walks like a duck but it's not a duck... then what is it

Submitted by the Grand Infidel of Kafiristan (Australia), Jan 10, 2010 at 20:25

Rotwang writes:

"The German constitution says in Article 4: (1) Freedom of faith and of conscience, and freedom to profess a religious or philosophical creed, shall be inviolable. (2) The undisturbed practice of religion shall be guaranteed."

High bar, even though it might nurture those that would kill it.

Exactly.

And obviously Article 4, 1 is by no means absolute - as it specifically excludes National Socialism as a philosophical creed doesn't it? So it has limits in what it allows. If it is deemed injurious to the State - it can be banned .

Question : Could you be killed or jailed if you decided to leave the Nazi Party ?"

I don't follow the equation: ideology == religion.

Well, sharia is the set of laws governing society based on Islamic precepts - so Islam then goes beyond the bounds of what religion normally would be defined as. The point I was making was that even such good totalitarians as the Nazis were not as severe to their members if they decided to leave the Nazi Party as Muslims can be if a muslim apostasizes from the religion of peace..

However, off the top of my head I don't know any country with an islamic majority that really has separation of powers, protection of freedom of speech for anyone, separation of state and religion etc. Still, I think it's a bit more complicated than "Walks like a duck..."."

The bottom line has to be an objective view of the efficacy of the system based on a whole lot of criteria - economic & human rights mostly. The results as demonstrated by most Muslim societies show that system to be sadly lacking.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".