Indiana columnist scolds anti-Sharia lieutenant governor for stoking ‘hate’ against ‘his fellow Hoosiers’

Don Knebel wouldn’t be so indignant if Micah Beckwith had said that he hates National Socialism and called it a “demonic death cult,” but he think that he knows more about Islam than Beckwith does, and that the Qur’an “expressly incorporates all the biblical teachings of Jesus and the Jewish prophets.” Of course, it doesn’t do anything of the kind. The Ten Commandments are a notable omission from the Qur’an’s many retellings of the Exodus story, and the seventeenth chapter of the Qur’an contains numerous moral precepts, but none of them are presented as absolutes; all of them are hedged around with caveats.

Even worse, Knebel thinks that “the most significant difference between the teachings of the Quran and the beliefs of most Christians today is whether Jesus was the divine son of God.” He appears unaware of the Qur’an’s repeated exhortations to “kill them wherever you find them” (2:191, 4:89, 4:91, cf. 9:5), or its command to “strike the necks” of the “unbelievers” (47:4), or its command to fight against the “people of the book” (Jews and Christians) until they are subjugated under the hegemony of Islamic law (9:29). There is no parallel to those exhortations in Christian teaching according to any Christian sect, although Knebel would almost certainly point to violent passages in the Old Testament and claim that they’re equivalent, ignoring, as everyone who makes this argument always does, the fact that jihad terrorists routinely cite the Qur’an to explain and justify their violent acts, while there are no scripture-quoting Jewish or Christian terrorist groups. Knebel is also likely unaware of the fact that the literal interpretation of the Qur’an’s exhortations to wage war against unbelievers and kill or subjugate them is mainstream in the history of Qur’an interpretation, and remains so today.

And so we get yet another in an apparently endless series of establishment media articles by “experts” who know nothing about Islam, and who assume that all suspicion of it, or dislike of it, stems wholly and solely from “racism,” “bigotry” and “Islamophobia.” Yet he misleads readers by leaving out any hint of Islam’s violent, supremacist, and expansionist aspects, and probably doesn’t even know that those aspects of Islam exist. And so Indiana Citizen readers come away thinking about how important it is to guard their community from anything that might prevent it from being “inclusive,” and have no idea that they’re opening their doors and their hearts to adherents of the most exclusivist and intolerant ideology on earth. Don Knebel is no doubt a nice guy, a civic leader, a good Joe, and he wants to be broad-minded and welcoming. And he has no idea of how his best instincts are being used against him.

“Knebel Commentary: As Jesus says, Let’s Stop Hating,” by Don Knebel, Indiana Citizen, June 12, 2026:

Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith recently said that we should give people “permission to hate again” so they, like he, can hate Islam. He then wished Muslims, the practitioners of Islam, “the best,” but only if they become Christians….

Pastor Beckwith calls Islam a “demonic death cult.” It is at least odd to describe as a “cult” a religion that counts as adherents about 25% of the earth’s people.

It is also not clear how much, if anything, Pastor Beckwith knows about the teachings of Islam.

So, it may come as a surprise to him, and perhaps to others, that the Quran, which Muslims believe is the literal word of God, expressly incorporates all the biblical teachings of Jesus and the Jewish prophets.

The Quran also expressly teaches that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and is the Messiah. The most significant difference between the teachings of the Quran and the beliefs of most Christians today is whether Jesus was the divine son of God. Muslims reject the idea that Jesus was the son of God, which they interpret literally, with the Quran saying: “Wonderful Originator of the heavens and earth! How could He have a son when He has no consort?”

But whatever the teachings of the Quran and the beliefs of Muslims, it is surely improper for a state government official, Christian pastor or not, to expressly stoke hate against the beliefs of about 100,000 of his fellow Hoosiers. We have way too much hate in our society today as it is.

Our country is being torn apart by politicians who are, all too often, seeking power by dividing us based on how we look, who we love and what we believe. It seems to me that we would be much better off if all of us, and especially those of us who are Christians, took more seriously the teachings of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”