Herman Cain Says U.S. Communities 'Have the Right' to Ban Mosques

Bryan · 07-18-2011, 08:24 AM

Herman Cain Says U.S. Communities 'Have the Right' to Ban Mosques - FoxNews.com

This is crazy. Communities have no right to block the building of a mosque. If a location could be a church, or temple, or synagogue, or any other religious building, then it can be a mosque. And this quote just shows how incompetent and bigoted this guy is.

Quote:

Cain again argued that residents were objecting to "the fact that Islam is both a religion and a set of laws, Shariah law. That's the difference between any one of our other traditional religions."

Read more: Herman Cain Says U.S. Communities 'Have the Right' to Ban Mosques - FoxNews.com

Christianity and Judaism both have sets of laws as well. There is both Mosaic Law and Levitical Law (I get that some people have differing opinions about Levitical Law). This guy needs to read his bible again.

rock_show_host · 07-18-2011, 08:41 AM

The fact that he's being taken at all seriously as a presidential candidate is disgusting to me.

jthomas1600 · 07-18-2011, 08:51 AM

As a republican I found Herman Cain to be interesting....for about a week. Now I see him as nothing but a side show. I saw this statement he made the other day and couldn't believe it. Should there be some sort of common sense test that people should have to take before declaring themselves as presidential candidates? I thought things like freedom of religion and freedom to assemble were the things that we value in America.

If you're looking for discussion in this thread I think it's going to be pretty one sided. I have a feeling this is something that most of us will agree on.

**slap_j** · 07-18-2011, 08:53 AM

It's a democracy so, in theory, yes, we could ban mosques. But it might take a constitutional amendment.

rock_show_host · 07-18-2011, 08:59 AM

I can't help wondering how Cain and other Tea Party members would react if a candidate came out and said that communities should have the right to ban Christian churches.

**Josey Wales** · 07-18-2011, 09:05 AM

IMO if communities can ban mosques, then they should be able to ban all other types of religious buildings, or if they can't ban the others they can't ban mosques...

i for one am all for mosques, and all they other buildings, they're just gathering places, people aren't affraid of my church, so idk.

jthomas1600 · 07-18-2011, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rock_show_host

I can't help wondering how Cain and other Tea Party members would react if a candidate came out and said that communities should have the right to ban Christian churches.

So all tea party members are bigots? Come on. There's plenty of ignorant democrats as well but we're not going to lump all democrats together every time one of them says or does something dumb. We don't have to turn every thread that is remotely related to someone with ties to the tea party in to a tea party bashing.

rock_show_host · 07-18-2011, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jthomas1600

So all tea party members are bigots? Come on. There's plenty of ignorant democrats as well but we're not going to lump all democrats together every time one of them says or does something dumb. We don't have to turn every thread that is remotely related to someone with ties to the tea party in to a tea party bashing.

You're right -- sorry for generalizing. It doesn't help that Herman Cain is a Tea Party darling right now, but I didn't mean to lump the entire party in with him. I should have just written "Cain and those who back him on this issue."

**slap_j** · 07-18-2011, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rock_show_host

You're right -- sorry for generalizing. It doesn't help that Herman Cain is a Tea Party darling right now, but I didn't mean to lump the entire party in with him. I should have just written "Cain and those who back him on this issue."

I don't know about the rank and file Tea Party'er but, as best I can recollect, during the 2010 midterms practically all the Tea Party type politicians were bashing the ground zero mosque. Now they're all bashing sharia.

jthomas1600 · 07-18-2011, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slap_j

I don't know about the rank and file Tea Party'er but, as best I can recollect, during the 2010 midterms practically all the Tea Party type politicians were bashing the ground zero mosque. Now they're all bashing sharia.

The problem with statements like this is that when it comes to political movements, or a series of political events, we really only see the sensational and controversial that the media wants us to see. Some times that really may be all that's there so the coverage is accurate, and sometimes what they show us may only be a small part of the movement taken out of context.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rock_show_host

You're right -- sorry for generalizing. It doesn't help that Herman Cain is a Tea Party darling right now, but I didn't mean to lump the entire party in with him. I should have just written "Cain and those who back him on this issue."

Yeah, when worded that way I have no problem with your post.

**slap_j** · 07-18-2011, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jthomas1600

The problem with statements like this is that when it comes to political movements, or a series of political events, we really only see the sensational and controversial that the media wants us to see. Some times that really may be all that's there so the coverage is accurate, and sometimes what they show us may only be a small part of the movement taken out of context.

I'll revise my comments if I've taken anything out of context. But I don't think I'm being unfair. Some examples—Tim Pawlenty shut down a Sharia-compliant home loan program simply on ideological grounds, saying, "The United States should be governed by the U.S. Constitution, not religious laws." Is he going to start overturning other legally recognized religious laws on those grounds? He hasn't yet nor has he indicated any interests in doing so. Newt Gingrich singled out sharia in particular: "we should have a federal law that says Sharia law cannot be recognized by any court in the United States." Conservatives in more than a dozen states are trying to ban sharia law outright (despite the First Amendment which pretty much covers anything they're worried about).

It seems to that they're picking on Muslims for sheer political expediency. Now, maybe I'm not looking closely enough, but I see no countervailing movement within that wing of the GOP saying "do not do this." But I'm trying to avoid painting too broadly.

**Dwight Schrute** · 07-18-2011, 11:51 AM

whether we agree or not, is he correct? do communities currently have this right, now? I know local communities near me have successfully objected to p0rn shops being opened in their township. do they also have the ability to control what religious institutions open in the community? and let's assume they do have this ability - is it a right that is relegated to that community? in other words, if you don't like it, build a church in some other community? should the state or even federal government get involved in the sovereignty of local township governments?

TheProdigalModern · 07-18-2011, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterDominator

whether we agree or not, is he correct? do communities currently have this right, now? I know local communities near me have successfully objected to p0rn shops being opened in their township. do they also have the ability to control what religious institutions open in the community? and let's assume they do have this ability - is it a right that is relegated to that community? in other words, if you don't like it, build a church in some other community? should the state or even federal government get involved in the sovereignty of local township governments?

I do not know about a total ban, but communities can possibly object to the building of a mosque within certain areas of the city by the abuse of zoning laws.

**Chrysostom** · 07-18-2011, 03:44 PM

The fascinating part to me is the grounds for the argument: Religions aren't supposed to "intrude" into the public sphere, but Islam does so. This sounds more like the kind of foundational thinking that the stereotypes say should be supported by Democrats and opposed by Republicans. So what does that say about the shifting state of the discussion?

JerryLove · 07-18-2011, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterDominator

whether we agree or not, is he correct? do communities currently have this right, now? I know local communities near me have successfully objected to p0rn shops being opened in their township. do they also have the ability to control what religious institutions open in the community? and let's assume they do have this ability - is it a right that is relegated to that community? in other words, if you don't like it, build a church in some other community? should the state or even federal government get involved in the sovereignty of local township governments?

The first ammendment (when combined with the 12th) would seem to clearly prohibit any law which targeted a religion in such a manner.

Zoning laws would seem to be allowed basically off of prescedent; but a zoning law that was "per religion" would not.