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Islam Is a Religion, and Therefore Protected by the Constitution
The Atlantic ^ | 5/30/2012

Posted on 06/02/2012 5:13:05 AM PDT by Altura Ct.

Plaintiffs in a Tennessee lawsuit want to deny local Muslims the right to build a mosque. Why? They claim it's not a legitimate faith and shouldn't be allowed First Amendment rights

It's unclear whether a procedural victory for opponents of a controversial Islamic center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, will delay or permanently enjoin completion of a mosque, under construction since last September. Equally unclear, without detailed knowledge of the facts, are the merits of Chancellor Robert Corlew's ruling that the planning commission had not provided proper public notice of the construction before granting a permit. But if this ruling is not a victory for bigotry (Corlew explicitly acknowledged the Islamic congregation's rights under the First Amendment and a federal statute), it is a victory for the bigots who opposed the mosque out of antipathy toward Islam and the idiotic claim that it is not a religion.

Mosque opponents effectively "put Islam on trial," KATV reports. At 2010 hearings, "a string of witnesses questioned whether Islam is a legitimate religion and promoted a theory that American Muslims want to replace the Constitution with extremist Islamic law and the mosque was a part of that plot."

These are not arguments; they're fantasies, and we have heard them all before, often from the same people who would conform constitutional rights (notably rights for gay people and women) to their understanding of biblical law. Still, the ignorance and un-self-conscious hypocrisy that underlies rants about Shariah law are breathtaking.

Here's how Joe Brandon, the plaintiff's attorney in the Tennessee case, explains opposition to the mosque: "This Shariah-compliant facility must show they are a religious organization, which we vehemently dispute. They are a political organization with Shariah-compliant rules and regulations. Shariah and the U.S. Constitution cannot coexist."

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government
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1 posted on 06/02/2012 5:13:09 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
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To: Altura Ct.

See my footnote.


2 posted on 06/02/2012 5:14:48 AM PDT by Flintlock (THE TRUTH: It's the new hate speech..)
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To: Altura Ct.

Mad Mo was much smarter than Hitler. He wrapped his insane cult with a religious veneer, and we are too weak to resist. If Hitler had only called Nazism a religion...


3 posted on 06/02/2012 5:20:16 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Altura Ct.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The Constitution does not prohibit states, counties, or communities from making laws prohibiting the free exercise of a religion.
4 posted on 06/02/2012 5:21:35 AM PDT by wizwor
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To: Altura Ct.
Headline-destruction time: The framers doubtless never intended to protect a "religion" whose chief goal is to supplant the Constitution; or to protect the enemies of the nation.

it's not that the devil is in the details, its just that that's where he has the advantage.

5 posted on 06/02/2012 5:24:18 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand (they have no god but caesar)
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To: Altura Ct.
and promoted a theory that American Muslims want to replace the Constitution with extremist Islamic law and the mosque was a part of that plot."

And, what proof do we have that this isn't factual?

6 posted on 06/02/2012 5:25:33 AM PDT by umgud (No Rats, No Rino's)
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To: Travis McGee
I think Hitler was working on it, but never quite got around to making the decision.

I think after the war (which he thought he would win) he was going to consificate church propertty and make the Nazi ideology a religion.

Leonard Peikoff in The Ominious Parallels says that some Nazis wanted to make Nazism a religion while other just wanted priests to toe the line, so to speak.

7 posted on 06/02/2012 5:26:08 AM PDT by Stepan12
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To: Travis McGee
If Hitler had only called Nazism a religion...

I think he claimed it was Christianity.

8 posted on 06/02/2012 5:26:45 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand (they have no god but caesar)
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To: Travis McGee
Exhibit 'A' for the Plaintiff's lawyers...


9 posted on 06/02/2012 5:26:59 AM PDT by C210N ("ask not what the candidate can do for you, ask what you can do for the candidate" (Breitbart, 2012))
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To: Altura Ct.

Every time these jokers want to build a Mosque someone should open a pig farm next to them..


10 posted on 06/02/2012 5:28:55 AM PDT by PLD (It is time the freeloaders leave the white house and go back to the hell hole where they came from..)
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To: Altura Ct.

Every time these jokers want to build a Mosque someone should open a pig farm next to them..


11 posted on 06/02/2012 5:29:20 AM PDT by PLD (It is time the freeloaders leave the white house and go back to the hell hole where they came from..)
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To: umgud
Who was it? Raymond Ibraham of CAIR who said that we want the Koran to be the law of the land? It was some CAIR official who said that.

