1st Amendment protects only Christianity?!

Bryan Fischer:  Muslims Have No First Amendment Rights

By Jillian RayfieldBryan Fischer, the "Director of Issues Analysis" for the social conservative group the American Family Association, says that when it comes to Islam, the First Amendment is a privilege, not a right. "Islam has no fundamental First Amendment claims, for the simple reason that it was not written to protect the religion of Islam," Fischer wrote today.

"The First Amendment was written by the Founders to protect the free exercise of Christianity. They were making no effort to give special protections to Islam. Quite the contrary," Fischer wrote on his Renew America blog.

He continued:
Islam has no fundamental First Amendment claims, for the simple reason that it was not written to protect the religion of Islam. Islam is entitled only to the religious liberty we extend to it out of courtesy. While there certainly ought to be a presumption of religious liberty for non-Christian religious traditions in America, the Founders were not writing a suicide pact when they wrote the First Amendment.Fischer took it a step further, calling Islam a "treasonous ideology" and adding that "from a constitutional point of view, Muslims have no First Amendment right to build mosques in America. They have that privilege at the moment, but it is a privilege that can be revoked."Comment:  A "suicide pact"? That would be relevant only if most of the world's Muslims were terrorists. Since that's obviously false--to everyone except bigots like Fischer--his assertion is ridiculous.

The Founding Fathers were well aware of the existence of Judaism, Islam, and other non-Christian religions. They explicitly wrote "religion" rather than "Christianity" in the First Amendment. Yet Fischer thinks they crafted it to protect only Christianity? How goddamned stupid can you get?!

Needless to say, the government could ban Native religions as well as Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other major religions under Fischer's asinine constitutional interpretation. Which he'd undoubtedly approve of. As we've seen in Fischer:  Indians Were Thieves, Fischer:  Indians Should Emulate Pocahontas, and Fischer:  Natives Had No Morals, this guy scorns Indians with a passion.

Bigot of the Year?

Fischer must be the biggest bigot among mainstream public figures today. If he isn't, I don't know who is.

It's scary that someone so ignorant and prejudiced has the ear of millions of conservative Christians. As the posting goes on to note:[H]is show is a frequent stomping ground for conservative politicians, including potential 2012 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, and actual 2012 candidate Tim Pawlenty.Why aren't these candidates distancing themselves from Fischer the way they do from David Duke, Bob Jones University, and other purveyors of prejudice? Are they bigots too? I'd love to hear their excuses for palling around with Fischer the Islamophobic and homophobic hatemonger.

For more on Fischer's bigotry, see Obama Will Give US to Indians?! and Islamophobia Just Like Stephen's.