[Jerusalem Post] US President Barack Obama on Friday appealed to the American people to stand by the nation's belief in religious tolerance.There's a difference between religious tolerance and stupidity. If I decide I'm the Pope of the Aztecs and round up financing to build a pyramid in downtown Washington D.C. to conduct human sacrifices I'll be surprised if I'm tolerated.
If fact, if I decide I'm a pagan and go back to sacrificing bullocks on the feast of Zeus or publicly partying until I barf on Bacchanalia I'll be surprised if I'm tolerated.
The Mormons weren't tolerated until they decided polygamy wasn't holy and I doubt if I'll be tolerated if, as pope of the Church of the Risen Elvis, I decide I can have up to a dozen wives as long as they wear beehive hairdos. And one of our sacraments is having group sex in public.
What'd they do to David Koresh when the story was spread -- true or false I still don't know -- that they were porking 10-year-olds in his "religious" compound?
Therefore having established that there are in fact practical limits to this idea of "tolerance," perhaps it's time to make some sort of rational exploration of what those limits might be. It's my not very humble opinion that the limits should stop short of tolerating murder of pregnant women, exploding without warning in public places, cutting off women's pubic lips, or burying those women alive under piles of rocks. As an afterthought I'd suggest that we not tolerate religions that regard the rest of us as vermin, but that's probably asking too much.
Coincidentally, all those things are adjuncts to the practice of Mohammedanism. Why, it was only last week that Hamas snuffies bumped off the pregnant lady. When the Paleostinian Authority went to arrest the perps the arrests were denounced as "treason." There are boomers virtually every day in Pakistain and periodically in other Islamic ratholes like The Islamic State of Iraq and The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria -- now overflowing to Dagestan and Ingushetia and occasionally showing up in Moscow or other civilized cities. I have no idea how many lipless ladies there are in the world, but estimates are that in Egypt it's as many as 90 percent of all women. And the theocrats who rule the Medes and the Persians with an iron hand were complaining just yesterday that the West's concern over their desire to stone a women to death in the manner of the 7th century and previous was just some sort of propaganda plot and warning us not to try and make it a "human rights" issue. That leaves open the question of whether people have a "human right" not to be pulped under a pile of rocks.
Obama's comments at a White House news conference come as a Florida pastor threatened to burn the Muslim holy book on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
I think there's a special place in hell for people who burn books. Grind them up and use them for mulch, but don't burn them. If you want to tweak the Islamic beard ask them how their wives' pubic lips are doing and explain to them that there's a special place in hell as well for men who mutilate women.
A debate is also raging over whether an Islamic center should be built near the site of the attacks in New York City.
It's not a "debate." Powers that be have ruled that the Mohammedans will be allowed to build their victory mosque there. 70 percent of the populace is against it. Nobody asked the 70 percent's opinion. When the 70 percent impertinently gave its opinion it was told to shut the hell up. Even Mussolini was more subtle than that.
Obama said the public must remember that the country's enemy is not Islam, but al-Qaida and extremist groups.
That's a point we've made here many times, which in fact has resulted in a few bannings. Our allies in the fight against al-Qaeda are in many cases Muslim allies, and they cover a range from mostly harmless Sufism to being non-Qaeda Islamists. The fact that we're on the same side as them (at least for now) doesn't mean that we have to accept their imperfections. There's no reason not to push for religious tolerance in the Muslim world but we don't do it. There's no reason not to point out that civilized countries don't mutilate women, that a woman on the outside of a tampon is not going to cause an entire mosque to collapse upon itself, or that it's a mark of civilization to maintain one's self control, rather than erupting in riots every three or four days over some new slight, real or imagined.
Or maybe we should start rioting in the streets and burning the flags of Islamic countries whenever there's a "Death to America" demonstration. Who's up for that?
He explained that Americans cannot turn on each other and let their fears lead to division.
Meaning we should shut up and do as we're told?