Freedom of Speech and Religion, Sure---But Only for People Who Want To Kill Us

Michael Ledeen hits on the problem with America's lack of seriousness about the War on Terror:

It’s interesting that British jihadis came to Queens to recruit Americans — and no doubt some of them, fully trained in slaughter, have returned to these shores — but the important thing is the mosque. Because there’s always a mosque, as my Italian friend Magdi Allam has been repeating for several years. Not all mosques are jihadi, but all jihadis come from a mosque.

Look at the 9/11 terrorists, look at the killer of Daniel Pearl, and you will find well-off, educated men who became radicalized in a mosque. And I’ll bet you a good-sized farm that if we ever get to the bottom of 9/11 we’ll discover that mosques were central in maintaining contact with and discipline over the terrorists.

So mosques can be very dangerous places when the local imam preaches jihadism, as is done in the thousands of Saudi-sponsored Wahhabi mosques all over the world, including the United States. It is clearly a matter of some urgency to put an end to the sort of indoctrination and recruitment that took place at the Masjid Fatima Islamic Center in New York. But that is easier said than done, because the absolutist interpretation of the First Amendment protects the imams and the incendiary sermons preached at such mosques. Freedom of religion forbids the state from meddling in the religious activities of the mosques, and freedom of speech forbids the state from telling the imams “you can’t say that.”

As somebody with some common sense once said, "The Constitution is not a suicide pact."

In wartime, rights are temporarily curtailed. It is a simple fact. Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, since Confederates could have used Constitutional logic to use it to spring their prisoners. FDR curtailed all sorts of liberties during WWII. The right to free speech or assembly does you little good if you lose a war and with it your nation. The French would attest to this, if the Germans would let them.