As-salamu alaykum

Gentle readers:

You did it. You really did it. Some of you have decided to go full retard again. Right when we started to think there wasn't anything really to write about ever again, you offered us a gift. Thank you.

There are considered to be three 

Abrahamic religions. Judaism is the first, the original gangsters. God's chosen people don't take anyone's crap, and you wouldn't either after being attacked with blood libels and extermination efforts your whole existence. There's Christianity, which some of you stupidly decided to claim to us has replaced the Jewish people as God's chosen people. The third Abrahamic faith is Islam. All three have Abraham as their base patriarch, and it can be argued that all three hold up the same God to be the one true God despite the different approaches to worship of that God. The Quran is the base book of faith for followers of Islam, but the Quran specifically cites the Jewish Torah (Christians would recognize this as the first five books of the old testament) and Psalms as an inspired guide as well. Believe it or not, Islam also pays homage to the gospels of our new testament. A comparable example to Islam's application of the Quran, in our opinion, is how the Book of Mormon references the Christian Bible: the additional testament is wrong-headed and not to be followed.  

Islam was started when Muhammad saw an "angel of fire" come before him with a "final revelation." Oddly, this is also similar to how Joseph Smith began the Church of Latter Day Saints, but this writing isn't about the LDS. Similar to the Torah, the Quran instructs followers of Islam on how to live in a desert existence (don't mix dairy and meat, bury the dead immediately and in a very specific manner, never eat pork or shellfish (bottom feeders) and several other guides of instruction). Islam is the majority faith in the world, and nearly took over Europe until King Ferdinand and the Catholic Church forced them out of Spain in 1492 (maybe those papists aren't so bad?).

Fast forward to

the United States. Our Constitutional Convention viewed freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and assurance that the government cannot establish a state religion as so essential that they enshrined these protections within the First Amendment. Anyone that reads Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists may try to narrowly argue that the establishment of a state religion means government can't pick between Episcopal or Presbyterian CHRISTIAN faiths. But that would be wrong. The First Amendment assures the free exercise of all faiths. Yes, even non-Christian ones like Islam. 

By the way, the 14th Amendment applies the First Amendment not only to the federal government, but also the individual states, so any email arguing for decoupling will be ignored.

So if Islam is 

a long-established Abrahamic faith, and we possess the constitutional right to freedom of religion in this country, we're good, right? Well, not fully. Generally neutral restrictions that have an ancillary impact on religion are allowed to stand under the Constitution. For example, in 1879 the Mormon Church was told by the U.S. Supreme Court that one wife is enough in this country, and bigamy laws will be enforced. If a religion has a verse in it's moral guide that calls for slaying an infidel, for example, that can't occur because we have strict laws about murder in our country. Where this gets sticky is when a Muslim wishes to contract with another Muslim for the purchase of a house, but wants to assure that the terms do not conflict with their faith (for example, the charging of interest is a sin in Islam) should they be allowed to add terms consistent with their faith? Under the right to private contract, sure, so long as the rights and protections of others are not infringed. Should a Muslim man be allowed to have his will specify that his possessions be distributed consistent with the tenants of his faith? To the extent that they don't infringe on the rights of others, we'd say yes. 

Now, what if Oklahoma decided

to, say, ban sharia law in the state like they tried to do by amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution in SQ 755? What happens then? Well, a majority of Oklahomans voted for it in 2012, and it was added to our state constitution. BUT, remember, the 14th Amendment means that the First Amendment applies to the states, and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals told Oklahoma that we went full retard (you should never go full retard) when a Muslim man wanted his estate distributed consistent with Islam. 

Recently in Broken Arrow

many of you jumped on the "I hate Islam" train to fight against a very large Mosque from going in. There were admittedly problems with the application, but those of you that opposed this Mosque on generally neutral zoning regulations would be the first ones to scream if a city tried to ban another Wal-Mart from becoming a Christian church because it would take tax revenue off the city rolls. What we are saying is that your protest of the mosque was under the veil of neutrality when you were really opposing the underlying religious way the landowner planned to use it. Some of you were more vocal about it than others. This, to us, sounds a lot like a takings violation. Don't we as conservatives believe in private property rights? We aren't convinced that the Mosque won't eventually be built, but we'll see how this plays out.

Now, we have conservative virtue signaling

in the form of HJR 1040. Rep. Sisyphus Wooley and Senator Sisyphus Bullard are ignoring that we already have an unenforceable state constitutional provision enacted by doubling down twelve years later to...propose the same thing? Senator and Representative Sisyphus need to take some of that medical marijuana our state laws stupidly allow and quit wasting time on this. 

Are we fans of

the Muslim faith? No, as a first principle because we like bacon too much. But for many other reasons, including the fact that our faith teaches us that the old and new testaments are sufficient guides for our faith when focused on the reality of Christ. But are Muslims protected in the exercise of their faith under the Constitution? Yes, just like Christians and Jews. Are we as Christians called to love our neighbors? Yes. Will we defend ourselves if a Muslim tries to lop our heads off in the name of Allah? Of course. Augustine's Just War theory applies here. But really, the most recent examples in Oklahoma of anyone lopping a head off were Cimmaron County Republican Party Officers. Maybe we should pass laws banning Republican County Officers? (Hat tip to Ferlin "Hannity" Kearns for that reminder.)   

Happy New Year! CW/CM/SC/WB