Islam and the emerging religious threat to the Constitution

[Enrique]

http://www.slate.com/id/2263208/

Islamophobia is on the march. In New York, opponents of a Muslim community center and mosque are trying to stop its construction near the site of the 9/11 attacks. Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, is leading a jihad to nationalize the mosque fight and turn it into a culture war over "Islamism." Meanwhile, uprisings against mosque construction have broken out in Tennessee, California, and Wisconsin. "I learned that in 20 years with the rate of the birth population, we will be overtaken by Islam, and their goal is to get people in Congress and the Supreme Court to see that Shariah is implemented," a Tea Party activist tells the New York Times. "I do believe everybody has a right to freedom of religion. But Islam is not about a religion. It's a political government, and it's 100 percent against our Constitution."

It's true that our Constitution is under threat. But that threat isn't coming from Muslims. They're less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, according to a report issued last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. To mess with the Constitution, you'd need a majority. The sort of majority you'd find, say, in the backlash against the New York mosque. And you'd need a charismatic ideologue, or at least a shrewd opportunist, to galvanize that majority into a political force. In this case, Gingrich.

(...)

Gingrich, Palin, Giuliani, and their followers keep trying to dress up their complaint as a question about who's running or funding the New York project. But the truth keeps slipping out: They're against "a mosque"—any mosque—near the "sacred" and "hallowed ground" of the World Trade Center.

(...)

It's particularly rich to see Gingrich and Tyler accuse the imam behind the project, Faisal Abdul Rauf, of radicalism, belligerence, and fomenting terrorism. Watch the video of Rauf at a press conference two months ago. In it, he declares: "We condemn terrorism. We recognize it exists within our faith community. But we're committed to eradicate it." A whole wing of Rauf's Web site is dedicated to "Women's Empowerment," though that hasn't stopped Gingrich from associating him with "stoning women." Rauf's failure to condemn Hamas or Hezbollah is a symptom of timidity, not belligerence. His exact statement on that topic was: "I am a peace builder. I will not allow anybody to put me in a position where I am seen by any party in the world as an adversary or as an enemy." At worst, these are the words of a wimp, not a warmonger.

The true religious warrior in this fight is Gingrich. Look at the title of his new book: To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine. In it, he depicts a mortal struggle between the foreign "culture of secularism" and the deeply American "culture of religion." He ridicules liberals for opposing school prayer and a cross on public land. He says the Declaration of Independence implies that "man must obey an order of justice God Himself has instituted." On the Web site of their organization, Renewing American Leadership, Gingrich and Tyler proclaim that their mission is "to preserve America's Judeo-Christian heritage." And in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute a week ago, Gingrich proudly quoted FDR's wartime address equating democracy with Christianity.

If the prospect of losing our Constitution to religious government frightens you, don't worry about the tiny Muslim-American minority. Worry about the anti-mosque majority Gingrich is working to mobilize.

[groovedaddy]

1. Like Gingrich has a sterling record on women's rights or something. Jeesh! n.t

[Warpy]

2. I like rubbing a bigot's nose in the fact

that people wanted to ban Roman Catholicism, especially that as practiced by the Irish and Italians, Mormonism, Quakers, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and several other scary religions through our history and were prevented only by the rule of law over the rule of the mob.

I don't know how much good it does, bigots always feeling perfectly justified in reacting to the horrible threat of thought crime, but I do make the attempt.

The mob always wants to suppress any ethnic group, set of customs, or religious belief that is different from its own. That's why we got the Bill of Rights tacked onto the constitution and why that is such a magnificent document, protecting all of us from the majority.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. This is indeed yet another theocratic assault.

Funny thing is that 'Judeo-Christian heritage' actually should include Islam as one of the three major religious faiths derived from the bible. The faiths that are actually outside that tradition are those such as Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. Then again logic, reason, and an appreciation of history are not what these fuckwads are about.

The ADL should be freaking ashamed of its position on this.

[madrchsod]

4. Abraham`s kids need to grow up...

this family feud between the jews and muslims really is getting old.