"It is time to stop giving Herman Cain’s unapologetic bigotry a free pass. The man and his poison need to be seen clearly and taken seriously.
Imagine the reaction if a major-party presidential candidate — one who, like Cain, shows actual support in the polls — said he “wouldn’t be comfortable” appointing a Jew to a Cabinet position. Imagine the outrage if this same candidate loudly supported a community’s efforts to block Mormons from building a house of worship." Robinson
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There is an ongoing political and propaganda campaign in the United States with regard to Muslim Americans. Cain's "bigotry" is probably a result of the natural prejudice of the ignorant against "the other." He does not appear to be intelligent enough or well informed enough to have formed such opinions without "help."
A group of think tanks aligned with the overseas adversaries of various groups of Muslims is leading the effort to spread distrust and fear of American Muslims. Unfortunately, there are former and retired US government officials who have joined this effort. Their motivations appear to be variously ethnic or financial in that these think tanks have succeeded in obtaining government contracts for the training of local police for the purpose of safeguarding the populace against the American Muslim "menace."
This "menace" is usually described as either being directly involved in the enabling of terrorist attacks or more insidiously of seeking to infiltrate American government at all levels for the purpose of substituting Islamic Shariah law for US federal and local statutes.
With regard to the charge of support of terrorism, it is striking that the highly successful efforts of the FBI and the intelligence community are dismissed as unimportant. After all, it is argued, what about the ones who have not been caught plotting - yet. It should be said of this charge that there is no doubt that there are extremists within the Muslim communities in the US, extremists who are actually and potentially dangerous, but this is true of a wide variety of "communities." The Right to Life people, anti-government militias, white supremacy groups, these are all examples of such potentially dangerous groups. All of these groups are lawfully subject to surveillance by law enforcement engaged in protecting the American People. Such surveillance is not intended, nor does it reveal, information that would justify believing that all those opposed to abortion or who dislike the federal government should be condemned as "the other."
The argument with regard to the subversion of US secular society and law is even more defective. 1- The US Constitution is quite clear that there will be no "establishment of religion." Any law which sought to give the regulatory or punitive power of the civil law to Shariah would be struck down by the courts. 2- Islam is not one thing. It is a religion of laymen. Since Islam is a religion of laymen and scholars of the religious law there is no central authority in Islam however much some Muslims and anti-Muslims would like to think there is. The belief of individual Muslims or groups of Muslims that their particular consensus (ijma') with regard to the law is the sole and actual will of God is not supportable from the point of view of all those outside that particualr group consensus. In other words, there are an infinite number of versions of just what Shariah and therefore Islam really is. Are there groups of Muslims who think that man's destiny includes a world-wide caliphate living under their particular version of Shariah? Certainly there are such, but there are also groups of fanatic Christians living in the hope of the end of the world and the fulfilment of ther own eschatological beliefs. Does that make them a threat to the Republic? No, it is more likely to make them right wing candidates for office.
Thomas Jefferson said that he feared that God was just. Those who defame their neighbors should also fear God's wrath. pl