The Left with its alleged scientific socialism allies itself with the most primitive, antireason component of the three major monotheistic faiths.

Islam rejects reason; e.g., Allah's hand shall not be chained, and as we all know rejects equality before the law for religions and even a semi decent treatment of women; e.g., their acid burnings, honor killings, genital mutilation; etc. All these things the Left supposedly holds dear.

12 posted on 06/02/2012 5:31:10 AM PDT by Stepan12
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To: Altura Ct.
It is not a religion.

It is an evil insidious murderous lifestyle that forces itself upon whole nations by murder and intimidation. Islam is actually a mental illnes that has only blood on its hands throughout history.

Can YOU find a single contribution from Islam in science, medicine, or eliminating famine? No you cannot! The trouble makers of the world have been and continue to be islamic.

13 posted on 06/02/2012 5:31:43 AM PDT by Rapscallion (Obama's favorite tactic is scapegoating successful Americans.)
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To: Altura Ct.
Islam is a violent, intolerant political ideology predicated upon world domination and submission to sharia at all levels of culture and society. It seeks to devour all that is not Islam and is therefore incompatible with Western civilization or for that matter, any way of life, tradition, or system that is even marginally functional and civilized.

Allowing moslem immigration is like opening all the hatches at the reptile house and pretending like there's nothing amiss at the zoo.

14 posted on 06/02/2012 5:32:49 AM PDT by Ezekiel (The Obama-nation began with the Inauguration of Desolation.)
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To: Altura Ct.

Islam is a cult. Therefore it has no protection like other religions. Do a little research.


15 posted on 06/02/2012 5:37:14 AM PDT by Citizen Tom Paine (An old sailor sends)
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To: Altura Ct.
islam is a death cult and anyone stating otherwise is serving satan... whether they realize it or not... it matters not.

LLS

16 posted on 06/02/2012 5:38:30 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (Don't Tread On Me)
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To: Altura Ct.
Islam Is a Religion, and Therefore Protected by the Constitution

That is horse-hocky and you know it.

As long as it remains a murderous cult its "religious" standing should be changed to that of a totalitarian force intent on taking over the world in the same way Naziism tried.

These mad dogs should be hunted down and eliminated until they behave as civilized people.

17 posted on 06/02/2012 5:40:03 AM PDT by Rapscallion (Obama's favorite tactic is scapegoating successful Americans.)
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To: wizwor

Well, actually, yes it does.

The 14th Amendment provides that “no state shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Thus states are now as bound by the Bill of Rights, including the 1st, as is the federal government.

Islam is indeed a religion. It is a violent and political religion, but it is certainly a religion.

Islam had been around for over a thousand years when our Constitution was written, and you may note that the Founders did not write the 1st to exclude it.

Realistically, there would have been no reason for them to do so, as they would not have foreseen Muslim immigration.

But various states allowed religious freedom with various exceptions: Catholicism, non-Christian religions, etc.

The Founders ignored all that and went straight to “religions,” which meant ALL religions, even those that are violent and political and inconsistent with American values.

I have no objection to changing the Constitution via amendment to exclude Islam, but I object strongly to any government agency being given the power, by ignoring the plain wording of our present Constitution, to decide what is and is not a “legitimate religion.”


18 posted on 06/02/2012 5:55:16 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: Altura Ct.
Cannot disagree with, Joe Brandon, the plaintiff's attorney in the Tennessee case. He knows the truth.

With zer0 having infested, at the highest levels, America with islam, and zer0 supporting islam, islam has achieved what was unthinkable, for islam, in three and a half short years in America and worldwide.

Am proud of Tennessee (the Volunteer State and a neighboring state) for going out to confront the enemy, and make no mistake, islam is America's enemy. Anyone in the dark regarding islam should have stepped into the light on 9/11. Since many fools (still) are in denial their awakening (when it comes) could be their death, for islam cannot exist except by death. The fools cannot say they were not warned!

19 posted on 06/02/2012 5:57:17 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Please God, Protect and Bless Our Men and Women in Uniform with Victory. Amen.)
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To: Altura Ct.
The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.
George Washington , Address to the Members of the Volunteer Association of Ireland, December 2, 1783

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Notice that Washington said OUR rights and privileges, not whatever rights and privileges their 'religion' says they can have.

20 posted on 06/02/2012 6:01:50 AM PDT by MamaTexan (I am a ~Person~ as created by the Law of Nature, not a 'person' as created by the laws of Man)
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