Protesters in my hometown of Murfreesboro, TN plan to march to demonstrate their opposition to the building of a local Islamic community center. Although I disagree with them completely, I am heartened by the fact that the Constitution we share protects their right to make their opinions known. Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of our Republic.
But even it is preceded in the Bill of Rights by another right our forefather's deemed essential: the free exercise of religion. At a time of war, when men and women sworn to defend our Constitution are risking their lives, we cannot forget that these rights are inseparable. The Constitution is not a piecemeal promise. It, like our union, is indivisible.
This is one reason that I support the right of all people of faith in America to practice their religion, no matter what that religion may be. Unfortunately, some critics of the Islamic Center believe that Muslim-Americans aren't entitled to this Constitutional protection.
One of my opponents in the race for Congress, Lou Ann Zelenik, has declared that local Muslims are "not part of a religious movement" and has claimed that they want "to fracture the moral and political foundation of Middle Tennessee." She has offered no evidence for this claim other than the fact that they are Muslim.
Let there be no mistake: these are words of intolerance. I would be ashamed if my school age sons said them; the Republican Party should be ashamed that they came out of the mouth of their leading candidate in the Sixth District.
Fortunately, religious tolerance is not a partisan issue. Republican primary candidate Jim Tracy sponsored the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in the state Senate last year, a bill his colleague (and fellow candidate) Diane Black also supported. The law, which is now in effect, protects mosques and other religious buildings from undue government interference. These state Senators, like many like-minded leaders in Middle Tennessee, understand that Americans should be free to worship as they please.
The alternative is far worse. As Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptists' Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, has said, "the minute you allow the government to decide which religions are kosher and which are not, you are in big trouble."
The Taliban's reign of terror in Afghanistan provides one extreme example of where this path can lead. In contrast, America stands as a shining counterexample of tolerance and brotherhood.
Consider this: even on the night President Bush addressed Congress in response to the attacks of September 11, attacks perpetrated by a group of Muslim fundamentalists, he made clear that America respects the Islamic faith and that "the enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends" but rather a "radical network of terrorists."
Nearly a decade later, as our armed forces work side-by-side with Muslims to lead Afghanistan and Iraq toward stable democracies that protect religious freedom, we should not ignore the need to do the same here at home.
That's why I ask all those who march against the Islamic Center in Murfreesboro to reconsider their views. Not only is intolerance antithetical to American values, it can actually harm our cause. Our troops' mission in Afghanistan and Iraq is only made more difficult when al-Qaeda and its affiliates can use pictures of a small band of protestors in Murfreesboro to portray the entire country as bigoted. As a veteran of the Iraq war, I know how important it is to our national security that we build bridges to the Muslim community, not burn them.
And, as a veteran who has served with Muslims in the U.S. military, I cannot forget that these brave men and women risk their lives in combat to protect the very people who march on the street to deny their families a place to worship. Sadly, not all of these soldiers made it home. In Arlington National Cemetery, among the headstones engraved with Christian crosses and Stars of David, stand headstones with the crescent and star of the Islamic faith. These symbols, mixed together in rows of white stone, represent a striking memorial to the beauty of the American Republic.
These fallen heroes are one reason why I am always reminded that we must protect the Constitutional freedoms of all Americans, including the right to worship freely. I hope that the demonstrators against this mosque reconsider their views and I pray that we will find a way to move forward together again, free from the politics of fear, toward a more perfect Union.
Ben Leming, a 15-year veteran of the Marine Corps, served in Iraq and throughout the Middle East and is a Murfreesboro, TN native. He is running for the Congress in Tennessee's Sixth District. You can learn more about his campaign at www.benleming.com.
To each to act, to each to stand, to each his life within owns hand
To each to say, to each to learn, to each their own faith forever earn
To each to stay, to each to strike, to each a voice at spirits mike
So choose you well with pondered thought, sleepless nights of decisions wrought
How you stand not up to me, to each to choose eternity.
Build the mosque.
