[x-factor]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Most of the really bad ideas in history started with a few "modest proposals".

I believe that this is a BAD idea, if you do not like US law, or to become an American, DO NOT COME HERE.

First, its entirely possible that they were born here. Second, they do like US law. The civil arbitration option is part of existing US law. The Orthodox Jews, Amish, etc are all operating under US law when they partake of that option.

Can telling a customer that you will not serve them pork, or alcohol, etc., because of your beliefs tolerable as freedom of religion?

If the owner of the establishment doesn't want to sell pork, the store isn't going to sell pork and will pay the economic consequences in the market. The same way other restaurants with restrictions (vegan, organic, kosher, etc) do.

If the owner of the establishment wants to sell pork, he's going to sell pork. He can either compromise with you by moving you to a job not involved in such sales (such as the produce department) or he can fire you for not performing the job. No one has a right to a job they refuse perform: Hindu butchers, Christian fundamentalist pharmacists, Nazi social workers, etc.

In anycase, this has nothing to do with the civil arbitration issue which effects no one but the parties involved by mutual consent.

Where does it go from there? Lashings for failure to follow the dress code? Stonings for being in the presence of an unrelated male?

Now you're talking about fundamentally changing the criminal code and the Constitution. Do you really think giving the tiny tiny tiny number of devout US Muslims access to the same legal options as the other groups will set off this chain reaction?

Is sawing off the head of someone of a different faith a reasonable expression of free speech?

You are defending a religion mired in the Dark Ages and with no reformation since then. One which is incompatible with a free democratic society, and one which has declared holy war on all non-believers.

Will we sell them the rope they will hang us with, or will we resist?

TR

TR, respectfully, this a lot of fiery rhetoric and hyperbole with little basis in reality.

We let American Nazis rally in this country in much larger numbers and in a much more aggressive and organized fashion. Have they ever scratched the surface of effecting a change in the US government or even a state or local government? No.

Besides, we're not even talking about jihadists. Yes, it is quite possible to be a devout Muslim and not a jihadist. Its quite possible to be a devout Muslim and a good American citizen. The Muslims we're talking about with regard to the civil arbitration issue are not trying to effect any change in American society. They just want the same rights as other citizens. Rights over their own petty affairs that effect no one else.

Also, if the whole of Islam had declared war on us, we'd be in a very different situation. I'm not saying the jihadist threat isn't huge. I know how serious the problem is as well as any man here. Its not the whole billion-person religion.

Finally, I'm not defending sharia. My wife is a feminist literature critic with two masters degrees at the age of 26. The idea that there are thousands of brilliant little girls in the world that will never scratch that opportunity makes me sick. To say nothing of all the little boys that will be told that Shakespeare is an abomination. Line up all the wahhabists in the world and I'd pull the switch myself and then go have a ice cream cone.

What I'm defending is the principles of individual freedom and equality under the law that make America, in my open, the pinnacle of human political development. Its those principles that keep domestic extremism to a relative minimum in America. Your boy William Buckley would agree with me.