With mere days before the primary election and with early voting underway, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey is making controversial remarks about Islam.
One could argue that he doesn’t have a large Muslim constituency to offend, but that should not excuse a current public official from making degrading comments of questionable validity.
Ramsey was quoted by Talking Points Memo as having said, “Now, you could even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, way of life, cult whatever you want to call it.” He continued with, “I’m all about freedom of religion. I value the First Amendment as much as I value the Second Amendment as much as I value the Tenth Amendment and on and on and on. But you cross the line when they try to start bringing Sharia Law here to the state of Tennessee — to the United States. We live under our Constitution and they live under our Constitution.”
Ron Ramsey has a problem with other cultures bringing their religious tradition into our established legal system (and I agree that Sharia Law is outrageous), yet he seems to have no problem advocating the amendment of our state constitution to include banning abortion (based on his faith), banning gay couples from adopting (based on his faith), and teaching “intelligent design” in publicly funded classrooms (based on his faith). Ramsey opposes Islamic legal tradition being included in Tennessee law ONLY because it doesn’t originate from his religion. He has no qualms about legislating Christian ideals into the lives of every Tennessean regardless of their beliefs.
It would also be wise for Ramsey to not be so quick to write Islam off as a cult. Webster’s defines cult as “a system of religious beliefs and ritual” and ” great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work.” He would be wise to remember that his own rigid adherence to his belief system could just as easily be called a cult by others.
If you dislike that your elected lieutenant governor is making inflammatory statements about the religious beliefs of others without critical review of his own beliefs, please contact his office.