tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29566846.post8284928315392861851..comments2023-11-05T01:45:58.784-07:00Comments on The Hesperado: A flabbergasting asseveration by Lawrence AusterHesperadohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394374828751466705noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29566846.post-81359822659817123302009-10-22T18:55:03.387-07:002009-10-22T18:55:03.387-07:00I was looking over your proposal to deport all Mus...I was looking over your proposal to deport all Muslims and quarantine them in their own lands on a stretch of the globe from Morocco to Indonesia.<br /><br />One question I have about your proposal would be about how one would legally determine who is a Muslim. What about those who pretend to be non-Muslims? How would we contain the risk of prosecuting and deporting authentic non-Muslims on the basis of allegations they are secretly Muslims? Would jury trials decide whether a particular defendant who claims he is not a Muslim is in fact a Muslim to be deported? Presumably some non-Muslims would mistakenly be convicted of being Muslims and would be deported. Would we have problems distinguishing between someone who agrees with some tenets of the Qur'an, and someone who is a Muslim? Would people be compelled, by the threat of deportation, to publicly affirm their profound disagreement with Islam, even if they know nothing about it? Would some sort of McCarthyism become a problem? How would we avoid a policing of thoughts for anything "Islamic" as defined by the government? How, without risk of creating our own totalitarianism, would we have a government definition of "Muslim," and deportation as a punishment for being a Muslim? Would we ban the Qur'an? <br /><br />I am not asking all this rhetorically, as if I think it obvious there is no good answer to all my questions. I am not leveling an indictment at you. These are actually intended as questions.<br /><br />Maybe one could find some legally clear and simple way to deal with these questions. Perhaps laws that accept at face value claims to be a non-Muslim, and only prosecute someone who publicly affirms he is Muslim, or tells others he is secretly a Muslim, or goes to an underground mosque regularly and participates in Islamic worship there. But mere ownership or study of the Qur'an would not be grounds for prosecution, and anyone who claims he is not a Muslim could not be prosecuted for being one, unless a high bar of evidence standards could be met to prove that he is secretly an adherent of the Qur'an and Muhammad in a traditional sense. <br /><br />Hmmmm. Don't know if any of that would remove the danger of building our own totalitarian government monitoring thought. <br /><br />And what about any splinter Islamic sects that might arise and publicly disavow any union of religion and state, and clearly reject sharia law? Would they be in danger of deporation, too? <br /><br />What about Muslims who claim to reject Islam and want to leave the quarantine area -- would we be able to take them in as refugees?Traehhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09997009621742454158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29566846.post-28821317369841106732009-10-21T09:08:11.169-07:002009-10-21T09:08:11.169-07:00My opinion also.My opinion also.Mannninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06337757934347676250noreply@blogger.com