Dan,
As a Christian, I accept that America has no state religion.
America is not governed by laws extracted from the Bible, the Quran, or any other religious book.
That works both ways.
My secular political views about America are not necessarily governed by my religious beliefs.
Christians do not get to impose biblical law on everyone else, and Muslims should not get to impose Sharia law on everyone else.
There are radical Islamist movements that openly advocate bringing Sharia into government and public life. That is what concerns me.
Muslims are free to practice their religion in their mosques, in their homes, and publicly, just as Christians are free to practice and express their faith. But religious freedom does not mean the right to impose religious law or religious requirements on everyone else. I'm not referring to simply letting people know your faith.
Christians have had generations in America for the boundaries between religion and government to be fought over, challenged in the courts, and defined. Living in a pluralistic society means coexisting with other religions and with people who have no religion at all.
Muslims in America have the same religious freedom, but they also have to accept the same constitutional limits. Some Muslims come from countries where Islam has a much greater role in government and public life. That doesn't carry over to America. Here, when religious demands cross constitutional boundaries, the courts will determine where those boundaries are.
When any religious group pushes beyond those limits and attempts to use government to impose its religious beliefs on others, the courts will remind them where those limits are.
My concern is that some Americans who are strongly anti-Christian and anti-Israel may become so eager to oppose Christians and Jews that they excuse or support demands from Islamic groups that they would never tolerate from Christians.
And one day they may realize that acquiescing to those demands was a big mistake.
