Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside. (see photo gallery)

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

In the days following the brutal attack on Saints Church in Alexandria, which left 21 dead on New Year’ eve, solidarity between Muslims and Copts has seen an unprecedented peak. Millions of Egyptians changed their Facebook profile pictures to the image of a cross within a crescent – the symbol of an “Egypt for All”. Around the city, banners went up calling for unity, and depicting mosques and churches, crosses and crescents, together as one.

–Yasmine El-Rashidi, Ahram Online

It seems that after the recent drive-by shooting at a Christian church in Egypt, some in the Islamic community attended the Christian services to deter any more violence against the Christians. They put their lives on the line for their Christian neighbors. But, nobody knows this because the media here in the U.S. buries stories like this because it doesn’t fit their “Muslims hate our freedom and want to kill us” theme.

Islam might have an inherently violent nature to it, but Muslims are still people just like us. They are made in God’s image just like us. And they share in God’s common grace just like us. That means that at their core a vast majority of Muslims want nothing more than to raise their families in peace and be left alone. The fraction that would be suicide bombers and terrorists is extremely small. It’s very much a cult of Islam that preys on the weak, the young and the estranged. A member of an Islamic terrorist group has about as much in common with your average Muslim as a Branch Davidian had in common with your typical Southern Baptist.

Does this mean that I think Muslims and Christians are all hunky dory with one another? Of course not. Their are, of course, major differences that make things hard. What I am saying is this: Christians in the U.S. have to separate themselves from this bloodthirsty neo-con idea that Islam is “evil” and Muslims want to kill us. Islam is not evil. It’s just not true. Believing something that’s not true doesn’t make you evil. It just makes you wrong.

Would we Christians go to a mosque to act as human shields for Muslims if the roles were reversed? I hope so. We should want to bring Christ to the Middle-East, not drones, death and destruction. We weep for the thousands of unborn babies that are killed every year. But, do we weep for the 3 year old Muslim that gets his legs blown off in a drone attack? Or is that just “collateral damage?”

Here’s the exchange that Hot Air is referring to:

And, here’s what atheist super-blogger Allahpundit wrote about Paul’s comments:

I’ve already written about how his isolationist garbage leads inexorably to nonsense like this, so let me just add two points. First, and most obviously, there is no U.S. occupation of Yemen or Nigeria. The only way the airline plot is a reaction to U.S. “occupation” is if you accept the jihadist premise that there are no Arab/Muslim nation-states but rather only one Islamic caliphate waiting to be born. Only in that way does the U.S. occupation of Iraq warrant a reprisal from, say, a Pakistani or Yemeni. And yet, needless to say, if Britain was attacked tomorrow and Obama pledged U.S. forces to assist in the reprisal, Paul would be the first guy to scream that we should scrupulously observe national boundaries and not go fighting another country’s battles for it.

Second, as usual, his facts are wrong. He uncritically accepts Abdulmutallab’s assertion that the bomb plot was retaliation for the U.S. airstrike on jihadi camps in Yemen. Not so: As Jake Tapper explained yesterday, this turd had already been mobilized and had even bought his Northwest ticket before we struck. Purely and simply, America’s Greatest Patriot is parroting propaganda cooked up by jihadist pieces of sh*t because it happens to fit his insane foreign policy agenda. Support him and his disciples at your peril.

–Allahpundit, Hot Air

I have a question. Why is it wrong to “uncritically accepts Abdulmutallab’s assertion that the bomb plot was retaliation for the U.S. airstrike on jihadi camps in Yemen?” Think about the logic here. If someone is willing to blow themselves to pieces for a belief, why would they lie about the reason? It’s not like he’s claiming innocence. No, he’s saying he intended to blow up the plane. How does lying protect him in any way? What other reason could their possibly be that could be worth hiding? No, the most logical conclusion is that he is telling the truth.

And, for the millionth time, non-intervention is not the same thing as isolation. For example, Mexico hasn’t been involved in a war with an outside enemy since 1848(Spanish-American War), yet nobody claims Mexico is “isolationist.” They just don’t get involved in other people’s affairs. It’s their right to do so. They had the opportunity to ally with Germany in WWI, but refused:

On January 19, 1917, a telegram was forwarded from Germany to Mexico proposing military action should the United States enter World War I by declaring war against Germany. The offer included material aid to Mexico to assist in the reclamation of territory lost during the Mexican-American War, specifically the American states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Carranza formally declined Zimmermann’s proposals on April 14, by which time the U.S. had declared war on Germany.

–Wikipedia, History of Mexico