Rejection Quotes
In one of the most famous rebuffs of a politician to his constituents, the congressman sent the following message home to his constituents after receiving instructions from them which he did not care for. He went to Texas where he died defending the Alamo.
This sura is used by moderate Muslims showing that The Prophet was somewhat tolerant of those who even mock the word of Allah. Nonetheless, most fundamentalist Muslims believe that anyone who mocks the word of Allah or His Prophet should be killed. Muhammad said not to sit with them—his modern followers too often call it heresy and want to kill them.
This quotation is probably the beginning of the false charge that liberalism always rejects God and divine law. Most liberals, since the term has been used, have been religious and even those who were not did not see liberalism as necessarily antithetical towards religion. However, most doctrines of liberality had toleration and religious freedom as part of its foundation. To authoritarian religious leaders who did not believe in toleration (see {609037}) the very toleration of dissenters is tantamount to dissent. Today, for example, many liberals tolerate atheists and non Christian religions even though most are Christians themselves. To some narrow conservatives, this principle of toleration is therefore equivalent to being against religion. To others, modern liberal belief of separation of church and state is seen as anti religious.
MacArthur had been the Commander of our Military Forces in Korea. He had a huge ego, and he wanted to cross the border and attack China since Chinese Troops were aiding the North Vietnamese. He had previously assured the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President that the Chinese would not send troops into Korea, but he was then wrong. And when they had attacked, they had erased the territorial gains that MacArthur had previously gained. The Joint Chief’s of Staff, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State had decided upon a strategy which this time did not follow MacArthur’s strategic advice. The President approved the strategy, but MacArthur spoke and acted contrary. The President met with MacArthur and reiterated the strategy that the President approved. But MacArthur did not follow the orders of the Joint Chiefs. At the time, he and Eisenhower were America’s two most famous military leaders, and of the two MacArthur was senior and thought that he should be President. After he was fired, MacArthur addressed a Joint Session of Congress and gave his "Old Soldiers Never Die" speech which was his first active step towards the Presidency. It was a very sentimental speech with little content and nothing about why he had disobeyed orders. He was totally shocked when it was Eisenhower who was selected to run for President and not him.
