Ever wonder what would happen if someone asked a Muslim bakery to make a gay wedding cake? Wonder no more.
Never mind the video, I don't need the video to understand the guy's point.
I already "get" where he is coming from.
Here is where it gets sticky however...
Forget gay wedding cakes, how about an ordinary person shopping at Target, who
comes to the checkout counter, and the Somalian checkout clerk, a Muslim, refuses to ring up the shopper's groceries because they have purchased beer, or vodka, or they see bacon in there somewhere, or dog food.
This has actually happened, in Minneapolis.
Forget gay wedding cakes, how about a Somalian cabbie who refuses to pick up blind passengers because they have seeing-eye dogs. Or they refuse to pick up fares who have pork or alcohol. That also happened in Minneapolis.
In the case of Target, the city didn't have to attempt any government action, Target management stepped in and made it clear that the checkers either accommodate all shoppers or find new jobs.
In the case of the cabbies however, the government DID step in and THEY made it clear to cabbies that they either accommodate ALL passengers or else.
But interestingly, it was the MUSLIMS themselves who demonstrated even more smarts:
"This type of job helps immigrants move to the next level," says Hassan Mouhamud, Imam of the AlTaqwa Mosque in St. Paul, and a scholar of Islamic Law.
"Blocking that," he says, "can cost jobs, it can also cost immigrants and their families the American dream."
Mouhamud says there are schools of Islamic thought that allow for compromise.
He says under the Hanafi School of Islamic law, if Muslims live in a country that does not enforce their religious law, they can defer to the written laws of that country.
"American society has a rule of respecting religions," says Mouhamed. " We hope there is room to accommodate all faiths."
Muslim Cab Drivers Refuse to Transport Alcohol, and Dogs
So, if the Muslim community has demonstrated that there is room for compromise and that it is proper to accommodate people who do not share your religious beliefs, why can't Christians with "deeply held religious beliefs" find it in themselves to accommodate others, too?
My point is that wherever you go, you will find religious fundamentalists who try to rule out accommodation for anyone outside their circle, and feel it is God's work in doing so, but the larger religious community sees it as an unjust expression of intolerance.
And by defending the narrow-minded and intolerant, you are demanding that we, as Americans, tolerate intolerance.
And tolerating intolerance INVARIABLY leads to destruction of the very fabric of democracy itself.
So why not just admit to everyone that you hate democracy, that cuts out all of the nonsense anecdotes and tomfoolery.
I might disagree with your love of theocracy but at least I could respect the fact that you're an unashamed theocrat.
That said, theocracy is wholly incompatible with democracy, yes even representative democracy which is enshrined within a constitutional republic.
That IS what most people generally accept when they SAY the WORD "democracy" because intelligent people understand that there is no practical application of PURE democracy, and that the Founders themselves recognized that democracy can only really exist in its representative form within a constitutional republic.
The fact is, it can also exist within a constitutional monarchy as well but the Founders seemed to eschew the monarchy....for "some strange reason"
