Burka Busters!

A new internet post which has been very popular and become a rather powerful meme in short order states that Illinois law has been changed to accommodate the demands of extreme Muslim fundamentalists. From now on, according to the meme, Muslims are we allowed to wear full burkas with only the eyes showing on their photo IDs, including drivers' licenses.

As you can expect, a great deal of outrage has been generated by this. In fairness to those individuals who posted it, it should be noted that this post is widely sourced from a variety of conservative "news" sites.

A couple minutes of Google checking uncovered the facts. I responded to the post:

  This would be truly awful if it were true.  Thankfully, it isn't.

1.  The complaint was filed by Sikhs, not by Muslims.

2.  Long-standing Illinois law, not Sharia law, was the basis of the complaint.

3.  One of the foundations of the Sikh religion is tolerance. 

Radical fundamentalist extremism had nothing to do with this issue.

4.  The face must be exposed on any photo ID under Illinois law. A Muslim woman is permitted to wear a head covering for her photograph, but not a face covering.

Please check things out before posting. Don't be gullible. The more awful, terrible and shocking something sounds, the less likely it is to be true.  And I can't help but wonder before I end this brief post, who's the fundamentalist extremist bigot?

A Startling Contrast

"Convert or die!", Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of ISIS.

"Convert or die!", Phil Robertson, leader of the Duck Dynasty.

It certainly is obvious which one of these is a follower of Christ, the Prince of Hate. I mean Peace, the Prince of Peace.

As many Americans know, Oklahoma banned Sharia law from being considered by state courts. Why was this important? It wasn’t, not as a real issue. There is no likelihood of Sharia being a part of the state court system. The action was taken by demagogues in the state legislature who wanted to distract tier constituency from their failures and to benefit form the fears and confusion of the electorate.
Doing good work and passing good laws is hard. Playing on fears and baseless panics is easy. I’m surprised the legislators didn’t also attempt to ban Kilingon law. It’s so much harsher that Sharia and as likely to ever be a part of the state court system.
The founding fathers attempted to create a balance between the outrages of Athenian democracy [see Alcibiades and the Syracuse expedition] and the suppression of the people under the Roman Republic. That’s why junior high school civics students learn that the US is a democratic republic. Its supposed to be a careful construction of the benefits of both systems without the inherent failures of each. Actually, it works pretty well, considering that its a wholly human effort. We do surprising well when compared to the rest of history.
Right now everyone is confused and frightened. Therefore we tend strongly to seek someone to blame. Someone who is not us. That’s important. Obviously we can’t be responsible for our own troubles. It must be a plot.
American voters hate politics and largely ignore it. Then they are surprised when politicians use their power to do bad things. It shouldn’t be a surprise, but somehow, it always is.