Sunday, March 27, 2011

Herman Cain Hates Muslims

With Republican hopefuls getting more and more media attention for their race to the top, right-wing candidates favored by the tea party are also getting a bit of undeserved attention.  Herman Cain spoke at an event in Iowa organized by GOP Rep. Steve King, in which he spoke about getting off the Democratic "plantation" and his willingness to exclude a religious group from government - he stated that he would not put any Muslims in his Cabinet should he be elected.

“I will not. And here’s why. There is this creeping attempt, this attempt, to gradually ease Sharia law and the Muslim faith into our government,” Cain said. “It does not belong in our government. This is what happened to Europe. And little by little, to try to be politically correct, they made this little change. They made this little change. And now they’ve got a social problem that they don’t know what to do with hardly.”

I think Cain has a lack of understanding about the social dynamics of Europe - the problems that arose in Europe, like the riots six years ago, were less about Muslim intolerance and more about European exclusion - a policy Cain wishes to extend.

Cain also referenced popular conservative anti-Islam talking points, such as isolated incidents like a 2009 case of domestic abuse where a judge refused to grant a woman a restraining order on the basis of religion - that ruling was eventually overturned - or a federal judge from blocking an Oklahoma law that would have barred courts from using shariah law or international law in deciding cases.

It seems like Cain's problems are with the government - not Islam.  The government was designed by the founding fathers to prevent the singling out of one particular faith in favor of another.  Cain doesn't want that.

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