Christian Conservative Radio Host To Muslims: Convert, Or Die

The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer would apparently like to bring back the Crusades:

“The only thing that will give us a shot at building a democracy in an Islamic land is a mass conversion of its people to biblical Christianity. So that means if we want to see freedom come to those darkened, benighted lands, we should be sending missionaries in right after we send in the Marines to neutralize whatever threat has been raised against the United States. So we say to them, look, if you don’t want our missionaries, fine, that’s your choice, we’ll take our missionaries and our Marines, we’ll take them home, but we’re gonna let you know we have no hesitation about returning with lethal force if the forces in your country threaten us again. This time it’s Marines and missionaries, next time it’ll be Marines and missiles.”

Donald Trump wants to steal Arab oil, this guy wants to convert Muslims or kill them. Sounds like they’d be perfect together.

H/T: The Pajama Pundit

FILED UNDER: Democracy, Religion, US Politics, , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Insert Name Here says:

    This is going to be an astounding election cycle!

    I wonder if the GOP candidate debateswill include manditory staight-jackets for the participants.

  2. john personna says:

    As I’ve said, I think history will judge these wars Crusades.

  3. Southern Hoosier says:

    I played the video and missed the part about covert or die.

  4. Ben Wolf says:

    I played the video and missed the part about covert or die.

    There’s very little you don’t miss, so I’m not surprised.

  5. Southern Hoosier says:

    No where in the video or the transcript does Bryan Fischer call for forced conversion. What part of Basic Reading 101 did you guys sleep through? Cut and paste me the “convert or die” from the transcript.

  6. jwest says:

    “Donald Trump wants to steal Arab oil, this guy wants to convert Muslims or kill them.”

    I love it when a plan starts to come together.

  7. Neil Hudelson says:

    Yeah, I’m actually with SH here. Fisher didn’t say Convert or Die at all. He said convert, or if you don’t and you mess with us again, you’ll die.

    Not that I’m defending his idea of another crusade. It’s pretty idiotic. But it’s not the same as “convert or die.”

  8. Southern Hoosier says:

    I do wish that Islamic countries had the freedom of religion, along with the other freedoms we enjoy.

  9. if you don’t and you mess with us again

    Muslims don’t collectively mess or not mess with us, like some sort of ant colony. Fischer was basically saying, “convert, or I reserve the right to kill you later if I don’t like the actions of some completely unrelated person who lives hundreds of miles away and who you have absolutely no control over”.

    Which is for all intents and purposes “convert or die”

  10. John Peabody says:

    I would give a “thumbs down” on this post. Why let a story like this take up any bandwidth? A kook is a kook. Re-posting this spreads the kookiness, because a small fraction of the new readers will agree with the guy, and inadvertently spread support for the idea. I know that this is reporter philosophy 101, and that the reader also has responsibilities, but I think it is best to ignore these guys.

    Just my thought…it’s like Don Imus mentioning “nappy-headed hos”…he only said it once. But every media outlet in the country re-played it every 30 minutes for a day and a half. Who made the most insults?

  11. Southern Hoosier says:

    Stormy Dragon says:
    Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 19:39

    if you don’t and you mess with us again

    Muslims don’t collectively mess or not mess with us, like some sort of ant colony.

    You want me to read it to you, since you seem to have trouble doing that?

    What Fisher is saying, we should have allowed missionaries into places like Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Iraq behind our military. When the mission is accomplished and time to pull the troops out, if it is not safe for our missionaries to be in the country, then they leave. No forced conversion.Next time we have trouble out of that country, we just send in the military and waste them, understand?

    Using the military to protect American civilians is one thing, but using the military to force people to convert to Christianity at the point of the gun would be totally unacceptable.

  12. Southern Hoosier says:

    @John Peabody I agree, the idea is ludicrous. At the very least it violates the 1st Amendment.

  13. ratufa says:

    I agree with Neil. The guy didn’t say, “Convert or die”, he said that if your country harbors threats against us, again, we’ll respond with force against your country.

    Stormy’s paraphase of that statement as:

    I reserve the right to kill you later if I don’t like the actions of some completely unrelated person who lives hundreds of miles away and who you have absolutely no control over”.

    Which is for all intents and purposes “convert or die”

    is interesting, since “if your country harbors threats against us, we’ll respond with force against your country” is basically current US policy, as attested to by our drone strikes against targets in various countries and our killing various people who have nothing to do with any threat against us, as a consequence.

    This, I think, is a different thing than “convert or die”, though the radio host in question is nutty enough (based on this and some other clips on YouTube), that that is perhaps what he meant. But, that sort of mind-reading speculation is usually pretty stupid.

  14. Ernieyeball says:

    SH: “No where in the video or the transcript does Bryan Fischer call for forced conversion.”

    BF: “…we should be sending missionaries in right after we send in the Marines to neutralize whatever threat has been raised against the United States.”

    Ernieyeball: Happy Hoosier is correct. Neutralization would clearly be voluntary conversion.

    SH: “Cut and paste me the “convert or die” from the transcript.”

    BF: “…next time it’ll be Marines and missiles.”

    Ernieyeball: Happy wins again! The missiles will be propaganda ordinance full of Christian leaflets, Gideon Bibles and Jehovah’s Witness tracts. Go God!!!

  15. Southern Hoosier says:

    @Ernieyeball Read in to it anything you want. I realize you hate Christians, so take word missionaries out and put in prostitutes,

    we should be sending prostitutes in right after we send in the Marines to neutralize whatever threat has been raised against the United States. So we say to them, look, if you don’t want our prostitutes, fine, that’s your choice, we’ll take our prostitutes and our Marines, we’ll take them home, but we’re gonna let you know we have no hesitation about returning with lethal force if the forces in your country threaten us again. This time it’s Marines and prostitutes, next time it’ll be Marines and missiles.”

    I know it is hard to understand that we would actually use military force against a country that threatens us.

  16. Southern Hoosier says:

    My wife says I should have used aid workers since we bring them in with the military.

  17. Ernieyeball says:

    Q: What’s the best thing to come out of Hoosierland?

    A: An Empty Bus!!!

    HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
    HA!

    P.S. I luv Christians!!! I just wish would Congress would pass laws to force them to teach Evolution and Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection in their Sunday Schools. Side by side with the two creation myths in Genesis. That would be a level playing field!
    Maybe as a small step in the right direction all Christian sects might volunteer to use Thos. Jeffersons Bible in their Churches. Or maybe Azimov’s guide to the Bible.

    Fat chance in Hell…Michigan that is!

  18. Ernieyeball says:

    P.S.S. My mom was a Christian and I loved her!