13th July 2010, 2:59 PM
Weltall Wrote:America has an amendment protecting the practice of religion, yet the government has, on several occasions, targeted religious groups when their practices fall far outside the concept of generally-accepted behavior, such as the splinter Mormons in Texas and Arizona (or the original LDS church, for that matter) and the Branch Davidians while granting legal recognition to obvious moneymaking scams such as Scientology and ignoring dangerous groups such as the Westboro Baptists, because both of them are very skilled at playing the legal system.
The thing about that is it wasn't targeting religion, it was targeting people breaking the law. If someone's religion requires them to kill people, you need not worry about trampling on "religious rights" at all, because religion has nothing to do with arresting someone for murder. Their motives are irrelevant, and NOT arresting them for murder would be getting religion involved in the government, not the other way around.
This is a bit different. Again I do see the burqa as a symbol of oppression, but in the end outlawing a hat doesn't help anyone. You don't bring down mormons doing illegal things by outlawing mormons, you do so by arresting people who break the law and ignore their motives.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)