If you don't follow Alabama politics, you probably have never heard of Judge Roy Moore. He was kicked off of the Alabama Supreme Court and out of his seat as Chief Justice for refusing to follow a federal court order to remove a Christian religious monument from the court house. He's considered fairly right wing. However, it seems that most of the Republican candidates for Governor in Alabama are even further to the right than Judge Moore. According to an article in the Mobile Press Register, even Judge Moore thinks so.
This is really to be expected in a Bible belt state like Alabama. But there is one candidate who seems to be taking things a little further. James Potts, from Bibb county, thinks that it's ok to display monuments from other religions on government property, unless it's a monument to the Muslim faith. In fact, Mr. Potts stated, "Either you accept our way of life or you go back to another country that is Muslim". How can someone running for public office take a position that is so contrary to one of the basic principles of our nation? When we deny one group the freedom to practice their religion, another chink is etched into the freedoms we all enjoy.
Rather than having knee jerk reactions to things that are different from our own way of thinking, perhaps we should try instead to understand our fellow man. Maybe in that understanding, we would see that the violent elements found in Islam are actually the fringe and that the people who practice the religion are not that much different than we are.
