Original article from CNN

Listen, I am fully aware that we are The United States of America, and our Constitution gives all US citizens the protected right to Freedom of Religion, a fact that I would fight for by the way.  Our Founders were wise enough to put this into our Constitution for such a time as this, wherein Christianity is vilified and deemed archaic and impotent by its detractors, yet other religions are embraced in the spirit of “diversity” and “international relations”.  Okay, off my soapbox now.

However, and let me phrase this carefully so there is no misrepresentation about what I am about to say, how can our Constitution protect a religion, on US soil, that threatens the very lives of US citizens under the impassioned falsehood that death to any and all of its non-adherents brings personal honor, glory, and eternal reward?

Freedom of Speech gives me the right to say whatever I wish to say, but it would be illegal for me to yell, “Fire!”, in a crowded movie theater as a joke.  I can also not say things such as, “I want to kill so and so!” in public.  There is this unspoken barrier, this unspoken acknowledgment that we all agree upon determining if something is Free Speech and if something  is just hateful, harmful, malicious, and rude.  We get this, we really do.  This is one of the things that makes America so freaking awesome.

So, in that vein, what if I espouse and follow a religion that commands me and teaches me to, say, sacrifice kangaroos on my front lawn daily to appease the whims of my god?  People would shake their heads and think I was loopy.  Understandably so.  Aside from animal-right’s groups getting into a tizzy, I really am breaking no moral or legal Laws.  I’m simply paying tribute to my god.  Freedom of Religion, folks.  Nothing to see here, move along please.

Now then, let’s go a little further– What if my god commanded me to kill newborn babies on an altar made from human skulls and wrapped in human skin?  People would not be so tolerant, now would they?  Of course not.  They would be a bit repulsed and freaked-out.  Anyone with any common-sense can see this is not acceptable behavior or an acceptable form of worship or piety, regardless of Freedom of Religion.  This would be murder most foul.  It would be deemed a threat to life, which is also protected by our Constitution.  (Unless of course you are a fetus, then you’re not really human.  Or so said the SCOTUS in 1973.  But I digress….)

So….here we have a fellow who is a US citizen, by the way, and afforded all the rights and privileges of our US Constitution, and he has chosen to follow Islam.  Nothing wrong with this so far.  On this soil Freedom of Religion is protected and encouraged.  However, he maintains that Islam has taught him to kill infidels for personal glory and eternal reward.  I say this based solely on my knowledge of The Koran and on his verifiable and factual actions thus far.  Okay, put on the brakes here.

We have Freedom of Religion.  But how can we allow this freedom to be bastardized and twisted to allow this kind of extremist behavior?  (Obviously we aren’t allowing it, per se.  He has been arrested and is a suspect at present for crimes against America.  Score one for the good guys!)

To be clear, I am most assuredly not saying that Islam is all about killing and martyrdom and violence.  Let me be crystal clear on this.  I have had the chance to meet and live with Muslims from Senegal, while in Italy of all places, and they treated me like a brother, even though they knew I worshiped Jesus and still had fears due to 9/11.  They knew I had no reason to trust them, but they showed me nothing but kindness, mercy, and friendship.  They fed me and gave me shelter as a foreigner in a foreign land.  So, no.  I know for a fact that not all Muslims are bent on killing Americans.  (I was far from home, in Italy, in a small town in the region of Lombardia where cell phones didn’t work and the Internet was a mystery.  If they wanted to, they could have easily made me disappear.  Who would have known?)  As a Christian I am against Islam as a false religion, but that’s not why I am writing this opinion piece.  (I would love to see Muslims come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord, but that’s a different topic altogether.)  I do not ever wish to see “anti-Islamic squads” scour our Nation and forcibly remove Muslims who have lived here in peace for years.  I do, though, wish to see all extremist Muslims go to prison for a long, long time.  They can worship their god while kneeling on a concrete floor for all I care.  Freedom of religion does not protect you from my anger if you threaten innocent Americans.

I mentioned before that I would fight for Freedom of Religion.  And lest people do not believe me, I would fight against even a Christian church if they started making plans to blow up Americans or spray them in crowded malls with automatic weapons fire.  Wrong is wrong, no matter what god you seek to wrap it up in.

We have many religions and faiths here in America.  Rightly so.  We have many different cultures represented here in America, so religious diversity is expected.  But if your religion threatens America…well,…you might want to consider if your faith is really strong enough to prepare you to be killed for your hatred.