While the imam, Aquil Hamidullah, says his goal is to create "a clean community, free of alcohol, drugs, and free of gangs," the implications for U.S. jurisprudence of this and other internal enclaves are greater: while the Little Rock enclave might prevent the sale of alcohol, can it punish possession and in what manner? Can it force all women, be they residents or visitors, to don Islamic hijab (headscarf)? Such enclaves raise the fundamental questions of when, how, and to what extent religious practice may supersede the U.S. Constitution.Atheists identified as America's most distrusted minority:
From a telephone sampling of more than 2,000 households, university researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in "sharing their vision of American society." Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry.
Americans, especially Catholics, approve of torture:
A survey by the Pew Research Center in October showed that 15 percent of Americans believe torture is “often” justified, and another 31 percent believe it is “sometimes” justified. Add to that another 17 percent who said it is “rarely” justified, and you have two out of three Americans justifying torture under certain circumstances. Only 32 percent said it is “never” justified, while another 5 percent didn’t know or refused to answer.
But the portion of Catholics who justify torture is even higher, according to the survey. Twenty-one percent of Catholics surveyed said it is “often” justified and 35 percent said it is “sometimes” justified. Another 16 percent said it is “rarely” justified, meaning that nearly three of four Catholics justify it under some circumstances. Four percent of Catholics “didn’t know” or refused to answer and only 26 percent said it is “never” justified, which is the official teaching of the church.
Cecilia Fire Thunder, President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe:
"To me, it is now a question of sovereignty. I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction."
Good to know I'm unpopular. I always knew I'd have to lie if I ran for office, but that's stronger than I expected. 3% seems low.
I like the way these four articles form a coherent theme "Surprising politics of various faiths in the U.S. today"
Also, all four articles are really interesting and I haven't seen them anywhere else.
Rock.
That last one... That is amazing. Holy crap, that woman rules so much.
<lj user="kathrynt"> called the tribal government office and talked to President Fire Thunder directly about how to support her initiative.
*sigh* After so many centuries, most Catholics still love to make martyrs.
We know you're wishing that we'd go away,
But the inquisition's here and it's here to...
Most Catholics (in the US) also support birth control, in direct contravention of the teachings of the church. So? The Catholic Church is not a democracy, if you're going to criticise it, criticise the stupid things the hierarchy teaches.
...university researchers found that
Americanspeople who willingly answer phone polls rate atheists...<lj-raw>
2000 people who willingly answer phone polls in Minnesota.
</lj-raw>
awesome so much awesome.
Go Muslim-town! After all if christianexodus.com and that Domino's guy can make their own towns why the hell not?
Seriously, you guys are all fucked. Doomed is right, mate, doo-fucking-oomed...
I agree then all the tiny theocratic city-states can go to war against each other leaving the rest of us in peace.
I see the Grim Meathook Future melding with Snow Crash...
and hilarity ensued...
That icon's quite disturbing, I took that shadow under Jesse's nose to be a Hitler-tache at first.
Keep your fantasies to yourself, Miss Oatlash :)
i find none of this surprising, although i did find the catholics/torture thing amusing. NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!
Um... peace, love, & hash?
But back to the topic; my parents did their damnedest to bring me up Catholic. That bunch is all about some torture.
Maybe nobody explained to these 2000 phone-poll-answering Minnesota Catholics that we're talking CIA "Black Site" and Abu Ghraib shit here, not "THE COMFY CHAIR!"
I don't see how that would matter. The CIA hasn't sent any Minnesota Catholics to the black sites yet.
Atheists are the spawn of the Devil's own seed. If you believe in the Devil. If you do believe in the Devil than I have this 86 Honda prelude all tricked out with Fe2O3 ready for the small pickens of $200,000...
Pathetic
awesome post. cheers!
what can you expect from people who fuck kids?
in jesus' name
amen.
Prior to the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice demands to impose Shari`a, the Arbitration Act worked well. Unfortunately for Canadian Jews, the repeal ended state-enforcement of agreements reached by the use of a millennia-old rabbinical court system called beit din (house of law) that had for decades quietly settled marriage, custody, and business disputes.... The Canadian experience demonstrates how flexibility can backfire when all parties do not seek to uphold basic precepts of tolerance.
Translation: Canada had to take away people's right to arbitrate their disputes in a religious court because members of The Wrong Religion were actually, y'know, exercising that right.
Do seperate laws actually need to be passed?
For example, if they want to stop people from showing too much flesh, can't they just use the existing indecency laws? AIUI, there's no set standard of what constitutes "indecent" in these laws; it just reflects the standards of the community. Have a majority Islamic community, and the standard will neccessarily be a lot higher.
As for alcohol, I don't think it could punish posession, but a similar trick to above could be used to redefine the limits of "drunk and disorderly", to be, well, even slightly tipsy. Or is there a defined blood alcohol level under which the police can't charge you?
I think it's a fine thing for a community to have standards and a communal identity. However, I think laws that allow punishment based on violation of "community standards" are both deeply flawed and deeply troubling - undermining the principles of fairness which are the basis of much legislative philosophy and hence losing a great deal of perceived moral weight. ( I think there is already a problem in this respect with widely differing state laws ).
If these breakaways wish to create communities "free of alcohol, drugs, and free of gangs", I suggest they bind together with other like minded parties, support their police, and devote substantial effort to inculating their moral beliefs in their offspring. But the idea that they would somehow be able to enforce supernumerary laws upon residents, and worse, non-consenting members such as visitors, dependants, etc. is, to me, abhorrent.
-- curious_jp
Well, it's illegal to walk round topless in America (I believe). Why is topless so bad? Community standards. There are places in Africa where every woman goes topless.
Most laws that limit behaviour have a great deal of interpretation in them. What constitutes 'disorderly'? Or 'loitering'? It would be painstaking and probably pointless to try to codify things so that the same things are legal and illegal in every different state, etc. And the people just wouldn't accept it.
Agreed about supernumary laws, though.
I prefer an intellectually honest public agnosticism and a private .... well, none of yr business.
From experience, I can say that it's fun to gather regularly with loved ones, and candles, and icons of highest values, and contemplate the meaning of life in a meditative state. I got no problem with that.
-t