Herman Cain: Americans Have The Right To Ban Mosques In Their Communities

Herman Cain said Sunday that Americans should be able to ban Muslims from building mosques in their communities.

"Our Constitution guarantees the separation of church and state," Cain said in an interview with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.” "Islam combines church and state. They're using the church part of our First Amendment to infuse their morals in that community, and the people of that community do not like it. They disagree with it."

Last week, the Republican presidential candidate expressed criticism of a planned mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, telling reporters at a campaign event that "This is just another way to try to gradually sneak Sharia law into our laws, and I absolutely object to that."

“This isn't an innocent mosque," Cain said.

On “Fox News Sunday,” Wallace pressed him about those comments.

"Let's go back to the fundamental issue," Cain said. "Islam is both a religion and a set of laws -- Sharia laws. That's the difference between any one of our traditional religions where it's just about religious purposes."

"So, you're saying that any community, if they want to ban a mosque..." Wallace began.

"Yes, they have the right to do that," Cain said.

Cain has made a number of controversial comments about Muslims, including a vow to be cautious about allowing a Muslim to serve in his administration.

On Sunday, Cain defended his position, telling Wallace that it's not discrimination.

"Aren't you willing to restrict people because of their religion?" Wallace asked.

"I'm willing to take a harder look at people who might be terrorists, that's what I'm saying," Cain replied. "Look, I know that there's a peaceful group of Muslims in this country. God bless them and they're free to worship. If you look at my career I have never discriminated against anybody, because of their religion, sex or origin or anything like that."

"I'm simply saying I owe it to the American people to be cautious because terrorists are trying to kill us," Cain said, "so yes I'm going to err on the side of caution rather than on the side of carelessness."

Comments

[Cratewasher]

02:29 AM on 07/25/2011

Here's Ron Paul on the NY mosque issue; a spot on critique of how our xenophobia is feeding our war machine.
http://www .ronpaul.c om/2010-08 -20/ron-pa ul-sunshin e-patriots -stop-your -demagogy- about-the- nyc-mosque /

[rsaillant1]

08:13 AM on 07/24/2011

I propose a new branch of medicine, to be known as
"psycho-ceramics," and its sole purpose will be
to deal with and treat these "crackpots."

[Constitutional Govt Pls]

07:56 AM on 07/26/2011

And you'd make a great first patient. Got any skills other than calling people names? Not likely!

[gotclay]

01:26 PM on 07/22/2011

I see the problem as more than a bigot speaking out against Islam. Mr. Cain does have a point, but not the talent for delivering his message.
First, if we did have true separation of church and state in this country we would have stem cell research, marriage equality, and no abortion issues. Christians have been "infusing their morals into our communities" for hundreds of years.
Second, there are crazies in all religions, fundamentalist Christians as well as Islam. The Jihadists and the Rev. Fred Phelps of this world exist because the religious moderates of the world are too afraid of stepping on toes and wanting to be politically correct. Not all thoughts and ideas deserve a platform.

[Tony McDay]

03:47 PM on 07/23/2011

what point? Mr. Cain does understand the Constitution nor the law...

[Britcat]

07:05 PM on 07/25/2011

People speak out based on their values - whether the values derive from the secular philosophies of Ayn Rand or Karl Marx or from humanism or from Christianity or Judaism or Islam or whatever. Most Christians happen to be opposed to infanticide and see abortion as a variant of infanticide. Certainly with partial birth abortion when you kill a perfectly viable fetus as it passes in the birth canal the separation from infanticide is pretty slim. For religious people to vote their values is perfectly legitimate. Just as it is legitimate for modern liberals who make the State their god and hope to frame that god in a cradle to grave all-caring benificent (if expensive) shape have the right to vote their values.

Cain is aware that Islam is not just a religion, it is a complete social system with its own laws (Sharia), its own courts, its own form of theocratic government which replace the secular legal, judicial and governmental system once a Muslim majority is obtained. Unlike Judaism or Catholicism or modern liberalism or Buddhism - all accepting the idea that state power should not be used to coerce the other groups to convert to their values, Islam does believe that state power should be used to coerce the other groups to convert. Take a look at what happens to non-Muslims in Muslim majority countries and you get the picture. Note that it happens to seculars too in those countries. That is the problem Cain is concerned with.

[Dealerdeb1]

09:54 AM on 07/22/2011

I think the Muslims should be just as tolorant in fact let them build a Mosque next to Pork store called Iraq O ribs and next to an adult store called You Mecca Me Hot.

[afiazuddin]

07:19 AM on 07/22/2011

Cain is a moronic bigot - plain and simple. He basically says he isn't against the peaceful Muslims. Uh-huh. That is like when Archie Bunker would refer to George Jefferson's son "Lionel" as "one of the good ones".

I can't believe an older African-American gentleman can even talk this way.

[Sean Padman McMenamin]

01:26 AM on 07/22/2011

"Islam combines church and state."

Doesn't every religion? That's why the constitution has a clause separating the two. What a fork-tongued hack.

