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| This sentiment not popular amongst protesters |
Those
are the provisions of law in many Muslim nations that are motivated by the
Islamic faith, and not by man. They are the ones that often call for brutal
physical punishments for those who violate what is perceived as “God’s word.”
SO
I’M SURE the protesters, put together by a group calling itself Act for
America, want us to believe they have grand noble intentions in terms of
looking out for the rights of individuals who often suffer under such regimes
from tyrants who claim they’re doing “God’s will” with their brutality.
Yet
I can’t help but be skeptical of these socially conservative types, many of
whom have as their real desire the intent to undermine the concept that we have
freedom of religion and expression in this country.
They
want to spew their rhetoric to stir up resentment against the Islamic religious
faith because it isn’t their own faith. And they have the unmitigated gall to
do so while waving about the stars and stripes and other symbols of our own
nation – even though much of what they spew is “un-American” in its underlying
principles.
I
really do believe that these people probably wish that Christianity had similar
provisions that could be a part of our own law and would impose equally-harsh
punishments against people who aren’t exactly like themselves.
MY
OWN VIEW of “Sharia law” and of the way many governments in Middle Eastern
nations operate is that they are examples of the bad that can occur when one
permits religion to have too much influence over the daily operations of a
government.
They
ought to be the ultimate reason why our society is superior for having a
Constitution that does not provide for a national religion and, in fact, gets
interpreted by the courts in various ways to ensure that religion does not have
too much influence over our daily lives.
Which
it shouldn’t, unless by chance we make individual choices to allow it to
influence ourselves in such a way. It certainly shouldn’t be permitted to allow
people to influence the way others think and behave.
So
those right-wing nut-jobs who felt compelled to take to the streets and claim
they were sticking up for “our” values and what “we” as a people stand for?
WHO’S
KIDDING WHOM?
I
found it reassuring to read the reports from Saturday indicating that
counter-demonstrators outnumbered these crackpots by a significant ratio. The
people who felt the need to stick up for real rights of people rather than the
ones who want to look out for themselves and torment others are the ones worthy
of our praise.
It
wasn’t just limited to Chicago. I understand that in many cities, there were
counter-demonstrations that outnumbered the conservative ideologues.
I
also got a kick out of learning from a one-time reporter-type counterpart of
mine who now works in Indianapolis that the Hoosier city had an Indy Pride
parade that occurred the same day as the crackpots’ event. Which I’m sure
infuriated them even more than anything associated with Sharia Law.
WE’RE
IN AN “Age of Trump” in which the ideologues amongst us want to believe they
are the majority – they keep hearing that “silent majority” phrase and want to
take it literally. They want to believe their 46 percent really means most of
us.
Seeing
that sensible people keep prevailing may be a sign that our society has the
ability to unite in ways that keep the crackpot element from going too far in
trying to drag us all down their own depressing path in life.
Personally,
I suspect that if many of these types who gathered to protest Islam were to
ever meet up with the hard-liners of the Middle East who tout Sharia Law,
they’d probably find they have much in common. Such as a desire to be able to
torment those unlike themselves.
Just
like I used to think that many of the “hard hat” types of our society had much
in common with the Communists of old in terms of a willingness to believe there
was nothing wrong with a totalitarian society that accepted the repression of personal rights and freedoms.
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