It’s very easy to say that it’s wrong to ban a religion. But what is a religion? Can anything call itself a religion? Many Islamists, and many Muslim imams (see Memri or any number of ROP posts on this site) state plainly that their view of Islam is that it demands that Muslims kill non-Muslims. This isn’t a matter of private personal belief, because it calls on Muslims to kill people who are not of their belief. It plainly crosses a line into something that is no longer a matter of private personal belief. If the distinction then is, okay, permit Islam but not the calls for murder, then it is essential for societies to act on this, and criminalize calls by Imams for Muslims to murder in the name of Islam. At this time U.S. law permits such calls in the name of free speech. It is currently very difficult to prove a causal connection between a given such speech and a given act of violence, which is necessary evidence for a charge of incitement to murder.

Current laws to punish murderers are clearly insufficient, if only because, after a suicide bombing, there is nothing left of the offender to punish.

So, if the argument is, anything calling itself a religion must be protected, then I would like to hear what is proposed in answer to the question, “How are we to protect ourselves from Imams who call on Muslims to commit murder in the name of Islam?”