[Britcat]

06:52 PM on 07/25/2011

No. That is the point. Islam is a religion (like Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto and the like) but Islam differs from all the other religions in being a complete social system with the government, the laws, even the principles of economic language part and parcel of the religion.
For Christianity the seminal admonition of Jesus was to "Render on to Caesar that which is Caesars and render on to God that which is Gods". This was the original separation of church and state. The concept of separation of Church and State reflected Locke's essay with the idea that the Churches would not seek hegemony over each other through the use of state power hence the separation was intended to prevent the government establishing a single church (even the Godless deification of the state in modern Liberalism) and intended to prevent the churches using state power to crush each other.

After the fall of Rome and the disaster of the dark ages Christianity tried to influence the warring fiefdoms to form nation states and after the Christian lands were over-run by Islam, the church used its influence to stem the Islamic tide in France (Battle of Tours), Spain (reconquista), at the gates of Vienna and through the Crusades BUT the leader of government was a secular authority. From Mohammed on Islam has always been a theocracy that systematically degrades, over-taxes and destroys all non-Muslims (Dhimmi) in Islamic controlled lands .

[nicko68]

07:37 PM on 07/21/2011

let's not forget the "Victory Mosque" which was quietly approved recently, @ Ground Zero

[DeBartolo]

04:42 PM on 07/21/2011

When the tornado destroyed a portion of Northwest and Northern Jefferson County, Alabama the FIRST doctors to CLOSE their offices and RUN through the debris were 2 groups of Middle Eastern Physicians. They provided LIFE-SAVING treatment for HOURS and HOURS.... before the CHRISTIAN physicans would close their offices and arrived in the worst disaster to ever hit this state.

The local Mosques provided just as much food, clothing, shelter, supplies, money and volunterred as much as anyone. Their love for their community, country, their respect for others who were hurting was manifested beyond anyones question. The Muslims I observed were caring and loving. If they were the horrible people some think, why did they show up at all? I know this! I'd rather have a Muslim neighbor than a Religious Right Republican...they hate the Muslims, Jews, Mormons, Agnostic, Atheist...and us Catholics too.

[see-ellen2001]

02:49 PM on 07/23/2011

Bravo DeBartolo.

[Britcat]

06:38 PM on 07/25/2011

As a Catholic Republican with decades living in the south I think this is a pretty ignorant statement.

[Dennis Westler]

02:18 AM on 07/26/2011

It appears to be a statement of fact based on first hand observation by the poster, so what exactly to you object to? Were you there? Did you see the physicians who came to help?

Certainly you have come across people who do not consider Mormons to be Christian, I have certainly come across people (all religious right/fundamentalist) who do not consider Catholics to be Christian as well. If you say that these people do not exist or exist in other than the republican party, you are either lying or very naive. .

[tirebiter3]

03:11 PM on 07/21/2011

"Islam combines church and state."

So does Catholicism in Vatican City.
So does Judaism in Israel.

Neither one is the United States, which is the only place that The Constitution & The Bill of Rights applies.

What a bigot.

[Britcat]

06:36 PM on 07/25/2011

Actually, a central admonition of Jesus was to "render on to Caesar that which is Caesars and render on to God that which is Gods." The Catholic church has not sought state control in any western nation since the disaster of the 30 years war made it abundantly clear that such a course was unsustainable. The Vatican City is an entirely catholic enclave with no state power, no embassies, no ability to pass laws regulating the population outside of the clergy. Try getting your facts straight. Similarly Israel is a Jewish state established after people like you tried to exterminate the Jews but Jews do not seek to require non-Jews in Israel to convert, do not subject them to Dhimmi status or higher taxation, and generally run their country by secular law.

[Britcat]

02:46 PM on 07/21/2011

This issue was actually examined clearly by John Locke in his "Essay on Toleration". At the time the Protestant churches had all embraced tolerance after years of fratricidal war trying to use state hegemony to enforce sect supremacy had failed - but the Catholic church still embraced using state power to suppress religious rivals. Hence Locke correctly argued that Protestants should tolerate other Protestants (who were themselves tolerant) but not Catholics (who were at that time intolerant). After the disaster of the Thirty Years War the Catholic Church learned that is could not enforce religious uniformity through state power and became tolerant of the Protestants and was in turn tolerated. Cain's simple point is that Islam is utterly intolerant of other religions or seculars in Muslim states - reducing them to Dhimmi status with inferior legal rights, daily social humiliations and higher taxes - and that as long as Muslims are intolerant there is no reason to be tolerant to them. Those liberals who are ignorant of history and principle are destined to be impaled by their own ignorance.

[its2simple4u]

02:07 PM on 07/21/2011

What I want to know is did Mr Cain Vote for Obama in 2008?

Colin Powell did!

[Squeege]

11:14 AM on 07/21/2011

"Islam combines church and state. They're using the church part of our First Amendment to infuse their morals in that community, and the people of that community do not like it. They disagree with it."

Isn't this exactly what the Evangelicals are doing? All you have to do is listen to some of these political candidates try to infuse their morals in our communities!

[truesabil]

06:00 AM on 07/21/2011

The Founding Fathers were not nearly as anti-Muslim as many current American Christians.

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2010/09/founding-fathers-werent-anti-islam.html

[westral]

02:21 AM on 07/21/2011

Presumably they have the right to ban churches and also maybe Masonic Temples and Shrines as well.

[truesabil]

12:33 AM on 07/21/2011

"I" an American and a Muslim have a right to ban a Mosque in my community? Why will I want to do that?