...It is up to ALL of us to follow that Constitution and not arbritrarily decide some religions are ok and others are not...
Indeed, it
IS up to
ALL of us to follow that Constitution.
My post was speculating upon the distinct possibility that Radical Militant Islam will push The West, and the US in particular, far enough and hard enough in the foreseeable future, so that OUR government takes a case to the US Supreme Court, to try whether Islam should continue to be viewed as a Religion, or as a hostile, toxic Political-Cultural mechanism.
If (1) any such test-case ever materialized in future, and (2) if that test-case resulted in such a ruling, then Islam would lose the protections accorded it with respect to Freedom of Religion, and the government would be free to shut down its gathering places, seize its assets, and proscribe or eject its practitioners.
When Constitutionality and Safety are at sword's-point, Safety wins, almost every time.
The suspension of Habeus Corpus during the opening days of the American Civil War, and the large-scale internment of West-coast Japanese-Americans during WWII, tell us all we need to know about the accuracy of that Constitutionality-Safety observation.
This, in turn, means that it is in the best interests of American Muslims - and, indeed, Muslims everywhere - to get off their dead asses, and to begin to get control of these Radicals and Militants and War-Mongers and Caliph-Wannabees in their midst, before those miscreants spoil it for everyone else.
Fail to do that, and Radical Militant Islam will grow in territory and power and influence, until such time as it DOES pose a mortal an existential threat to the United States and the American People.
If-and-when that happens, we will then see the 'test-case' that I have been speculating upon.
When Constitutionality and Safety are at sword's-point, Safety wins, nearly every time.
Don't want to see that unfold?
Neither do I.
Neither do most people of goodwill, regardless of their religious confession.
If Muslims get control of their Militants, it will not happen.
Otherwise, all bets are off - on some future and very sorry day.
...because next time, it might be yours.
Sounds very much like the
Vietnam Domino Theory to me, but, truth be told - and discounting that I'm not a practicing Christian but merely raised in its traditions and loyal to its philosophy and behavioral codes insofar as I find it practical - I'll take my chances, in a Secularized Christian Nation, that Christianity will be left largely un-touched.
After all... this country was founded by Christians, for Christians, and was (and is) populated largely by Christians, and its laws are largely based upon the Euro-Christian mindset and traditions and legal body of work... so 'mine' is probably not next - regardless.
But, if it is, it is - and those vast numbers of poor, oppressed Christians will have the consolation that the scourge of a savage and barbaric and misogynistic Islam would have been purged from the body politic before their own troubles unfolded - with Islam excised rather like an alien and cancerous growth.
All in accordance with United States Constitutional Law - courtesy of a single re-classifying ruling of the US Supreme Court, on a sorry future day, once Islam pushes us too far.
For your sake - indeed, for all our sakes, you had better hope that we are not pushed that far - because that will almost certainly unfold, if Militant Islam is not smashed in time.
And that, Coyote, is where I put away my crystal ball - having applied a combination of logic and history to such macro-level speculation about the decades to come.