I'm not a Muslim. I've never wanted to be a Muslim. However, I'm not particularly anti-Islamic in a general sense. The closest church to my house is a mosque. When the local Christian groups protested the construction of a mosque, I opposed them. The Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of religion and that means that it applies to everybody or nobody. I go with all faiths on that one. I oppose persecution based on any system of religion.
HOWEVER
 |
| Mohammed cartoon |
If I want to use a Qu-ran for kindling to light a fire, I don't think that offended Muslims in Egypt or Afghanistan have any standing to use that as a justification to riot and damage American property or murder Americans living in distant lands. Neither do I feel constrained to allow them to attack me at home because I needed to start a fire and the only thing handy was a Qu-ran.
I am not Sharia compliant. The common law of the United States which dates back to English Common Law is not based on the Qu-ran. Freedom of religion does not mean that the law of the land needs to bend to islamic notions of justice. If American Muslims want to live under Islamic Law, they should travel to an Islamic nation. There are a lot of them.
Telling American Muslims that so-called honor killings are murder, clitoral circumcision is mayhem, and beating women (even if you don't hit them in the face and the rod is no larger than your thumb) with a rod is assault with a deadly weapon is NOT PERSECUTION. Explaining to them that those things are not tolerated is not "religious intolerance".
And if Islamic governments can't control their people and protect US citizens and American property in their countries, we need to LEAVE those countries, invite their representatives to LEAVE America and consider them pariah states.
Governor Romney was recently criticized by the mainstream media for suggesting that Palestinians were unwilling to negotiate in good faith with Israel. The mainstream media needs to revisit this because the government of Palestine is Hamas. Their stated policy is the absolute destruction of the State of Israel. With that policy there is no negotiation.
I have no personal beef with Islam in general. However, I don't plan to be Islamic and the whole 'convert or die' thing isn't something I plan to go along with -- without a fight.
POINT
COUNTERPOINT