Last weekend the lesser festival of Purim was celebrated by Jews and some Christians, celebrating the salvation of the Jewish race and the defeat of the wicked Haman – the one man who came closer to extinguishing God’s people than any other in history. And how did God bring about this glorious defeat of evil in the ancient world? Through a beauty contestant winner and second queen of Ahasuerus, a Jewish woman of great faith named Esther. It is fitting, then, that at this time of year we discuss another beauty contestant winner who stood up for her faith.

Destiny Velez, 2015’s Miss Puerto Rico, was “suspended indefinitely” from her role with the Miss Puerto Rico Organization after making several tweets that " do not represent the integrity and esteem of our program, nor that of our board members, our sponsors and partners, or the National Organization." What did she tweet to land her is such hot water? A series of anti-Islamic statements.

To be fair, some of her comments did cross the line from criticizing Islam to more personal attacks in the form of stereotyping Muslim’s generally. Ad Hominem attacks are always wrong, as they do not display the level of respect every person deserves as an image-bearer of God. The twenty-year-old Velez has apologized for those tweets and since deleted them from her account, explaining that it was never her intention to “bully” others. As a follower of Jesus, we know she has been forgiven for the slights.

On the other hand, some of what she said was not only right, but appropriate. The statements she tweeted were not made in a vacuum, but were a response to film maker Michael Moore tweeting a photo of himself outside Trump Tower holding a sign reading “We Are All Muslim”. She replied to this tweet appropriately at first, writing:

"there's NO comparison between Jews, Christians & Muslims. Jews nor Christians have terrorizing agendas in their sacred books”

This statement is demonstrably true, and Think-Biblically.com commends her for standing up for her faith. No Christian should identify the god of Islam with the God of the Bible, for doing so is the same as giving homage to a false god. We have shown on several occasions that Allah is not the same as the Judeo-Christian YHWY. We need more people, of all faiths, to help Westerners understand this important truth.

Should the Miss Puerto Rico Organization continue to suspend Ms. Velez? We are not privy to all the rules contestants and winners must agree to and it may be that Velez’s tweets violated one or more of those rules. However, it is troubling that a person’s freedom of speech and religion can both be grounds for a suspension. We’ve reprinted many of the tweets from Latina Times for you to make your own judgment in this situation. From what we do know, Think-Biblically.com applauds Ms. Velez for standing up for her faith and against the foolish statement made by Michael Moore, the same man who stated that “Christianity is more violent than Islam”.

hold a sign that says "We are all believers in Christ." Why are u defending Muslims that haven't done nothing for the USA

 

all what Muslims have done is provided oil & terrorize this country & many others!!!!!!

 

there's NO comparison between Jews, Christians & Muslims. Jews nor Christians have terrorizing agendas in their sacred books

 

Muslims use our constitution to terrorize USA & plant gas stations

 

Most terrorist attacks have had a religion & a name associated with them & they have been from Islam religion

Many pull out the card of Muslims serving in our military. Are they in the military cuz they love our nation or to acquire benefits

 

I don't believe in religion so can't be #Islamaphobic

 

why do ppl want to separate Muslims from Isis when ISIS is a group of Muslim fanatics

 

all they do is build their mosques, feel offended by American values and terrorize innocent Americans and plant gas stations

 

and get guns and kills innocent ppl and destroy precious artifacts