First of all, you probably ought to spend a little time really reading the Old Testament. Jesus was a tremendous moderating force in the world so the perspective in the New Testament is completely different. The Old Testament contains a lot of things that could be construed in the same way as we perceive the Koran. That is not, of course, how we perceive them now. We understand the changes of interpretation, the personalization of salvation that Christ brings us. That doesn't mean we don't take the OT literally, because we certainly do. It's just that we look at that information through the paradigm shift of Christ.
My second point is that of course you agree with the fundamentals of the constitution because it is based on Western ideals, some of which are derived from Judeo-Christian principles. It was created with the ideals of your religion. My question was simply a means to get you to understand how another group of people might look at that differently, and why it is essential for us to work with Muslims that both respect the constitution AND still hold fundamentally Islamic beliefs.
If the Constitution disagreed with what you believed God's law was, which would take higher precedence? Let's say for instance, that the Constitution was changed to say that all couples would be limited to two children, and additional children would have to be aborted. Then what?
The fundamental point I am trying to make here is that this is a clash of civilizations based in religious doctrine. It is Judeo-Christian values vs. Islamic values. Our only chance of winning this thing is to understand the culture of Islam, support and protect and push forward the moderated viewpoints so we can all live together under some basic live and let live principles.
That is obviously a somewhat audacious task. We are essentially fighting a religious war in a humanistic way...which is weird. But what 9/11 taught us is that we can no longer ignore that clash. We have to find our way through the conflict, and while war is certainly one aspect of that conflict, finding ways to help those interested in moderating Islam is another.
To be honest, I am not sure we can actually do it and my personal Biblical approach to this suggests that we probably can not. In many ways, wars about God are not our wars, but struggles between good and evil. But as a Christian, I must fight this , while at the same time remain true to my fundamental belief that all human beings be free to make that choice.
I hope that explains my position clearly.
"Our only chance of winning this thing is to understand the culture of Islam, support and protect and push forward the moderated viewpoints so we can all live together under some basic live and let live principles." Good luck abrogating the Koran. I do wish you God's speed on your quest to understand Islam, because clearly you don't.
" it is essential for us to work with Muslims that both respect the constitution AND still hold fundamentally Islamic beliefs."
Muslims can only do one or the other. If they respect "mans laws" then they die hypocrates and burn in hellfire according to their cult.
The Koran cannot be abrogated- that carries a death penalty, just as throwing a gum wrapper on the mosk lawn does, and just as being an apostate (leaving the religion) does. You are either a Muslim, or you are not. DO you know what a "moderate Muslim" really is? It's a uneducated muslim that has never read the koran. There are a lot of them, it's true. That's because Muslims recieve Islam orally, by equally ignorant Imams, in impoverished lands where education is learning to recite the koran by memory in a language they don't even speak (arabic)
The sad thing is, even if these ignorant muslims are shown what the Koran really says, they still choose Islam. The "moderates" become fundamentalists, not extremists. There is no such thing as an extremist muslim, just one who correctly follows and implements its teachings.