David A. Bednar Quotes
Disciples who are steadfast and immovable do not become fanatics or extremists, are not overzealous, and are not preoccupied with misguided gospel hobbies.
Bednar, David A. "Steadfast and Immovable, Always Abounding in Good Works." Ensign, Jan. 2008, p. 46.
Compare this with the earlier left wing version of Jim Hightower.
Barry Goldwater's quotation repudiating this principle was one of the critical points of the presidential campaign of 1964.
Many critics of the King observed that Saudi Arabia is one of the most intolerant nations in the world where it is a crime for a woman to drive or to import a Christian or Jewish Bible. The country has produced a much higher percentage of fanatical terrorists than its population in the Arab World. Osama bin Laden grew up as a citizen of Saudi Arabia. Saudi money supports Wahabbi—one of the most intolerant wings of Islam—by which Saudi Arabian trained and funded clerics preach extremism and hatred the world over. For example, see {620142} for an example of Saudi Arabian intolerance preached at one of Islam’s most important mosques just weeks after the king is quoted talking about tolerance. It is not as if there is freedom of speech in Saudi Arabia and the king may not censor any intolerant speech. People are jailed and tortured for simply criticizing the government or royal family, executed for criticizing Islam.
Over a century ago, modern Islamists were critical of the Wahhabi sect for their extremism. Unfortunately, the Saudi Arabian royal family whose absolute control of the kingdom could be threatened by an extremist religious movement, cut a deal with the Wahhabi that not only gave them control over all religious and legal interpretations of Sharia in the kingdom, but also gave them large amounts of money with which the Wahhabi expanded and exported their extremist brand of Islam to many other counties—including the United States. A large part of the Islamic terrorism of the end of the 20th century into the 21st was caused by fanatics who had been exposed to Wahhabi schools (madrassas), mosques or materials which are virulently anti-Christian and ant-Semitic. Muslim intellectuals like Muhammad Abduh had warned about extremism in general and Wahhabi extremism in particular.
David Allan Bednar is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). An educator by profession, Bednar was president of Brigham Young University–Idaho (BYU–Idaho) from 1997 to 2004.
