Pizza and Paranoia: Cain's Politics of Hate

If words are a good judge of someone’s character, I would be wary of Herman Cain. The 2012 GOP presidential candidate whose primary qualification is running a pizzeria chain is not hesitant to make his views about other religions known, no matter how radical and offensive they may be.

Recently, he targeted the Muslim community yet again by claiming that Americans could ban mosques from their neighborhoods, a statement so extreme that it naturally makes one wonder if he has ever taken a look at the seemingly obscure 1700s classic, The Bill of Rights by James Madison, et. al. Presumably he hasn’t, as the Constitution is longer than three pages (the original, sans amendments, is four), and my understanding is that the amendments are all kind of at the end.
The problem with Cain supporting a mosque ban, under the guise of claiming that it’s because America is a nation where you have a separation of church and state, and Islam, with its Sharia law, combines church and state in a way that’s not compatible with America, is that it doesn’t add up. The trouble with Cain’s logic is that allowing a majority to determine someone’s right to religion is bringing together church and state.
One does not even need to read the entire first sentence of the Bill of Rights to know that freedom of religion is a fundamental right, and no loud majority can silence a minority seeking to exercise their right to worship. Employing analogous logic, Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), explaining a vote she had made against a vote on gun ownership, once stated, “I opposed the House plan to abandon passing right to carry and instead put our Second Amendment freedom out for a public referendum.  Second Amendment rights should not be subjected to a popular vote!” (emphasis hers) By that logic, could we not say the same about the First Amendment? It is also part of the Constitution, after all, and you can’t pick and choose which rights you’re willing to protect. Freedom of religion does happen to be as much a right, if not more of one, than the right to bear arms.
So what exactly is Herman Cain trying to say with his statements? In simple words, his own, Cain felt this way about the mosque: “This is just another way to try to gradually sneak Sharia law into our laws, and I absolutely object to that.”
He also says Islam differs from “any one of our traditional religions where it’s just about religious purposes”, which, of course, is likely not the sagest comment you’ve heard. All religions are a way of life, as Republicans themselves emphasize when they state that America was founded on “Judeo-Christian principles”.
As a benchmark, our current president made it clear in his 2011 State of the Union Address that “American Muslims are part of our American family.” If that’s not enough, President Reagan, whom few Republicans now dare speak against, once said, “As Americans of different religions find new meaningfulness in their beliefs, we do so together, returning together to the bedrock values of family, hard work, and faith in the same loving and almighty God. And as we welcome this rebirth of faith, we must even more fervently attack ugly intolerance. We have no place for haters in America.” Yes, even in the eighties, it seems the haters were hating.
Herman Cain, who has also stated an unwillingness to have a Muslim in his Cabinet, then falsely denied it, might do well to remember the civil rights injustices that African Americans, too, have undergone over the years. He would do well to read Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play A Raisin in the Sun, where a courageous family asserts their right to live in a white neighborhood. Today, Cain seems to want to keep Muslims out of our communities with the same fervor, and for that, he should either be ashamed at the extent to which he is spreading baseless hate or embarrassed at the degree to which he is misinformed.
Let’s stick to what Reagan said and stay away from the “haters” who are poisoning the debate. Herman Cain is one of them.
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herman_Cain_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg