To the editor:

Cal Thomas’ claim (Journal-World, Oct. 1) that American Muslims wish to deceive us in order to bring about our downfall leads us on a merry chase through Thomas’ nightmare landscape of Latin dictators, homegrown bombers and hidden Iranian nukes. Thomas quotes Imam Malik’s remarks about democracy (wherein apartheid, slavery, homosexuality, lesbianism and gambling exist, “vices … against the spirit of truth”) and the need to Islamize democracy.

In past columns, Thomas has encouraged the Christianizing of democracy. Thomas’ vices against the spirit of truth are notably similar to Malik’s. Thomas’ implied interest in the imposition of a form of canon (ecclesiastical) law has its foundation in the interpretations of Romans 13:1-4, where secular government is justified to shield man from disobedience (but is not based on human needs). Emphasis on this reading comes from both Calvin and Luther. Calvin suggests that this government may even be divine.

One could inquire of Thomas what justifies his foundation of secular government based on religious law over Malik’s. Both entertain certain theological, biblical or Koranic insights applied universally. Luther, who didn’t distinguish between democracy and mobocracy, preferred monarchy. Calvin, fearing human appetite for depravity, preferred some form of checks and balances on an elected ecclesiastical aristocracy.

The theologian Richard Hooker (1553-1600) claimed that considerable doctrinal diversity should be tolerated and that civil authorities cannot tolerate disputes which split society into warring factions or incite antisocial acts. Would Hooker have recommended that both Thomas and Malik be confined in the Tower of London?