Because we shouldn’t be concerned with honor killings, stoning of adulterers, hanging gays, women being divorced after a man says “I divorce thee” three times, relegating women to 2nd class citizenship, and children being married off, among others
MORE than a dozen American states are considering outlawing aspects of Shariah law. Some of these efforts would curtail Muslims from settling disputes over dietary laws and marriage through religious arbitration, while others would go even further in stigmatizing Islamic life: a bill recently passed by the Tennessee General Assembly equates Shariah with a set of rules that promote “the destruction of the national existence of the United States.â€
Supporters of these bills contend that such measures are needed to protect the country against homegrown terrorism and safeguard its Judeo-Christian values. The Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has said that “Shariah is a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as we know it.â€
This is exactly wrong. The crusade against Shariah undermines American democracy, ignores our country’s successful history of religious tolerance and assimilation, and creates a dangerous divide between America and its fastest-growing religious minority.
Hey, they moved to America and/or converted. If you want to be an American, you adhere to our laws. But, it’s a cute op-ed, designed to position blocking Sharia law as un-American. The author even attempts to equate the way Jews were treated in 19th century Europe with the way people are being worried about the spread of Sharia. What is unsaid is that the Islamists aren’t just violent barbarians: they also push their laws on the rest of the world through peaceful methods, using the laws of first world nations, something that the Muslims have never built ….. notice that there are no Muslim nations which are first world, truly modern nations, and without oil money, those who are close would fall into barbarism in a heartbeat ….. to slowly push their world wide Caliphate. This is not a conspiracy theory, this is the actual intention.
America’s exceptionalism has always been its ability to transform itself — economically, culturally and religiously. In the 20th century, we thrived by promoting a Judeo-Christian ethic, respecting differences and accentuating commonalities among Jews, Catholics and Protestants. Today, we need an Abrahamic ethic that welcomes Islam into the religious tapestry of American life.
Well, we do not tolerate fundamentalist Mormons (and other religions) practicing polygamy. We do not tolerate religions that practice sacrifice. Nor stealing from their parishioners. Ritual abuse of children. So, perhaps your backwards religion, as espouse by a barbaric, illiterate pedophile should be updated to follow modern society and fit in to American life.
Anti-Shariah legislation fosters a hostile environment that will stymie the growth of America’s tolerant strand of Islam. The continuation of America’s pluralistic religious tradition depends on the ability to distinguish between punishing groups that support terror and blaming terrorist activities on a faith that represents roughly a quarter of the world’s population.
Complete strawman, and puts the burden on Americans to accept honor killings, pedophelia, denigration of women, killing gays, etc, instead of putting the burden on Muslims to put aside the worst of their religion. And, considering we rarely hear anything from the vast majority of Muslims saying they are against terrorism, it’s rather hard to not place blame on their faith.
“America’s exceptionalism has always been its ability to transform itself….”
That is exactly backwards our exceptionalism has always been our ability to transform the immigrants to members of our cultures.
It is the failure to successfully assimilate many of those who’ve immigrated after the mid sixties that is the most cogent argument for drastically curtailing the number of immigrants. Third world immigrants are assimilating at an alarmingly diminishing rate. This is resulting in the Balkanization of our society and will be the death of us.
Excellent points. It’s kinda like the illegals debate. They come here, they demand that we accommodate them, learn to speak Spanish, put our signs and stuff in Spanish, and do not attempt to assimilate. Had they tried to be part of the melting pot, people wouldn’t be so against them, IMO.
Of course, the illegals generally aren’t looking to change America to an Mexican state, like the Islamists are trying to turn America, and the world, into a hard core islamist state. Look at France and Britain, and all the problems they are having.
Right Adobe. We don’t transform in the manner that the word means. The immigrants transform in to the pot of America. YEt we grow from the new culture’s benefits.
In the 20th century, we thrived by promoting a Judeo-Christian ethic, respecting differences and accentuating commonalities among Jews, Catholics and Protestants.
Strawdog argument indeed. Our country was founded based upon Christian religious freedom. Our nation is Christian. Our nation was created because of Christian values of freedom, capitalism, self-responsibility, self-sacrifice, personal growth and family-strength.
We recognize the sinful nature of man and thus strive to limit man’s power over man. Very few other gov’ts do that. Esp not Muslim ones.
We have striven to keep our values seperate from the religion its based upon. However, we can be assured of a politician’s moral bearing by knowing their Christian beliefs. And because we the people don’t trust man, we the people can vote them out and hold them accountable.