John Hawkins, in a February 2, 2016, column posted on Townhall.com entitled “Dear American Muslims, Can We Have An Honest Talk?”, argued that the United States would “be better off doing anything and everything possible to cut back on the number of Muslims we allow to immigrate to our country.” He supported this statement through the following points:

* One of his roommates was Muslim;

* While “most American Muslims are good people”, a significant minority support terrorist organizations, jihad, suicide bombings, and/or Sharia law;

* In Europe, “there are so many sexual assaults by Muslim migrants that they are actually putting classes in place to teach them that it’s not okay to rape women”; and

* “If you bring 100,000 Muslims into your country, you’re going to have … more terrorist attacks and more rapes than you will if you bring in 100,000” people from other religions.

My response?

Dear American Christian Neoconservatives:

Over the years, some of you have supported my efforts to make life better for people with disabilities, young adults, and other groups. I believe that most of you are good people; you’re opposed to theocratic rule and want to make life better for all of us. I strongly condemn the smearing of all Christian neoconservatives as evil, selfish cretins.

However, a small number of Christian neoconservatives engage in terrorist acts at clinics where abortions are performed, government property, or against fellow Americans who look different, explaining that their Christian faith motivated these actions. More of you tacitly support these actions through excuses, silence, and insincere apologies. Several of your presidential candidates have taken part in conferences organized by pastors who support theocratic rule and government murder of homosexuals. Some of you believe that Jesus Christ will return soon to kill and send to hell those who disagree with you, and are doing what you can to tinker with the world so that His arrival might be hastened. Obviously, most of you don’t support these terrorist acts or destructive beliefs, but many of you seem to think that massive destruction in places where Muslims live will cause extremists in their midst to turn from their evil ways.

Moreover, look at the alarming increase in sexual assaults on college campuses that have prompted administrators to organize workshops to teach students that it’s wrong to rape women. Once again, many of your leaders have tried to blame the victims and political correctness instead of condemning those who have committed these acts.

The ugly truth is that these problems are specific to fundamentalists of all stripes, and since we are freedom’s most powerful beacon in the world, our unique brand of fundamentalism rules the roost.

Again, this doesn’t mean all Christian neoconservatives are bad. Unfortunately, however, we have proven to be completely incapable of distinguishing “moderate” Christian neoconservatives from “radicals.” If you think we can distinguish between John, the freedom-loving good citizen, from John, the wannabe terrorist who dreams of blowing up government buildings, your ears are still ringing from lousy praise-the-Lord music.

Because of our inability to screen out radicals, we’d be better off encouraging Christian neoconservatives to immigrate to environments more hospitable to their beliefs. We should offer financial incentives for these malcontents to move to Liberia, Zaire, or other countries that support the persecution of homosexuals and Muslims. Of course, we shouldn’t force anyone to leave against their will, but we should try to minimize the number of Christian neoconservatives who live among us.

We should be prepared to accept the world as it is as opposed to what we wish it would be. It’s time for us to deal realistically with the significant minority of American Christian neoconservatives who wish to destroy our culture by any means necessary.