Islam and Freedom of Religion

This post is in response to the growing hysteria over Islam in our country. I will not win any friends here on any side of the political spectrum. Some good and well-intentioned people believe that we should live and let live as far as Islam is concerned. All faith systems are equally good, they say. I believe Islam is misguided in its understanding of God. I believe that God is fully revealed in the person, the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus. Theirs is a faith of works-righteousness; earning your way into the favor of God. Mine is a faith of grace; recognizing that our only hope is the intervention of a loving God. Some people of Islamic faith, driven by acute and extreme hatred, have used the tenants of their faith to excuse an uncommon level of violence and terrorism. I recognize this and take it seriously as a real and immediate threat. (Uncommon violence and terror has been perpetrated throughout history under the cloak of Christianity as well, but that's a subject for a different post.) So, I am not going to be among those who take a more laissez-faire, liberal attitude toward Islam.

Nor am I jumping on the Muslim-bashing bandwagon. For many good, well-intentioned people, Islam is the new communism, as far as having somewhere to land our collective fear and hate. All people of Islamic faith are being demonized as the enemy. Language used, caricatures presented, negative imagery fostered all have the distinctly familiar scent of things like anti-Semitic propaganda in Europe in the 1930's or the witch-hunting days of McCarthyism in this country in the 1950's. As a follower of Jesus I have abdicated any right to a blanket labelling and dismiss whole groups of people. I am under command to love my enemies and to pray for those who persecute. So I won't win friends among those in a frenzy to gather pitchforks and torches and to go after the "monster" which is Islam.

Having said all that, I want to leave religion and politics for a bit. I want to ask a question from a civics standpoint. One of the values of our nation is freedom of religion. I have embraced this since my childhood as a citizen of the United States. How does this apply to concerns around Islam? This is not rhetorical; I'm not setting up to make a point of some kind. I really want to know how this applies in this setting today.

Sometimes I have more questions than I have answers. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.