The Movement Against Religious Freedom

“As a mother and a grandmother, I worry,” Diana Serafin said. “I learned that in 20 years with the rate of the birth population, we will be overtaken by Islam, and their goal is to get people in Congress and the Supreme Court to see that Shariah is implemented. My children and grandchildren will have to live under that.”

“I do believe everybody has a right to freedom of religion,” she said. “But Islam is not about a religion. It’s a political government, and it’s 100 percent against our Constitution.”

I wish I could say the attitude of this woman was an anomaly and did not represent the thoughts of many thousands of American right-wingers and religious fundamentalists -- but it's not true. There is a large and growing segment of our population who shares her views. They profess, as she does, to believe in religious freedom but they don't seem to understand what that phrase even means, especially as it relates to the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.

To these fundamentalist christians, freedom of religion doesn't mean everyone should be free to worship (or not worship) as they please. It means these fundamentalist christians should be free to force their own view of religion on their neighbors and their countrymen, even if they must use hatred, intolerance and violence to accomplish that.

These people don't realize, or won't admit, that nearly any religion can be perverted to justify violence and intolerance. They are horrified when someone mentions Scott Roeder, Timothy McVeigh or many others who used christianity to justify their own terrorist actions. Most of them will be quick to say these terrorists don't represent their religion. And yet they are perfectly willing to use the actions of a few hundred fundamentalist moslems to slander and defile a respectful and nonviolent religion shared by over a billion people.

This has recently been brought to light by right-wing efforts to keep a moslem community center from being built a few blocks from the scene of the 9/11 disaster in New York City, but that is far from the only prejudice and intolerance being exhibited against moslems by fundamentalists and other right-wingers. In many cities across the country there have been too many instances of graffiti, destruction of property, arson and death threats against mosques and adherents of islam.

I am not a religious person, but that does not give me the right to physically attack or prevent in any way a person to worship as he/she pleases. The right to worship (or not worship) any religion (including islam) is guaranteed by the United States Constitution. It is time for all decent Americans to stand up and defend this religious freedom before it is destroyed by fundamentalist right-wing christians (or fundamentalists of any other religion).

It is just a fact that if moslems are denied the right to worship as they please, then that same right can be denied to any other person or religion. Who will be next after moslems and nonbelievers are eliminated? Will these fundamentalists then start to eliminate christian sects they disagree with?

You do not have to agree with the religious views (or lack of religious views) of another person, but the Constitution demands that you respect that person's right to worship or not worship as he/she pleases (and that person must respect your right to do the same). I just wish the right-wing fundamentalists would realize that the best way to protect your own religious freedom is to respect the religious freedom of others.