Crazy Christians Think Discrimination Is A Right

Some North Carolina Republicans Want to Protect Anti-Gay Christians—And Outlaw Islam:

for all that North Carolina Republicans ranted and raved about the urgent necessity of broad protections for religious liberty, 40 percent of Republicans in the state think the practice of Islam should be outlawed.

It should come as no surprise to close observers of the “religious liberty” debate that most conservatives were only ever supporting religious liberty for anti-gay Christians. Portions of the GOP remain startlingly Islamophobic; one in three Iowa Republicans, for instance, also believes Islam should be criminalized.

American Muslims seem to understand that the GOP only considers them useful as political football. Over the last 15 years, Muslims have scampered swiftly away from the Republican party: In 2000, 78 percent of Muslims supported Republicans; by 2011, 70 percent identified as Democrats, and only 11 percent leaned Republican. Muslims are leaving the GOP en masse, and the party’s base seems as intolerant of Islam as it is of gay rights. For many of them, “religious liberty” means little more than the freedom to kick a gay couple out of your store.

It is nice to see bigoted behaviour backfiring.