FWD [forteana] Freedom Of Religion

From: Terry W. Colvin (fortean1@mindspring.com)
Date: Tue Jan 01 2002 - 23:22:34 MST


The Dallas Morning News, Letters To The Editor, 1 January 2001
By Joseph Adebola (Irving, Texas)

I am a Nigerian visiting friends here in the Dallas area and I have really
enjoyed reading copies of your fine newspaper. It is very refreshing to
find someone like Franklin Graham who understands the problems regarding
Islam. ("A Christian can respect Muslims but reject teachings,"
Viewpoints, Dec. 16).

Muslims today seem to only strongly support freedom of religion in places
where they are a small minority, like here in the United States. But once
they become a majority, they usually fight to replace existing
constitutional laws with Islamic law through extremely violent means
including repression, enslavement, and murder of non-Muslims. This is
going on now in many places including Nigeria where thousands have been
killed in 2001 in areas dominated by Muslims.

Action speaks louder than words. Take the actions of many Muslims in
Nigeria: women't rights, extreme religious intolerance, attempts to impose
medieval style punishment systems (stoning, amputations), closure of coed
schools, and promotion of polygamy with Muslim men marrying up to four
wives. This shows Islam is a religion whose practices are often stuck in
the dark ages.

The United States' Founding Fathers were men with great foresight who
recognized the dangers of mixing religion and government. They wisely
wrote in the Constitution "Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, nor prohibit the free exercise there-of". The
sad part is many "moderate" Muslims see nothing wrong with imposing Islamic
law and statehood on entire populations of people of different faiths.

The solution? Respect for universal individual freedom of religion. Any
human being anywhere in the world should be able to worship his or her God
without interference from any government. If freedom of religion is good
for Muslims in the United States, then it should be equally good, and made
available for everyone else, Muslims and non-Muslims worldwide. The world
will be a much better place when there is no more Islamic state, Christian
state, or any government devoted to any religion.

-- 
Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1@mindspring.com >
     Alternate: < terry_colvin@hotmail.com >
Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html >
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