Islam And The First Amendment

Earlier this week I wrote about Obama and the Victory Mosque that Muslims want to put up on ground zero to celebrate their great victory. You can read that piece here:
http://politicsalabama.blogspot.com/2010/08/obama-and-that-pesky-mosque.html

At the end of it, I mentioned that a topic for another day would be whether or not Islam should enjoy the "same blanket protection under the First Amendment that is enjoyed by other religions?"

That day is today.

My basic contention is that Islam cannot claim and should not be provided blanket and unquestioned protection under the First Amendment, and I'll justify that two ways.


First, let's get the terrorist angle out of the way. We know that a portion of the religion views this country as "the enemy" and is willing to take violent action against us. We know this because it has already happened. We also know that there ARE mosques in the country that preach violence against us.

Advocating violence and inciting to riot are not protected speech. Any religion that does those things forfeits its protection, I'm afraid. The Constitution isn't a suicide pact... We don't have to respect and ignore those who want to kill and destroy us.

And even ignoring the terrorists, we have a problem. You see, violent action against a declared enemy is part of their religion. They call it Jihad. And if their religious leaders, many of whom live in foreign countries not friendly to us, declare Jihad, then at least some in this country will obey. Again, we're already seeing some of that. A certain rampage on a military base comes to mind.

The threat, though mostly dormant, is always present.

But that's the lesser of my two arguments, so let's move on to the big one. Essentially, our Constitution cannot protect those who want to throw it and our system of laws out the window.

In Islam, there is only one set of laws that followers are supposed to acknowledge, and that's Sharia law. Sharia law is God's law as revealed in the Quran and in the life of their prophet Muhammad. Because it is God's law, it stands above man's law... indeed, most Imams want only Sharia law.

The Imam sponsoring the Victory Mosque, for example, supports Sharia law in the United States.

This is a religion that seeks to impose Sharia law, RELIGIOUS LAW, on this entire country. Part of Sharia law is that Muslims cannot convert to any other religion, and non-Muslims are treated in various ways. Christians and Jews are tolerated as "People of the book," but those following other religions (or none) are considered apostate... the penalty for which was traditionally death or slavery. Today, many Islamic scholars argue for that and many places practice it, but not openly in the United States.

Make no mistake, many mainstream Muslims want Sharia law in the United States. The problem with this is two-fold. First, many provisions of Sharia law are incompatible with not only our existing laws but also with various portions of the Constitution. Second, the very concept of adopting Sharia law would be establishing a state-sanctioned religion... which is anathema to the Constitution. The very heart of the First Amendment was aimed AGAINST such religions.

So we have a religion that both attacks us and seeks to implement their religious law in this nation. How can the Constitution protect the rights of Islam to overthrow the very fundamental precepts upon which that Constitution is based?

I'm sorry, but any religion with these aims cannot turn around and claim protection under the very Constitution they wish to discard. It's just not logical.

And we shouldn't allow it.