Two of the craziest and most dangerous of the wingnuts, retired Gen. Jerry Boykin and the AFA’s Bryan Fischer, got together on Fischer’s radio show recently to bring some serious crazy. They declared that Islam is not a religion, that it isn’t covered by the First Amendment, that we should ban the building of mosques in this country and should not allow any Muslims to emigrate to the United States. Right Wing Watch has the transcript and the video.
Fischer: What do you think we ought to do with regard to our immigration policies and with regard to issuing permits to build mosques in order to build mosques in order to deal with this threat, immigration and mosque building, what do you think we should do?
Boykin: Seal the borders and eliminate sanctuary cities and they’ll go home. No mosques in America. Islam is a totalitarian way of life; it’s not just a religion.
Fischer: Now how do you respond to the First Amendment? Now I believe the same thing that you do, we should not allow the building of any more mosques in America, everyone is a potential recruiting or training ground for terrorist activity. They will bring the First Amendment up, your response when people say they have a First Amendment right to build their mosque anywhere they want.
Boykin: If it’s a religion that’s the truth. But Islam, we need to think Sharia, it is not just a religion it is a totalitarian way of life. A mosque is an embassy for Islam and they recognize only a global caliphate, not the sanctity or sovereignty of the United States.
Ah yes, only true religions are covered by the First Amendment. Which means no religions are covered by it.
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MikeMa
September 8, 2011 at 1:50 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Just like churches are recruiting centers for xian terrorists. If you get rid of one, get rid of all.
geocatherder
September 8, 2011 at 1:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
As hard as I try, I really have trouble imagining that the woman in hijab in the grocery checkout line in front of me, herding three small children, is a terrorist. I have trouble imagining that the fellow engineer my husband lunches with is a terrorist, too. Sorry. Does not compute.
The most Uncivil Activity perpetuated by a Muslim that I’ve personally seen was a woman in hijab who decided to change her baby’s diaper at the far end of the same (large) table where food was being prepared. The food preparers gave her no end of grief and she left. That struck me as a lapse of judgment rather than a terrorist act (not that I would like to eat at her house!).
Tabby Lavalamp
September 8, 2011 at 2:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It seems to me that even if it wasn’t a religion, mosques would still be covered by the rest of the amendment. But if they want to stick to what is or isn’t a religion…
http://www.allaboutthejourney.org/christian-religion-vs-true-relationship.htm
They might want to talk to some of their fellow Christians.
matty1
September 8, 2011 at 3:26 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Much the same charge, that being in an international movement makes you disloyal to your nation has been made against Roman Catholics. The main difference I can see is that unlike the Caliphate the Vatican actually exists.
Crudely Wrott
September 8, 2011 at 3:31 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What was it we used to say as a rejoinder when we were snot-nosed little brats in grade school? Back before indoctrination.
Oh, yeah, I remember.
“What you say is what you are.”
We were, even then, quite prescient. Simply replace “Islam” with “Spirit Filled Christianity” and “Sharia” with “Old Testament Law” and there you are. Same difference.
dochopper
September 8, 2011 at 3:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The real blood letting will be when these folks try to decide What Brand of Jesus Followers the nation will be .
Chiroptera
September 8, 2011 at 3:40 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
…eliminate sanctuary cities….
Eliminate what?
matty1
September 8, 2011 at 3:50 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I had to look up sanctuary cities, based on the wikipedia article they are cities where the local government has a policy of not asking residents if they are illegal immigrants. What this has to do with Muslims is anyones guess. Maybe Muslims are disproportionately likely to overstay their visas and civic officials are the only people who could possibly stop this.
Modusoperandi
September 8, 2011 at 4:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
geocatherder “The most Uncivil Activity perpetuated by a Muslim that I’ve personally seen was a woman in hijab who decided to change her baby’s diaper at the far end of the same (large) table where food was being prepared. The food preparers gave her no end of grief and she left.”
Worse, by the time you got to the front of the line they were all out of baby.
matty1 “I had to look up sanctuary cities, based on the wikipedia article they are cities where the local government has a policy of not asking residents if they are illegal immigrants.”
Scary swarthy people are all Muslims. Even the Mexicans. True story.
eric
September 8, 2011 at 4:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hmmm…Fox studios aren’t religious houses, either. Are we constitutionally free to ban them?
Seems to me they are forgetting that the first amendment has several other clauses. It really doesn’t matter whether Islam is a religion or not.
abb3w
September 8, 2011 at 4:32 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
An interesting observation, matty1. A lot of the anti-Islam sentiment comes from groups similar to those that were anti-Catholic about a hundred years back.
For that matter, a lot of them even now seem to be fairly reluctant in their alliance with the Catholics. After all, the high number of Catholic immigrants is the reason numbers of Catholics are holding steady, rather than falling like the Protestants as the younger generation falls away.
teawithbertrand
September 8, 2011 at 9:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, I agree with one point. I wish we weren’t building any more mosques in this country – or churches, or synagogues or temples of any kind. They are all a waste of resources and serve no real purpose. IMHO.
gshelley
September 8, 2011 at 10:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
As Christianity isn’t a religion, “it’s a relationship” I wonder if they would apply the same logic to churches.
Aquaria
September 8, 2011 at 10:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ah Bryan, he who has mastered the ability to open his mouth and vomit only bigoted bullshit.
And you’re upset that people call AFA a hate group Bryan? Gee, if so many of its members talk like haters and act like haters, then don’t you suppose they are haters?
So tell us what nice things you do–without bashing anyone else. Or giving away your racism or tribalism. One decent, humane thing. Just one.
We’ll wait.
marymallone
September 9, 2011 at 12:02 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I would say something, but the potent mix of bigotry, ignorance, and abject intellectual depravity defies my abilities to produce a meaningful response.
marymallone
September 9, 2011 at 12:03 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
(In retrospect, that sentence seems more correct were I to replace “my abilities” with “my ability”. Oops)
raven
September 9, 2011 at 9:26 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Yeah, I know the feeling.
I saw two Moslem girls at the supermarket the other day.
They were 10 year old girls standing in front of the candy display and giggling.
I thought about ramming them with my cart for jesus and then remembered I’m an ex-xian and didn’t have to do that sort of thing anymore.
4theist4narchist
September 10, 2011 at 5:33 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
By “eliminate sanctuary cities” does he mean use of force to eviscerate cities and people? I want to know what Boykin means.
bz games
May 8, 2012 at 12:48 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
it to the readers. people tend to…
get offended and drift away if they have been lied to or if facts have been hidden from them. no matter how damaging the truth can be, sometimes, being honest is the right way to connect with your readers and establish…