Do Muslims have the right to worship? Yes! Do they have the right to advocate through democratic processes to change our Constitution? Yes! Do they have the right to use our system to advocate for a “local option” in majority Muslim communities for ignoring the Constitution in favor of sharia? No! Do they have the right to use our freedoms to advocate or work for the non-democratic overthrow of our Constitution? Never!

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain caused quite a stir a little over a week ago when he asserted on Fox News Sunday that “local communities” had the right to veto mosques being built in their towns.

Frankly, it should have caused a bigger controversy than it has. It should always be a “big deal” when someone running for the highest elected office in the country is confused about the U.S. Constitution and especially the Bill of Rights.

The rights enumerated in the Constitution are there first and foremost to protect minorities from having their rights disregarded by the majority and it does not matter whether that majority is local, state, or national. Our constitutionally protected and recognized rights are too sacred and valuable to be left to the demographic anomalies of particular cities or states. After all, all Americans are a minority somewhere and they should not have their constitutionally guaranteed rights imperiled wherever they are in this great country.

All Americans would do well to remember that whatever rights we allow the government to curtail for one group today, they can curtail them for another group tomorrow.

When I was a young boy it seemed that the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Mormons knocked on the door of our home during our evening meal at least once a week. When I asked my mother why we couldn’t have laws that kept such people from harassing us during dinner she replied, “Richard, whatever we allow the government to do to the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Mormons today they can do to the rights of the Baptists tomorrow.” If we want to maintain the freedom to knock on doors and share our faith with others, we must protect everyone else’s right to do so as well.”

The glorious First Amendment to our Constitution says “Congress shall make no law respecting an Establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Ever since the Civil War and the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 it has been the firm and uniform opinion of the Supreme Court and the entire federal judiciary that all the things the federal government is forbidden from doing in the Bill of Rights, all local and state entities are proscribed from doing as well.
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