Republicans to Muslims: Screw You!

Awhile back I wrote about an anti-Semtitic incident in Indiana where a Republican politician told a group of Jews that they didn't count because they only made up 2% of the Indiana population. I called this the Republican "2% solution." This is how the incident appeared to the Jewish group:

[In Feb. 2006], the Indianapolis JCRC’s Jewish Lobby Day was held. Around 40 Jews from around the State of Indiana came to Indianapolis to lobby our state senators and representatives on a number of issues.

The day ended with a private meeting with Speaker of the House Bosma meeting our group in the beautiful House chambers. We asked questions about full day kindergarten, about the clinics, and a young member of the delegation asked about providing sexuality education in public schools that is more than abstinence based. He responded to everything we asked. Sometimes we liked what he said and sometimes we didn’t. Speaker Bosma wondered why we hadn’t discussed the controversy surrounding the issue of prayer in House chambers. He told us his version of what happened and what he believes, and a passionate exchange took place. The end of this exchange left us, the Jewish delegation, in shock. Speaker Bosma, defending the prayer issue, asked, “How many Jews are there in Indiana? About 2%? There are at least 80% Christians in Indiana."

So, hey, if you are a minority the government can ignore you, right? That's what Indiana Republican Bosma seems to think.

Mitt Romney is now applying to Muslims the same philosophy that the Indiana Republican applied to Jews. This comes from Salon.com's Blog Report:

Of all the presidential candidates, Mitt Romney should be the very last one to publicly endorse discrimination on the basis of religion. He’s a member of a religious minority, he’s been the target of discrimination, and he’s spent the better part of 2007 imploring Americans to judge public officials on their ideas and character. To show prejudice on the basis of faith, Romney has said many times, is “un-American.” And yet, there was Romney in Las Vegas recently, insisting that he would discriminate against a religious minority if he’s elected president: “[B]ased on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified."

Hypocricy, thy Party affiliation is Republican.

Of course Romney is joining John McCain in his attack on Muslim-Americans. John McCain specifically said he thinks America is a Christian nation and that the President should push Judeo-Christian values. From Think Progress:

“I admire the Islam. There’s a lot of good principles in it,” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said. “But I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith.” He added, “I think the number one issue people should make [in the] selection of the President of the United States is, ‘Will this person carry on in the Judeo Christian principled tradition that has made this nation the greatest experiment in the history of mankind?’”

I should add that this kind of religious litmus test is specifically forbidden by the Constitution. But hey, when you are a religious fanatic like Mitt Romney, the law of the land apparently doesn't apply to you. This is SPECIFICALLY what the Constitution has to say on the matter:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

That is what is in the First Amendment to the Constitution, written by James Madison. Of course this was based on a previous statute in the Virginia legislature written by Thomas Jefferson. In this Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, it specifically states:

...that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which in common with his fellow-citizens he has a natural right...

It goes on to add:

That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

Yet Romney and McCain seem to think they know more about the foundation of American liberty than Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. What is even more embarassing is that these two politicians don't even seem aware that our nation has specifically stated that it is NOT a Christian nation, as outlined in the Treaty of Tripoli, written by US diplomat Joel Barlow in 1796, unanimously approved by the US Senate in 1797 and signed by President John Adams, another founding father. Here is what the Treaty of Tripoli has to say:

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

The entire US Senate of 1797 and founding father John Adams approved the statement:

"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen"

And yet Mitt Romney and John McCain think they know better what our nation was founded on.

I submit that Mitt Romney and John McCain know NOTHING of the liberal foundations of our nation and our government and their rejection of full rights for Muslim-Americans is as un-American as you can get.