Posted on 08/03/2010 10:08:17 AM PDT by Big Bureaucracy
There are great things about America – one of them is the freedom of religion. However the freedom of religious expression is restricted in the USA. We are free to believe whatever we want, but since the Supreme Court 1879 (Reynolds vs. US) decision there are limits to expressing religious beliefs if those hurt others.
Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices.
We are free to believe in Jesus , however in America we are not free to erect a cross on public property and say a prayer before a school football game. There are restrictions on our religious practices. The freedom of religion in America is extended to beliefs – not to expression.
Building a mosque is a religious practice. Muslims in NYC are free to believe in Islam. However they should be a subject to the same old Supreme Court limitations on religious expression. If a religion practice is hurtful for others it can be prohibited in court.
Honestly, I am sick and tired listening to Democrats claiming we have to build a mosque next to the 9/11 attack sacred ground because of the freedom of religion.
There is nothing in the Constitution that protects the building’s religion. The Founding Fathers protected the freedom of the people, not of the buildings. Erecting a mosque is not covered by the first amendment, but by the city zoning regulations.
Apparently the city of NY decided they are OK with having a mosque at Ground Zero despite the protests of the citizen of NY and all around America. It is a local architecture and city development issue. There is nothing we can do if they say they are OK with it. Or maybe we can.
In America we also have the freedom to organize and we can start working toward erecting a church and a synagogue on both sides of the Ground Zero mosque. I am sure the ‘moderate’ imam wouldn’t mind. After all he told the City of NY his intentions are bringing the people and religions together. Really?
I agree. This is a problem now because many so-called Christians refuse to recognize Islam as the cult that it is. Like St. Thomas Aquinas said,:
St. Thomas Aquinas CONTRA GENTILES BOOK ONE: GOD Chapter 6.[4] On the other hand, those who founded sects committed to erroneous doctrines proceeded in a way that is opposite to this, The point is clear in the case of Muhammad. He seduced the people by promises of carnal pleasure to which the concupiscence of the flesh goads us. His teaching also contained precepts that were in conformity with his promises, and he gave free rein to carnal pleasure. In all this, as is not unexpected, he was obeyed by carnal men. As for proofs of the truth of his doctrine, he brought forward only such as could be grasped by the natural ability of anyone with a very modest wisdom. Indeed, the truths that he taught he mingled with many fables and with doctrines of the greatest falsity. He did not bring forth any signs produced in a supernatural way, which alone fittingly gives witness to divine inspiration; for a visible action that can be only divine reveals an invisibly inspired teacher of truth. On the contrary, Muhammad said that he was sent in the power of his arms—which are signs not lacking even to robbers and tyrants. What is more, no wise men, men trained in things divine and human, believed in him from the beginning, Those who believed in him were brutal men and desert wanderers, utterly ignorant of all divine teaching, through whose numbers Muhammad forced others to become his followers by the violence of his arms. Nor do divine pronouncements on the part of preceding prophets offer him any witness. On the contrary, he perverts almost all the testimonies of the Old and New Testaments by making them into fabrications of his own, as can be. seen by anyone who examines his law. It was, therefore, a shrewd decision on his part to forbid his followers to read the Old and New Testaments, lest these books convict him of falsity. It is thus clear that those who place any faith in his words believe foolishly.
If only more people were emotional over this issue like you are it wouldn't have even been proposed, much less built.
There is such a thing as righteous anger and this is the right time for it.
Having lived within the kingdom of Saudi Arabia for more than three years, and being a Catholic, at no time.. ever... did any of that bunch of raghead heathens make any effort to determine if I was ever offended by their practice of what is no more than a sophisticated version of a cult.... no more, no less, than the Jim Jones deadly debacle. Islam is by no means what we call a “religion”. It is a deadly ideology, hell bent on attempting the taking over of this entire world.... fulfilling what is known as a “Caliphate”. I can’t, for the life of me, understand what motivation drives the New York stupidity in the capitulation to those godless creatures....
Islam is not a religion! Islam is a full-blown cult! And “sharia” is it’s Operating Manual. Please, God help us in this time need.....
We also have freedom to perform commerce, but that doesn’t keep folks from getting up in a huff a keeping a wal mart out of their town.
Exactly - building a mosque is no different than building a Wal-Mart. It is a building.
Anger has it’s place, but if it clouds your judgment and keeps you from seeing things clearly, it works against you, not for you.
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