Allowing Muslims to immigrate into the United States, a Christian nation by origin, history and tradition, without insisting that they drop their allegiance to Allah, Muhammad, the Qur’an, and sharia law, is to commit cultural suicide. We believe in freedom of religion for Muslims like we do for everybody else. But if they insist on clinging to their religion, they will need to exercise their freedom of religion in a Muslim country which shares their values: death for those who leave Islam, the beating of wives by their husbands, and the labeling of Jews as apes and pigs.
Immigration is a privilege, not a right, and our policy should be to admit to our shores only those with a commitment to a full assimilation to American culture, adopting our faith, our heroes, and our history. Someone with a Muslim background who wants to become an American had best be prepared to drop his Islam and his Qur’an at Ellis Island.
So ancient Israel offers a paradigm of what a sensible and sane immigration policy looks like. It’s simple: don’t break the law (that is, come in through the front door instead of breaking in through a window), convert to Christianity, fully assimilate (become an authentic American, not a hyphenated American), and support yourself.
--Bryan Fischer, director of issues analysis, American Family Association (via
Right Wing Watch)
"We believe in freedom of religion for Muslims like we do for everybody else. But if they insist on clinging to their religion, they will need to exercise their freedom of religion in a Muslim country which shares their values..." What? The? Bleep? And that Christian nation argument is just so stale: if America really
is a Christian nation, why does the Constitution have an amendment stating "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" and that President John Adams stated in Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli "the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion"? If our constitution does not designate Christianity as the official religion of the US but rather grants the freedom to believe or not to believe, how can America really be a Christian nation? "In Philadelphia, numerous private schools with no religious affiliation taught languages, mathematics, and natural science," states the
US Dept. of State Outline of US History.
Fischer's citation of ancient Israel as an ideal of a decent society is really revealing of his view of America. According to the
Encarta encyclopedia, during colonial times, "the diversity of religious belief among the settlers gradually eroded support for an established church and promoted a new ideal of religious toleration."
In the past, Fischer has advocated
banning Muslim immigration and deporting Muslims and has claimed that Muslims
do not have First Amendment protection.
Conservative contempt for non-Christians even stretches towards a certain golfer: in January 2010, Brit Hume said on
Fox News Sunday that Tiger Woods should convert to Christianity (Woods is a Buddhist) after his extramarital affairs were revealed.
Despite all these outrageous statements, 2012 Republican presidential candidates will still happily appear on Fischer's radio program. (Justin Elliott expands on this on Salon.com: "
The Muslim-baiting radio host the GOP can't resist")