So this isn't surprising, exactly, but it is absolutely over-the-top, a new low even for Fischer (if you'll pardon the mixed metaphors). To quote from the RWW post (since the actual link to Fischer's original article seems to be broken *cough* as if it's been pulled, like several of his other pieces lately):
We believe in freedom of religion for Muslims like we do for everybody else. But if they insist on clinging to their religion, they will need to exercise their freedom of religion in a Muslim country which shares their values...Immigration is a privilege, not a right, and our policy should be to admit to our shores only those with a commitment to a full assimilation to American culture, adopting our faith, our heroes, and our history. Someone with a Muslim background who wants to become an American had best be prepared to drop his Islam and his Qur’an at Ellis Island.Shorter Bryan Fischer: "Freedom of religion means you have the freedom to follow my religion, or GTFO!"
And yet again I wonder, does he even realize that, ahem, not everyone in America is Christian? He lists "adopting our faith" as a requirement of immigration, but see, "we" don't have a singular faith. America is like three-quarters Christian or so, but that still leaves an awful lot of people practicing faiths other than Christianity. And even within Christianity it's not like they're the most homogenous bunch, with Catholics, Baptists, Mormons, etc all having amazingly divergent views and practices, given they're all functioning from the same basic premise. So what is this "our faith" he's referring to?
It leaves me with the nasty feeling that Fischer quite genuinely doesn't see non-Christian Americans as Americans. I may not be a particular fan of my country, of late, but at present it's the only one I've got, and I'd like it if politicians would stop schmoozing with and lending legitimacy to a demagogue who gives me the impression that, if he thought he could get away with it, he'd be calling not only for deportation and forcible conversion of Muslims, but every other non-Christian group in this country.
Also, there was this neat-o little quote in the article that caught my attention... (emphasis mine)
It’s simple: don’t break the law (that is, come in through the front door instead of breaking in through a window), convert to Christianity, fully assimilate (become an authentic American, not a hyphenated American), and support yourself.So if you qualify your American identity with any other identity reflecting your ethnicity or national origin or any other marker that's important to you, you too are not to be considered a Real American™. There is only one kind of American, according to Fischer: the WASP. And all the rest of us need to GTFO their country.
It makes you wonder what it will take for the AFA to finally come to their senses and drop Fischer. They wonder why the SPLC labeled them a hate group? They should try reading their Director of Issues Analysis' blog sometime.
