What John Andrews got wrong about Islam and religion

hey will tell you that a good and faithful Muslim can also be a good and faithful American. Sorry, but I don’t see how,” said senior Colorado statesman John Andrews at the Western Conservative Summit last weekend. He suggested, “The simplistic approach of just granting unconditional quote/unquote ‘freedom of religion’ to a religion that doesn’t believe in freedom — and have no doubt, Islam does not — that approach is civilizational suicide.”

While Andrews’ speech about Marxism and Islam was more thoughtful than critics give it credit, some of its assertions should be met with skepticism. The practice of Islam is fully compatible with religious freedom. Only when religion — be it Christianity, Islam, atheism or any faith — is backed by government power, does freedom of religion suffer. Government neutrality toward religion, by contrast, fosters religious diversity and the free exercise of faith. This American model took centuries to gain full embrace. Restricting the rights of American Muslims would be a tragic setback.

While many face discrimination and persecution in Muslimmajority countries, non-Muslim countries also violate the rights of people in religious minorities.

In India, discrimination and violence against Muslims and Christians are increasing under the Hindu nationalist government. The Buddhist government in Myanmar killed thousands of Rohingya Muslims in 2017 and drove half a million people from their homes and farms. This year, Buddhist Sinhalese mobs attacked mosques and Muslims’ homes after Islamist terrorists murdered 250 Christians in Sri Lanka. Secular Austria just became the eighth European country to restrict the wearing of headscarves. In Europe, Jews are increasingly the targets of harassment while Muslims and Christians face discrimination in Israel. Brexit may resurrect violent animosities between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, and it is illegal to be a Jehovah’s Witness in Russia.

“The problem is not religion per se,” wrote Steven Waldman in his recently published must-read book “Sacred Liberty: America’s Long, Bloody, and Ongoing Struggle for Religious Freedom.” “Atheism’s historical track record has been no better. Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler, and Pol Pot all attempted to destroy or suppress religion and in 50 years they killed more people than had died in all the religious wars of the previous millennia.” In recent years, the officially atheist Chinese government has imprisoned a million Muslims in “re-education” camps, destroyed mosques, jailed Christians and shut down churches.

Christian governments also hold a poor historical record on religious liberty: the bloody religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries; the execution of “heretics”; the expulsion, forced conversion and persecution of Jews and Muslims.

Contrary to common belief, America wasn’t always a bastion of religious freedom. In 17th-century Massachusetts being a Quaker was a capital offense. Colonial Virginia jailed Baptists. Catholics and Jews were barred from holding office in most of the colonies and African-American slaves were forbidden to practice their native religions.

James Madison wrote the First Amendment to ensure government neutrality toward religion and to promote the flourishing of diverse faiths. The country’s cultural commitment to religious liberty took much longer. Slave owners harassed slaves during Sunday worship and some Southern states banned or restricted black churches. Christians attacked Mormons and drove them from towns. The U.S. government banned certain Native American practices and coerced Indian children into government schools where they were pressured to convert.

Samuel Morse (inventor of the telegraph) said of Catholicism what critics of Islam say today, that it was “a foreign heresy” and “a system of the darkest political intrigue and despotism, cloaking itself to avoid attack under the sacred name of religion.” Because the pope at the time opposed democracy, anti-Catholic agitators suggested American Catholics would certainly reject American political institutions and norms. American Catholics proved him wrong.

In the same way, 3.4 million American Muslims demonstrate day in and day out their allegiance to this country and its values. Most Americans believe in freedom of religion. The idea is an integral part of our national identity. But like any cultural norm, it can be eroded through fear and misunderstanding. Even the suggestion that American Muslims’ right to practice their faith should be abrogated chips away at a bulwark that protects us all.