Why I Support Stephen Schwartz

The cornerstone of America is intellectual freedom and respect for our traditions and culture. Stephen Schwartz as a man of literature and letters understands and embodies those traditions.

The future is largely unknown and assuming linearity of trends has proven not reliable. There were those that predicted the Soviets would win the Cold War. There were those who claimed we would be in an ice age and contrived theories about global warming. Who can forget the population madness.

Schwartz is a member of the Center for Islamic Pluralism. He understands and celebrates American values and tradition. Schwartz would likely agree that there are many problems in the Islamic community. However, many of our perceptions are tied to the disastrous alliance of so called Islamic activists and the mindless far left. One does not have to look to hard to find decent Muslims who want to earn a living and respect property rights.

In general the aim of far left types is power for its own sake. They are more fundamentalist and intolerant in their views than the folks at the 700 Club and exponentially more bigoted. The aim of the far left is divide and conquer.

Most of us have legitimate concerns about Islam. However, the reality is Shariah law
is not going to usurp family and business law. Our Constitutional values are in danger from Marxist activists who seek to impose their values upon us. The questions
of what to do with families that violate certain laws are difficult to answer. Part of our culture celebrates the family and polygamy is not compatible with our culture.
Legally, second wives are not married under the law. The State should not pay a nickel to support such families. However, the children of such families are United States Citizens. Jailing people for polygamy creates more wards of the state. This is a problem that is more common than people presume and the parties are not all Mormons.

I certainly do not want to be like France. However, the Burkha does create some problems. At work this was resolved by having a female verify the identity of the woman who arrived for the interview. I offered to have a female do the interview and
this was deemed not necessary. This is a reasonable accommodation as is offering Halal meals or letting people bring their own food. What is not reasonable is allowing governmental ID to be compromised. Sorry, but if you want a driver's license or passport you need to follow the rules. Law Enforcement officers should be considered similar to doctors and showing photo ID is part of the norms in almost all societies.

If Muslims do not want to adopt children this is okay. They are not forbidding the rest of us from doing so. As far as divorce law our current system is dreadful and only lawyers like it. That being said our greedy lawyers will fight tooth and nail to ensure they profit from your misery. 90% of the misery is caused by fighting over money. Both parties should be able to initiate a divorce. The system will improve when it stops rewarding people for making up allegations and goes straight to division of property without blame.

Schwartz has questioned this disastrous alliance of Muslims to the far left. The far left feeds Muslims a diet of populist antisemitism, hate your country and cry victim.
Of course the rest of us see this and correctly react negatively to this. The question is why do Muslims riot in France and not Dearborn. The folks in Dearborn are
expected to work. There is not an army of paternalistic socialists tossing out subsistence welfare checks and being the pied pipers of societal destruction. It is no accident that employed people do not tend to riot.

Finally, there is terrorism and this is a legitimate issue. Making excuses like saying Timothy McVeigh yada yada yada is condescending. A look at who started mindless terrorism as a branding strategy shows this starts as a far left phenomenon.
Osama and his crew are merely aping publicity whores from red brigades all over the world. Would anyone have heard of Bill Ayers had he stayed in daddies country club?
Ultimately, none of these publicity stunts ever produced a benefit and caused server
retributions.

What makes Schwartz unique is that he does not dismiss many of our legitimate fears.
He does not mince words saying that terrorism is evil and ultimately hurts Islam. What makes him unique is that he grasps Americanism at its core of individual rights
and liberties and tries to bring his community withing this concept. He also appreciates literature, art and music.

There was a point in time when all Jews were on the left. This is becoming less and less true with every passing year. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many young Republicans who were Jewish in NYC. Of course having encountered hyperbolic Marxist
antisemitic bigotry in Universities only increased this trend. Even my nephew has moved somewhat to the right.

We do not know what the future holds. However, my guess is sooner or later Muslims will grasp that the alliance with the far left has not benefited them. Looking for a place in America and celebrating your culture has always provided better results than forming alliances with the enemies of society.