Su Casa Mi Casa

“I won’t support the building of any mosque anywhere in the United States unless and until the governments of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Yemen allow me to build a church and a synagogue in their countries.”

This is one of the rallying cries of Americans who oppose the building of mosques in the U.S. I, for one, find it compelling. The logic is unassailable, and free from bias. If Saudi Arabia won’t allow me to build a synagogue in their country why should I allow them to build a mosque in mine? We are not saying there will not come a time when mosques will be welcome here. We are only saying that that time will come only when Muslim despots and dictators turn their countries into full-fledged democracies.

This logic is so compelling that I believe we should apply it to other areas of life as well. Here are just some of them:

I won’t support true democracy anywhere in the United States unless and until the governments of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Yemen do so as well.

I won’t support the drinking of alcohol anywhere in the United States unless and until the governments of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Yemen do so as well.

I won’t support the full equality of women anywhere in the United States unless and until the governments of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Yemen do so as well.

I won’t support the State of Israel anywhere in the United States unless and until the governments of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Yemen do so as well.

I won’t support the freedom of worship anywhere in the United States unless and until the governments of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Yemen do so as well.

In fact, I won’t support the Constitution of the United States or the Bill of Rights unless and until the governments of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Yemen do so as well.

My list could go on, but you get my point: Why should the United States be more moral, egalitarian, free, or democratic than Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Yemen? Why should we support democracy, liberty, human rights, civil rights, religious freedom, etc. when these and so many other nations around the globe do not? Why should we set the bar of human rights so high when other countries set them so low? I, for one, am sick of it. If theocracy and totalitarianism are good enough for Iranians, they are good enough for Americans as well.

I want to applaud our brave leaders in the anti-Islam movement for bringing this kind of thinking to my attention, and I want to urge all Americans to adopt it. The best way to affirm and support American values is to bring them in line with Saudi, Iranian, and Yemeni values. You just can’t argue with logic like this.