Anti-American fringe radicals in Colorado
Extremism and hatred are taking root in American politics and we must all condemn them for the threat they pose to our great country. Coloradans — friends and neighbors who love one another and the U.S. — must use two horrifying events over the weekend as a starting point for unity against the fringe elements among us.
It was wrong — and likely illegal — for protesters of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies to go onto private property at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Aurora, take down an American flag, try to burn it, and raise a Mexican flag.
And John Andrews, a former Colorado legislator and longtime conservative voice, was wrong; it is possible to be a patriotic American and a devout Muslim. To say otherwise, as he did at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver Friday, is to espouse a dangerous breed of religious intolerance.
Both acts were un-American and despicable.
Want to protest America’s treatment of those who are in this country illegally? By all means, go ahead. We’ll even defend your right to take the protest to the extreme and burn an American flag or kneel for the national anthem. But please, keep in mind that for all of America’s faults, one of her strengths is her peace. Vandals, some wearing face covers, took what was a reasonable protest to the extreme. This wasn’t about helping a cause or making a statement; this was a small-scale form of terrorism. Some will say it was only a small group of the hundreds who were there to protest, but a crowd can be heard cheering in the background as the Mexican flag was raised. We cannot imagine cheering such an act.
Andrews’ speech drew applause from attendees at the Western Conservative Summit where we gasped in horror. This was not an old man misspeaking at the podium. He prefaced his remarks: “Now I want to talk for a minute about what freedom of religion does not mean. I’m going to speak
with tough love from the heart with no animosity or disrespect for any individual. Please hear me carefully.”
We listened carefully and found no room for question — he used language of hate to demonize a group of people based on their religion. It is intolerance and a form of small-scale terrorism.
“Here’s the hard question for all of us freedom-loving Americans. Put it in terms of that bumper sticker, the one that says “coexist:” How can aggressive and dominate Islam and its supreme law, sharia, coexist with friendly tolerant America and its supreme law the Constitution. I don’t honestly see how it can. I wish I was wrong. I don’t claim to know the way forward in this tremendous clash of civilizations. I just know this: The simplistic approach of simply granting unconditional, quote-unquote, “freedom of religion” to a religion that doesn’t believe in freedom — and never doubt me, Islam does not — that approach is civilization suicide … The answer isn’t a witch hunt or persecution or some kind of ban, but the answer certainly isn’t to just keep doing what we’re doing. That’s a formula for defeat. There has to be a better way.”
Yes, that was a prominent Colorado conservative calling for religious freedom to no longer be extended to Muslims. With a wink and a nod, he says, I’m not talking about the decent Muslims and, oh, we shouldn’t persecute them … but then he explicitly says they cannot be good Americans.
“Some of you may disagree with me; that’s your prerogative in a free society … They may tell you that a good and faithful Muslim can also be a good and faithful American. I’m sorry, I just don’t see how. ”
Whether we were born in Mexico or in America, believe that Jesus Christ was the prophet of God or that it was Muhammad, we all want the same thing on this great Earth: peace, happiness, prosperity and freedom.
To insinuate otherwise through actions or words is to disparage this wonderful country and all it stands for.