They want an islamic caliphate. I read that - Dallas62

The degeneration of the West is as big a - threat here, too. We have

You are so right!!! - sm

Go buy yourself a bhurka. - ...

In Garden City, New Jersey, a militant flag associated with - ISIS is the front porch.

It's sad to think of all the US military who have given - their lives to fly the ISIS flag,

How long would you be able to fly the Nazi flag - during WWII? Millions of

ISIS is an enemy of the state. Many people - think sending death threats

This bozo says he didn't know it was the ISIS flag. - sm

Reminds me of Lord of the Flies - for some reason. nm

Back in the 1960s, a Nazi Party leader named - George Lincoln Rockwell used

Wow. The people in this country who conflate religion with politics - sm

You could not go to an Islamic nation and say - that and live. nm

Americans have already been in an Islamic nation and said that many times. - sm

Yes, Muslims are a "peaceful people" and they treat their women so well - n/m

The majority of them are "peaceful people." - nm

You seem afraid. Education goes a long way to cure that. - sm

Bible b.s. ISN'T "education". - Just a crutch for control-freaks.

People fear what they don't know, and - sm

That's why the bible-thumpers are so fearful of - everything that isnt given the -sm-

sm answers - UPNORTHMT

The first amendment means that the state cannot - set up a religion, like the

Of course, they can practice it. They just can't - sm

EXCELLENT post!!! Thank you. - nm

One question. - sm

You may not want to answer this, and I do understand if you choose not to, because it's a very personal question. That said, I'm curious as to whether or not you are an atheist.

Not wanting religious groups controlling the govmt - has nothing to do with atheism, (s/m)

ONE QUESTION. - UPNORTHMT

I do understand why you ask, and I don't mind answering at all. - sm

No, I am not an atheist.  I am just a very strong believer in what our founding fathers wanted the United States to represent, a nation of liberty and freedom for all.  The majority of the founding fathers were Deists, not Christians, and Thomas Jefferson in his day was called "that atheist and leveler from Virginia."

What were Jefferson's thoughts on established religion?

"But every state, says an inquisitor, has established some religion. No two, say I, have established the same. Is this a proof of the infallibility of establishments? Our sister states of Pennsylvania and New York, however, have long subsisted without any establishment at all. The experiment was new and doubtful when they made it. It has answered beyond conception. They flourish infinitely. Religion is well supported; of various kinds, indeed, but all good enough; all sufficient to preserve peace and order: or if a sect arises, whose tenets would subvert morals, good sense has fair play, and reasons and laughs it out of doors, without suffering the state to be troubled with it. They do not hang more malefactors than we do. They are not more disturbed with religious dissensions. On the contrary, their harmony is unparalleled, and can be ascribed to nothing but their unbounded tolerance, because there is no other circumstance in which they differ from every nation on earth.

-- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781

When the Constitution was subsequently written in 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this philosophy of New York and Pennsylvania is exactly what was adopted for our country.  Nowhere in the Constitution was religion mentioned, except in exclusionary terms.  The nation's Constitution specifies that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."  (Article 6, Section 3).  This provision was radical in its day and gave equal citizenship to believers of all religions and non-believers alike.  This was to ensure that no religion could make the claim of being the official, national religion, such as England had.

From George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island

"The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."

--George Washington, August 18, 1790

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mgw2&fileName=gwpage039.db&recNum=20

Subsequently adopted by the United States:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

-- First Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted December 15, 1791

Excellent response! Thank you. - nm