Recently, Nidal Hasan, the man who killed 13 people at Fort Hood, wrote a few letters that
Fox News published. They are interesting reading, because Hasan explains that he was acting because he felt that the teachings of his religion compelled him to kill in the name of Islam.
I have been thinking about whether or not western nations will continue to allow Muslims who have no regard for the values of those countries into their own countries. It's not that Muslims have to quit being Muslims, it's that they have to accept two bedrock principles of free countries.
1. Your religious rules are for you, not for your neighbor. It may be against a Muslim's faith to draw a picture of Mohammed, but it is not for his non-Muslim neighbor. It may be against a Muslim's faith to drink alcohol. It is not for his neighbor. I am a Roman Catholic, but I would never force my neighbor to abstain from meat on Fridays during lent. Which is not to say, of course, that if I owned a restaurant, I would be fully within my rights to only serve fish on Fridays during lent. But the citizen who wants to eat beef has a thousand choices of places to eat meat, and I don't begrudge him that choice at all.
2. There is no coersion in religion. You cannot force your neighbor, your family, or your fellow citizens to be a Muslim. Again, I have nothing against evangelizing, arguing, pleading, and so forth. In fact, these are actions protected by the Constitution. But you cannot force someone to be your religion through physical violence.
It seems to me that if people could abide by these two basic ideas, Muslims would find that their fellow citizens would be happy to live and let live. If someone living in the U.S. cannot abide by these ideas, they should leave the country.