However, you are in error when you refer to Islam as a monolithic entity. It is not, nor has it ever been, just like all other religions. Right now, Islam is dividing into two warring parts--one of which Americans should support, the other we should fight against. The picture is not as simple as the one you draw.
President Obama recently said:
When asked about opinions attributing radical Islam's impact on the development and stability on the African continent, Obama called Islam "a great religion," but added that the radical version views as anti-Islam "any efforts to modernize, any efforts to provide basic human rights, any efforts to democratize."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/14/diverging-revised-policy-obama-links-radical-islam-terror-groups/
The radical Islam the President points to includes, in my opinion, such groups as Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood and all its allied organizations in America such as the Islamic Circle of North America, the Muslim Students Association, the International Institute of Islamic Thought, the North American Islamic Trust, the Fiqh Council of North America and many more.
What makes them radical, again just my opinion, is their common belief in establishing Islamic law everywhere Muslims live--in violation of local civil law where necessary.
Ask the Murphreesboro Muslims where they stand with the above groups.
To equate Hizb ut Tahrir with CAIR and ICNA and MSAs is a grave injustice and in fact slander; that shows your utter bigotry and ignorance.
Mohamed stated that his followers must wage Jihad on the unbelievers until they are killed, convert, or pay the jizya tax. He also further directed them that they should use all means available to wage Jihad until Allah and Sharia are supreme in all the world.
While I have no problem with religion, and I most certainly support the right to practice religion freely. I do have a problem with any dogma that has a political agenda that has the endorsement of a deity, when it is stated repeatedly that Islam and only Islam should have political power.
There are many examples of how other religions are treated by Islam in Islamic dominated countries. The Copts of Egypt for example, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, etc have a long record of intolerance of other faiths. This is in accordance with Mohamed's teachings in the Qu'ran, Hadith and Sunna.
From Tom Lehrer's song "National Brotherhood Week"
Both sides preach how much they love the Constitution but it is humerous that they also want certain parts repealed.
They aren't acting unconstitutionally, just immorally. I would agree that these protesters are absolutely within their constitutional rights, just as the KKK are when they spew hate speech.
I don't think putting this issue in context of the constitution is the best way to address it, though Muslim American soldiers defending the constitution is a very powerful image.
Tolerate = to allow, put up with or endure. Accept = to receive with gladness or approval. I can tolerate a toothache but I have no plans to accept it. Every major religion and its scriptures depicts their religion as exculsive in attaining God. The muslims are wanting a mosque because they because practicing Islam in a typical christian church is unacceptable and vice-versa. No one has blown anything up or physically attacked them BECAUSE america affords them the right. America also affords christians the right to voice their opposition.
Good luck to you in your campaign for congress -- I hope you win. You sound like a statesman, more than a politician -- I would vote for you if I lived there. My family were the original Murfrees of Murfreesboro, TN, but I have never even visited the city.
Besides Desert Storm I caught a couple of floats while I was in and had the opportunity to visit a lot of different countries and meet a lot of people from around the world. I know that I wouldn't want to live any place other than the United States. There are a lot of people that are trying hard to change our country and everything we've always stood for. If you judge an entire religion based on the actions of a few, should they be able to do the same? If you think all Muslims are terrorist based on the Taliban and Al Quada, should they use The Westboro Baptist Church as an example that all Christians are filled with ignorant hate?
Meanwhile Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church get the support for their actions right in the old testament. You need to go back and review Leviticus to see what your bible says about homosexuality. Phelps thinks he's doing Gods work yes. Why? Because he's practising your religion as it's written, and the bible backs him up.
Also, consider this. Remember about 11-12 years ago when the Taliban destroyed those 2 Buddhist statues? They don't allow art (statues, drawings or paintings) of anything found on earth. Now go back and read the 10 Commandments in Exodus, the 4th Commandment in particular. Now tell me who's not really practising their religion.
See, I'm not a religious person. I don't hold a stake in the the whole Christianity vs Islam politics. You all are both sides of the same coin to me.