A recent poll seems to suggest that Muslims living in the USA want to outlaw our god-given right to free speech and a large number even agree that blasphemers of the Muslim god should be executed… not “over there,” but HERE in the USA! It makes one wonder if it is possible to be both a Muslim and a true American?
For years during the invasion of Iraq under George W. Bush some doubters of Bush’s tactics said that Muslims cannot be made to understand western freedoms and constitutional government. In those heady days of nation building in the 1990s, many warned that Islam is incompatible with freedom and modernity.
For his part, President Bush insisted that Iraqis and other Muslims were “just like everyone else” and yearned to be free. Bush moved forward with his foreign policy based on the idea that this normal human yearning would make them understand and welcome our efforts there to help them throw off Islamist tyranny and begin to self govern.
While we’ve certainly had mixed and usually disappointing results from our efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the Middle East, we have certainly seen that Islam is often a stumbling block to our idea of freedom and self government.
But what about American Muslims? We care constantly told that they are “just like every other American” and are peaceful, loyal Americans who love our system.
But, do they?
Now we get this poll* showing that even Muslims who live in America hate America’s most important principles.
…the results of polling data collected by Wenzel Strategies during October 22 to 26, 2012, from 600 U.S. Muslims, indicate widespread support among American votaries of Islam for this fundamental rejection of the basic freedoms of expression and conscience, as guaranteed under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. When asked, “Do you believe that criticism of Islam or Muhammad should be permitted under the Constitution’s First Amendment?, 58% replied “no,” 45% of respondents agreed “…that those who criticize or parody Islam in the U.S. should face criminal charges,” and fully 12% of this Muslim sample even admitted they believed in application of the draconian, Sharia-based punishment for the non-existent crime of “blasphemy” in the U.S. code, answering affirmatively, “…that Americans who criticize or parody Islam should be put to death.”
These are not small numbers. In fact, in the one case it is a majority and in the other it is a significant number want us to be put to death if we criticize their savage god.
So, with this we are forced to ask if it is even possible to be an adherent of the most restrictive, oppressive religion in human history and also be a true American who values freedom and religious liberty? This poll suggests that it is difficult to be both an American and a Muslim.
I’d argue that the same question can be asked of Democrats. Since we are seeing one after another of the left in America lining up against free speech and religious freedom, one has to wonder is it possible to be both a member of the Democrat Party and at the same time be a true American?
These are questions that must be answered by all of us, whether American, Conservative, Democrat or Muslim. We must set the grounds for this debate and quite just dismissing it. Or before we know it we will be just like the liberal fools in England–Londonistan, if you will–throwing away our culture for fits of self-destructive PCism.
If the answer is “yes” you can be both a Muslim and an American then we need to know the parameters of just what that means. What limits on speech is compatible with both? How much freedom can we abandon and still be an American?
*The above except came from Andrew G. Bostom’s interesting piece entitled, “Ten Key Points on Islamic Blasphemy Law.” If you want to know the roots of sharia, read this detailed piece.
