Christian right-wingers love to indulge in, so it’s no surprise that the
Former Federal Minister of Aviation is jumping on the bandwagon.
Which brings me to another topic of discussion.
Democratic Party which Obama belongs to, position itself as Left-of-center in
American politics and supports Modern liberalism while the Republican Party
which Governor Romney-the candidate that Mr. Fani-Kayode is endorsing- belongs
to, generally positions itself as right-of-center and supports neo-conservative
platform.
It is essential for me to shed more light on the
Republican Party, a party that has been hijacked by Christian right group whose
coattail Mr. Fani-Kayode is hanging on to.
Who are the Christian right-wingers? Christian right
wingers are part of a group that support conservative policies and seek to
apply Christianity to politics and public policy. Ironic isn’t it? Seeing that
the group is violating the first amendment of the United States constitution
which Mr. Fani-Kayode fails to understand.
The root of the movement has been dated to back to
1940s and has been influential since 1970s as reactionaries to Sexual and Cultural
Revolution that took place as at that time, it started right from the grassroots
before it spread over on a national level. Most of the adherents are white
conservative evangelical Protestants and they were significant for advancing
socially conservative positions on issues (which Mr. Fani Kayode shares and
wants to import the values over here via media) as follows;
1. Economics
Christian
rights are often in support of
laissez-faire economy which they have been parroting and making vogue
statements in favour of it, they believe that economy should be left to
run on
its own without government intervention, history has proved that this
theory
has never and would never work in practical.This is something that the
founding fathers have fought against for fear that they may be dependent
on the
European monarchs and it has been proven to fail again when the Great
Depression occur in the late 1920s and early 1930s, as a result of that
Keynesian economics was
introduced. Despite all that, the republican Christian right-wingers
remained
stubborn and try to implement it back during the Bush regime in the
2000s hence the
recession and Bush left a huge mess for Obama to clean up.Mr.
Fani-Kayode accuses Obama of turning US into “quasi
welfarist state where big government reigns and in which the tradition engine
room of growth that is known as the American middle class is being
systematically weakened and destroyed”. I don’t know how he came to that conclusion
but it’s no surprising that he is following the line of the Christian right
group dogmatic views and also forgot that Romney is responsible for the
Auto-industry crisis in Detroit which lead to rising unemployment, not to
mention that he is outsourcing jobs to China whom he accuses of being a
currency manipulator.
2.Middle East and Foreign Policy
It is well known that Israel has a strong support
from the group encouraging U.S. government to support and even help them wage
war against Iran for possessing nuclear weapon, and also refuse the right of
Palestinian state to exist because they are “terrorists”. This is what caused the resentment
of America by the Muslim world that birthed extremism and jihadists as
reactionaries.
The paradox of the whole issue is that the hatred of
Muslims that Christian right winger’s exhibit which Mr. Fani-kayode never fails
to do so in public causes the Muslims to be reactive, it has become a ping pong
match between the right-wingers and Muslim extremists reacting against each
other in hatred. Also Mr. Fani-Kayode, Obama is not responsible for the
emergence of Boko Haram in the North.
Also this policy explains the reason why he was
being critical of Obama for bowing down to the King of Saudi Arabia, King
Abdullah, which has been the subject of criticism among the Christian rights in
the Republican Party during the first year of Obama’s administration which is
weak
Finally this explains why he is trying to allude
that Obama is a closet Muslim, also a subject of criticism from the group
within the party.
3.Bioethics and Sexuality
Christian
rights have opposes abortion, believing that life begins at conception and that
abortion is murder, they also opposes the use of contraception based on their
religious beliefs which they are trying to impose on American women which also
violates their reproductive rights, it’s ridiculous how these clowns are trying
to take control of women's womb but can’t take control of the country’s economy.
Recently a republican congressman contesting for US senate seat, Todd Akin, who
opposes abortion was asked about women who get pregnant due to rape, to the
horror of the viewers he claims that "from what he understand from the doctors,
it’s really rare and if it’s a legitimate rape, a female body has a way to try
to shut things down and avoid a pregnancy!"
It’s no surprising that Mr. Fani-Kayode is critizing
President Obama for endorsing women’s right to abortion but he was wrong to
accuse him of denouncing ‘right to life’ of unborn babies because he never did
so but rather he sees it as a choice left for the women to decide.
These are the positions that Romney/Ryan advocates
and are willing to implement those policies should they get elected which explains
why Mr. Fani-Kayode is endorsing them because he shares the same principles
with them and the group. It’s ironic that he is supporting closet racists and
the group who were once against the civil rights movement in the 60s.
It was comical of him to blame President Obama for
the occurrence of natural disaster in US which reminds us of Pat Robertson, an
American televangelist, also a renowned Christian right-winger who claimed that
Hurricane Katrina was “God’s Punishment” in response to America’s abortion
policy and he also claim that Haiti’s founders had sworn a “pact with the
devil” in order to liberate themselves from the French slave owners and
attributed the 2010 Haiti’s earthquake as a consequence of Haitian being cursed
for rebelling against their masters in the 19th century. Obviously
Mr. Fani-Kayode is taking a leaf from him.
It’s quite alarming how the former minister compare
Obama with Hitler who massacred the Jews in a concentration and almost
eliminated the whole ethnic group and it’s also unfortunate that he is endorsing
Romney/Ryan whom intends to cut social benefits for the American masses, cut
taxes for the wealthy class and corporations just to increase military
expenditure to launch more wars in the future.
This is enough for me to believe that Mr. Femi
Fani-Kayode is a Christian right-winger who intends to mislead the public with
falsehood and defamations on President Barrack Obama with a typical rhetoric
borrowed from the group and also a pathological attention seeker who will do
anything irrational to seek relevance.
Mohammed Shomo
Sodangi
shomosodangi@gmail.com
