Every legal right ....?

Submitted by Ron Thompson (United States), Aug 16, 2010 at 20:20

Perhaps we need to question the legal right of Moslems to build mosques in the United States.

This is not as hard or as radical as it may seem.

Regarding Free Speech, this right is not completely unfettered. The Supreme Court long ago adopted a "clear and present danger" test, as expressed in a famous comment by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes that there is no right to yell 'FIRE' in a crowded theatre.

In 1879 the Court held that "Crime is not the less odious because sanctioned by what any particular sect may designate as religion".
Now unless Islam is protected by sheer numbers alone, that language would seem to cover direct calls for jihad of infidels, murder of individuals (Salmon Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali), attacks on Israel, mutilation of disobedient women, etc.

Without legal arguments and judicial definitions of just what "religion" is in the phrase Freedom of Religion, we do not know for sure whether some or all mosques can be forbidden as hotbeds of hate and intolerance, especially when the doctrines preached lead to a clear and present danger, let alone proven result, of mayhem and murder.

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