In Reply: "I believe in religious freedom, even for faiths that I don't personally subscribe to..." (Paul Derengowski)

In reply to the following comment at the post TCC professor's lecture on Islam stirs controversy - Star-Telegram:

Gromet sez:

Would you please tell us which muslim countries allow Christian churches, Jewish temples, Hindu temples, Buddhist temples, Sheik places of worship, or any places of worship other than Islam to be built? Sure there are churches in Lebanon, but they have to have their own militias to protect them, and the new Muslim Brotherhood rulers in Egypt are starting to burn the Coptic churches there (which have existed for hundreds of years before there was an Islam.)
Tell me specifically where I am wrong in the statements above - one-by-one.......

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Pretty sure I answered your question before you ever asked it there, Gromet... Those countries generally do not allow other faiths to be practiced, and the leaders responsible for that are discriminatory bigots...

...But it seems to me that folks fighting against mosques here in this country--or boycotting businesses that advertise during a reality show depicting actual American Muslims behaving pretty normally, and decidedly NOT like terrorists or terrorist sympathizers--are kinda following in their footsteps, ideologically speaking. (No, there are no death sentences, and buildings aren't burning down, but that's a matter of degree, not intent.)

I live here in America, and I believe in religious freedom, even for faiths that I don't personally subscribe to... ...and as an American, I expect everyone else here to stand for the same American freedoms that I do... I fail to see what's unclear about that.
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Posted 12/14/2011, 02:34 AM

In Reply: "Our diversity--religious and otherwise--is one of our great strengths..." (Paul Derengowski)

Revised and extended, in reply to the following comments at the post TCC professor's lecture on Islam stirs controversy

Gromet sez:

Can one build a church in a muslim country? NO!!! Upon penalty of death.
But, how many mosques are in D/FW - quite a few.
Now who's the BIGOT???

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PamT sez:

You might want to rethink that comment. Next to Christianity - Islam is the next largest religion. So yes - we are in a Muslim country - they live here just like you and I.

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All this great American religious freedom... ...and some seem to want us to leave those freedoms behind, in the name of "treating them like they treat us," or some fool thing, as though fairness means sinking to their level, rather than demanding that they raise to ours...

We are not a Muslim country, or a Christian country, or any other religious kinda country. Our diversity--religious and otherwise--is one of our great strengths...

(This was supposed to be in reply to PamT's 12/13/11, 10:36pm comment in the "...but there are no churches in Arab lands" thread... Dang Disquis / iPad interface keeps divorcing my reply comments from the threads they belong in...)

But as long as I'm editing in, "the BIGOT," Gromet, is anyone who judges every member of a given group as one (generally based on the behavior of the worst members of the group), rather than judging the individual on his/her own merits. Those who do not allow the building of churches in predominantly Muslim countries do qualify. But the people doing that are the leaders, not every single Muslim, in or out of the country in question. The bigotry of former professor Derengowski doesn't stain every Christian, either... ...and, it wasn't Muslim students misbehaving in his class -- or it was, but they weren't misbehaving because they were Muslims, but because they were rude kids who were offended by some of what Mr. Derengowski was saying about their faith, and reacted poorly.
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Posted 12/14/2011, 12:36 AM