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Herman Cain Denounces First Amendment

Posted by: Linda Carbonell on July 18, 2011.

07-18-2011 by Linda S. Carbonell

Herman Cain (photo by Gage Skidmore)

Funny thing about our Constitution – it guarantees everyone the right to worship in the faith of their choice. It seems that Herman Cain doesn’t believe in the First Amendment.

On Fox News Sunday, Cain said that communities should have the right to ban the construction of mosques. Referring to the planned mosque in Mrufreesboro, Tennessee, Cain told reporters last week that a mosque is an “infringement and an abuse of our freedom of religion.” He echoed the fear-mongering of rightwingnut radio and television that “…this isn’t an innocent mosque.” In the eyes of the right wing and a few elected officials like Rep. Peter King, all mosques are centers for radicalization of Muslims and training of terrorists. They could never, ever be houses of worship for people who came here to exercise their freedom to worship just as our ancestors did. As a minister at Atlanta’s Antioch Baptist Church North, he should have a better understanding of how communities once had the power to ban certain churches and how black churches were burned, vandalized and bombed. Somehow, Cain’s own history of facing bigotry doesn’t translate into understanding how others feel in the same position.

Cain defended his previous statements about Islam on Fox News Sunday, saying that “Our Constitution guarantees separation of church and state. Islam combines church and state.” Well, that’s his first error. Only Shi’ites combine church and state. Sunnis, who comprise the majority of Muslims in the world, believe in less involvement in state affairs by the religious leaders, in a condition of co-existence not dissimilar to that which characterized Christian nations until, well, today – bearing in mind that the Queen of England is the head of the Church of England and one of her titles is Defender of the Faith, and there are still many countries in the world whose laws are based in canon law instead of purely secular law. Gee, kind of like all those states that have banned same-sex marriage.

In June, Cain told Glenn Beck that he would not appoint a Muslim to a cabinet post or judgeship unless they first signed a loyalty oath, pledging themselves to the Constitution, which in case he never noticed, all cabinet officers and judges already do without the additional caveat of some special extra oomph to the oath just for Muslims. Cain agreed that America does not require a special loyalty oath from Catholics, who in the past were accused of split loyalties because of obedience in religious matters to the Pope. That particular piece of lunacy is a holdover from the English insistence – still believed in by some – that the armies of the Pope will swoop in and conquer England in a heart beat if Catholics have equal rights. Yeah – the armies of the Pope – all 90 men in doublets and tights carrying pikes.

The right wing has created a climate of totally unreasonable hatred towards practitioners of Islam. There have been Muslims in this country since before it was a country. They have taken the statements of Osama bin Laden about recreating the medieval Caliphate and warped them into a lie saying they are a creed for all Muslims. Bin Laden was an enemy of Islam, as much a threat to the governments of Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as he was to us. He was an enemy of the secular states of the Muslim world, denouncing the economic successes of countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. He loved his satellite phones and his porn movies while telling the rest of Islam that they should give up all the trappings of modern life and return to herding camels in the desert. He was an enemy of the women of Islam, who choose to honor certain traditions like clothing while rejecting the idea that women should not have educations and careers. The Prophet never banned women from education or careers. That’s a post-Prophet abomination of the teachings of the Qur’an. Bin Laden was an enemy of real Islam and a proponent of a twisted form of fundamentalism that is rejected by most modern, educated Muslims. But the American right wing, and men like Glenn Beck in particular, chose to take the rantings of one power-mad fanatic and apply them to all Muslims throughout the world – to create their own power base out of the fears of the ignorant.

Our Constitution guarantees all Americans the right to worship as they choose. It was a right specifically added to our Constitution because the British discriminated against anyone who wasn’t a practitioner of the Anglican Churches of England, Ireland, and Scotland. Parliament demanded that England’s Kings William III and George I, and Queens Mary II and Anne convert to Anglicanism before they could take the throne. Our First Amendment was written to protect the rights of Christians in a world where Christians warred with each other, and then was extended to the rights of non-Christians.

Herman Cain has disqualified himself from the Presidency. He does not believe in the totality of the Constitution and therefore could not take the very oath he would demand of others. America needs to reject campaigns of hate and fear-mongering, and we can start by making sure that men like Cain and women like Bachmann never see the nominations of their parties.

Maybe someone should ask Cain how he feels about France classifying the Baptist church as a dangerous cult.