Response to Politically Correct Views on Ground Zero Mosque and Islam

This exchange originally appeared on Catholic.com. An individual who is well-intentioned, but whose views fall strictly within the politically correct spectrum, laments the supposed villainization of Muslims. My response follows.

Time and again, I have read very negative things written about Muslims, all of them untrue. 
Ridiculous things such as all Muslims being in plot to over throw the United States by Jihad, all Muslims being sympathetic to terrorists, all Muslims favor stoning woman for the most petty of sins, Islam being a religion founded none other than Satan himself and the Koran being the most evil book in the world. All these accusations reared their ugly head just a few months ago when some of our neighbors wanted to build a house of worship in New York City, and creep in no matter what context Islam is discussed in. 
There is no real good way to refute any of these accusations. If their lunacy is not immediately apparent at face value, then its pretty hard to discuss them seriously. Nonetheless, I wish to attempt to demonstrate how these making these slanderous claims is an affront to the dignity of the human individuals that follow Islam.

Lets for a moment assume that Islam was indeed started by Satan. A ridiculous claim, as far as I'm concerned - I'm sure Satan has claimed the establishment of Islam, but as we all know, Satan is the Father of Lies.
But, for argument's sake, lets allow the claim. Even if everything about Islam were evil, and its teachings were a one-way ticket to Hell, there is a much more important truth:
Every Human Being is created in the Image of God, and every Human Being has the Natural Law imprinted in their Heart and Conscience. 

This is fundamental to the Catholic faith. Bishop's and philosophers have derived so much of our understanding of God by observing human nature and reconciling it with the Gospel. We understand the Ten Commandments because, before they were imprinted on stone tablets, they were imprinted in our Humanity.
Muslims are Human. Even Human's that follow a Satanic Cult have the True Commandment's imprinted in their heart. Its a fact that Satan will succeed and lure some people to disobey the commandments and into Hell, but there are nearly eight hundred million Human Beings, scattered throughout Southern China, Thailand, Cambodia, India, Madagscar, Northern Africa, Europe, North America and the Middle East, that it is patently ridiculous to believe Satan's claim of total dominion over them.
All glory and honor belongs to the God of Adam, the God of Abraham, the God of Moses, and the God who is Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed. Muslim's may have failed to recognize the Divine Incarnation of the Son, but they worship the God of Abraham and Moses just as we do. 
Human's are created in the image of the God of Adam. No matter how corrupted the interpretation they have of God, this fact, their human dignity, will always point their hearts and souls in worship of the True God as revealed to Humanity through the Catholic Church.
Humans are inherently good. This is a fact of our faith. To presuppose a group of Humans, whether Muslim, Hindu, or Protestant as Evil, is a violation of their Human Dignity, and an affront to the God who made us in His Image.

I take issue with your distortions regarding rightful criticism of Islam. First of all, you are using a series of straw man arguments to try to show that negative views of Islam or Muslims are unreasonable. By using, and in fact emphasizing, the word "all", you only have to present a single Muslim who does not follow the tenets of his religion in order to tear down your own straw men. Of course, no sensible person claims that all Muslims are actively waging jihad, are in favor of stoning women, etc. although those claims are precisely true of a great many Muslims worldwide. In Egypt, for instance, a recent poll reveals that 82% of the population is indeed in favor of stoning adulterers. Considering the 10% or so of Egyptians who are Christian and thus likely to oppose this practice, that means nearly all Egyptian Muslims support stoning. But you are right: nearly all is not all.

As to Islam being evil, having been founded by Satan, etc. let us consider that it is a false religion that destroyed a great portion of the ancient Christian world and has been trying to conquer the remainder ever since. If you dispute that Islam is false, you are not a Catholic or a Christian; if you dispute that it has tried to conquer all of Christendom, you know nothing about either Islam or history. Now what would you call a false religion that incites its followers to destroy through violence the One True Faith? "Evil" seems like a pretty fair description. Is Satan the author of all evil, though? That is a philosophical question surely beyond the scope of this post.

If Islam is evil then, why should the citizens of a Christian country (and we do not concede that the United States is anything else) want any mosques in their midst at all? Do we really want to facilitate Islamic proselytism? Do we really wish to encourage further Islamic immigration by making unredeemed Muslims feel right at home? In particular, do we desire those things at the very place where a few short years ago Muslims committed the greatest atrocity in this nation's history? Even if we lay all evidence aside and assume for a moment that the people behind the Ground Zero Mosque are the finest specimens of human being on God's green earth, it is inevitable that Muslim militants worldwide will see it as a victory mosque, and will see us as too weak to prevent to them from celebrating the carnage they inflicted right on top of the bones of our dead.

And, by the way, it is without dispute the Ground Zero Mosque. An engine from one the planes that hit the Twin Towers fell on the very spot where the so-called "Cordova Center" (whose very name honors the Muslim conquest of Christian Spain) is to be located. That makes the spot, forever, part of Ground Zero.

As to Muslims being fellow humans made in the image of God, I doubt anyone at all disputes that, least of all a Catholic. But how does that manifest truth apply to any of your arguments? Should we pretend Islam is something it is not--namely, true and good--in the name of not hurting the feelings of Muslims?

If we truly love Muslims as fellow human beings and if we wish them to gain eternal salvation, the last thing we should do is to handle their false and malignant religion with kid gloves as you seem intent on doing. The pagans of the ancient world were not converted solely by gentleness. Rather, their temples were knocked down or converted to churches and pagan priests were forcibly dismissed. The same was true of the mass conversions of the Aztecs and the Incas. In large part, all of these heathens--whose souls would very likely have been otherwise lost--embraced Christianity because there was no alternative; their old cults had ceased to exist. When human beings are in thrall to a false religion, often the kindest thing one can for them is to be very unkind to their religion. To me, it seems clear that very much applies to Muslims in our day.