Trump's discriminatory proposal could threaten religious freedom

If a particular religion sparks ANY concern, can it be under constant surveillance or eventually banned?

In a proposal nearly on par with the U.S. Japanese internment camps, Republican candidate frontrunner Donald Trump proposed a ban on Muslim immigration into the United States and nation-wide mosque monitoring. Though banning Muslims from entering America is not as harsh as forcibly relocating American Muslims into internment camps, it is just as discriminatory.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Trump's history with stirring up controversy continues as his proposal forces many to question the religious freedoms of other faiths.

Some critics cited the First Amendment while others remind people why America was founded in the first place.

Matthey Kacsmaryk, the deputy general counsel at the Liberty Institute, told the Catholic News Agency: "Our nation was founded by religious dissenters who fled statist persecution in Europe and ratified a First Amendment that guarantees the free exercise and free speech rights of all persons of faith - including Muslims.

"An indiscriminate ban on all Muslims violates the very 'first freedom' principles that inspired dissident Puritans, Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics to seek refuge in the new world.

"Having once felt the sting of religious persecution in the United States, American Catholics understand that the majority can do great violence to the constitutional rights of an insular religious minority. Consequently, faithful Catholics should stand athwart any government policy that discriminately targets Muslims because they are Muslim."

Many think along the same lines as Kacsmaryk and believe the proposal is ludicrous.

During a Fox Business Debate, fellow Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush asked Trump if widespread backlash gave him cause to reconsider the proposal, to which Trump responded with a simple, "no."

Bush then asked Trump, "We don't have to have refugees come to the country, but all Muslims? Seriously! What kind of signal does that send the rest of the world that the United States is a serious player in creating peace?"

The debate moderator, Neil Cavuto, noted Trump's poll numbers in South Carolina skyrocketed following the proposal's announcement and asked Bush, "Are you saying that all those people who agree with Mr. Trump are unhinged?"

Though Bush responded, "No, not at all...," it is entirely possible to see how anyone who supports Trump's idea is fueled either by fear or by any combination of religious, racist or hateful discrimination. So what does this mean for the Catholic Church? What does a ban on Muslim immigration and mosque monitoring have to do with the Church?

CNN commentator Jeffrey Lord is an excellent example of what banning Muslim from entering the United States and mosque surveillance could lead to. He does not see any part of Trump's proposal as being related to the First Amendment - and if he doesn't, then it is a safe assumption that several others don't either.

"This is not about religious freedom," Lord said. "The FBI has investigated the Catholic Church during the pedophile scandal, as well as Protestant evangelicals for money laundering, and Jewish groups for illegal activity. The U.S. government can investigate religious activists if they are breaking the law or there is a threat. 

"In the 1950s, the FBI investigated the Italian mob and monitored Italian Americans. You go where the problem is. You don't say the mob is Italian so let's investigate the Amish. You also don't ignore a problem for fear of being called anti-immigrant."

Though Lord's argument seems sound to some, it is important to note that not all Muslims are extremists; the fact that the words "Islamic extremists" and "ISIS" are interchangeable is evidence enough of that.

Joseph Capizzi, a theology professor at the Catholic University of America, believes, "Once the government determines to screen people by religious affiliation - and not just by any religious affiliation, but one with over 1000 years of belief and practice and a billion or so followers, by what principle could it distinguish that faith from any other?

"The only thing preventing that policy from identifying Catholics as subjects to it is occasional: should the occasion arise because of some confrontation of Catholic doctrine with popular opinion, the policy could turn to Catholics as well."

Capizzi stated that monitoring or closing mosques "is misguided and a violation of religious freedom," adding: "If a mosque is fostering terrorism, one can make an argument for closing it down. But as a general policy, it is bad to single out houses of worship of any religion. We cannot monitor or close down Catholic churches simply because a Catholic commits an act of violence. 

"There would have to be a viable threat and a direct connection to a particular religious leader or house of worship in order to act against it. Otherwise, this would violate the free exercise of religion, with our Constitution protects."

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