A Constitutional Amendment Prohibiting Islam

The assumption is that this Amendment will not be submitted to the states by the Congress any time soon. However, the point is not expedited ratification of a proposed Amendment, as welcome as that would be, but a new way to frame the debate and raise public awareness of the issue of Islam.  

An attempt was made to focus attention on many of the strongest criticisms of Islam in such a way that American citizens can see how Shariah law and other dimensions of Muhammad's religion effect all of us in negative and potentially very harmful ways. The idea is to inspire discussion and debate.

If this is helpful to you, feel free to use the Amendment  in any way that seems worthwhile.

Proposed Constitutional Amendment in Opposition to Islam

Prepared by : Billy Rojas
Former teacher of Comparative Religion, history and social science. Alice Lloyd College, Phoenix College, Lower Columbia College, City Colleges of Chicago assigned to the US Navy PACE Program to provide college course instruction to military personnel on board the aircraft carrier , USS Enterprise . Also a lecturer at the University of Oregon, Pacifica Forum, 2008 - early 2010.

The wording of the Amendment shall be as follows :  

Islam is incompatible with the U.S. Constitution  

It is necessary to outlaw the practice of Islam in the United States of America because the teachings of this religion are antithetical to many vital provisions of the US Constitution and represents an existential threat to the security of American citizens. Furthermore, Shariah law, which is intrinsic to all orthodox forms of Islam, which is based directly on the Qur'an, seeks, as a stated goal of the religion, to replace civil law with a system based on inhumane values on the presumption that these values are superior to anything in the Constitution or in the religions of the world, including the religious faiths of the vast majority of Americans. All of this is completely unacceptable. 

The United States was founded on ideals of individual rights, including the individual right to practice one’s religion of choice, or no religion, and that compulsion to practice any religion is not tolerable, nor is a state sanctioned religion allowable, nor is a 'religious test' for participation in government. Islam, in contrast, rejects each of these principles and it therefore incompatible, on a fundamental level, with American citizenship. 

Islam preaches that it and it alone is the true religion and that Islam will dominate the world and impose its will on all other religions and upon democratic institutions. This view is completely unacceptable to Americans and is anti-Constitutional.  

Moreover,  Saudi Arabia , the spiritual home of Islam, does not permit the practice of any other religion on its soil , and this being the case,  it would be unjustifiable to regard Islam as in any way compatible with the many religions which exist in the United States. But not only because of Saudi Arabia, but also because the entire history of Muslim religion has featured intimidation of non-Muslims wherever Muslims have gained power, with few and only temporary exceptions, with some cases where Muslim rule was one  long series of atrocities, as it was in India where, in the course of Mughal and other Muslim rule, scholars estimate that as many as 70 or 80 million Hindus ( including some Buddhists, Jains, Zoroastrians, and Christians in this number ) were killed, and a similar  number enslaved and often forcibly converted to Islam. To suppose that the character of Islam is such that it can peacefully co-exist with followers of other faiths is, to be candid, an absurd proposition.

Islam includes as its basic tenant the spread of its faith by any and all means necessary, including violent conquest of non-believers, and demands of its followers that they implement violent jihad (holy war) against those un-willing to convert or submit to Islam, including by deception and subversion of existing institutions, none of which is remotely compatible with the US Constitution. This ought to be obvious considering recent history as this Amendment is being written, including the jihad-inspired suicide attacks of September 11, 2001, in which 19 Muslim hijackers acting in the name of Islam killed 3,000 Americans.  This was only one chapter in a long history of Muslim attacks against Americans, including the mass murder  of  220 Marines in Lebanon in 1983, the carnage, including American deaths,  at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and which has continued into the present with more Americans unjustifiably killed by Muslim terrorists in non-combatant nations such as Pakistan and Yemen, with people of nations allied with the United states also killed, sometimes in great numbers, as has happened in Spain, Great Britain, on Bali in Indonesia where 200 persons, mostly Australians, were blown up, and in Mumbai, India, to list just the most well known such incidents. 

Additionally, representatives of Islam around the world such as  Osama Bin Laden, the government of Iran including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, HAMAS, Hezbollah, and other Islamic groups,  have declared jihad (war) on America, and regularly declare that America should cease to exist, and this being the case any other course than outlawing Islam within the USA would be folly.

There is essentially muted opposition to all this mayhem and violence on the part of Muslim "moderates," but  it is also clear that most of the people affiliated with these groups have little or no influence on normative Islam in the Muslim world, and, as well, clearly have poor understanding of what their own religion teaches and feel free to misrepresent it  to others Which is to say that apologists for Islam who take the view that their religion is actually a "religion of peace" are, in so many words, either lying or are hopelessly uniformed and, in any case, should not be given credence.

Because Islam is subversive by its very nature, and antagonistic to followers of all other religions, actively seeking to harm  people of other faiths,  and actively seeks to replace the US Constitution with an alien legal system that is abhorrent to Americans, Muslims have no claim to First Amendment freedoms or protections.

As representatives of Islam around the world have declared war, and committed acts of war, against the United States and its democratic allies around the world, Islam is hereby  declared an enemy of the United States and its practice within the United States is now prohibited. It shall be prohibited in perpetuity inasmuch as the motivation for Muslim hostility to America and to many other peoples is found in the core text of Islam , the Qur'an, a book regarded by all orthodox Muslims as inerrant, with commands to action in it regarded as absolutely binding.

Immediately upon ratification of this Amendment all mosques, schools and other Muslim places of worship and religious training are to be closed and confiscated by the state , determination of what to do with physical property to be decided by appropriate governmental agencies and the courts. Legitimate owners of such properties, excluding representatives of any Muslim nation in a state of war with the USA, or representatives of terrorist organizations, or of organizations known to provide tangible support for such groups, shall be compensated for their loss at fair market value. They shall be allowed to remain in the United States, under surveillance, until said properties are disposed of, but in no case more than 120 days.

In cases where American assets are confiscated in foreign countries pursuant to ratification of this Amendment, or confiscated preemptive because of the prospects of this Amendment, even when such action is disguised as if it was motivated by unrelated concerns, any foreign national from such country who owns property  in the United States shall have his ( or her ) assets frozen unless and until that foreign nation allows US citizens to legally sell or otherwise dispose of their property in safety, at fair market value, secure in their persons.

All foreign born Muslims shall be deported.  Muslims born in the United States who choose to remain in America shall be stripped of their citizenship and become subject to all laws enacted following ratification of this Amendment. 

Anyone who advocates jihad shall be regarded as advocating the violent overthrow of the US Government and shall, upon conviction, be punished with death. This sentence shall be carried out within 90 days of a guilty verdict.  

Any Muslims incarcerated in American prisons or other detention acilities shall be denied communication with any other Muslim without express written consent of the appropriate court, or special dispensation from the President. No Qurans or other Muslim literature or media of any kind shall be allowed in the possession of the detainee, nor Internet access, or any equivalent, be permitted.

The preaching of Islam in any venue is prohibited. The subject of Islam may be taught in public schools as part of studies of religions of the world, and in colleges and universities, provided that instruction include discussion of Islam’s history of violence, unprovoked aggression and conquest, and its ongoing war against  democratic and other non-Islamic values. What should also be made clear is that Islam teaches inferior status of women and allows for their abuse though such Qur'an-sanctioned practices as wife beating. Islam also sanctions slavery, which is expressly forbidden by the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution. Cruel and unusual punishments are also part of the fabric of Islamic law, including such barbaric practices as amputation of hands for theft and crucifixion of prisoners of war.

It must be clearly understood that Islam demands death for classes of people who are expressly protected by provisions of American law and by the US Constitution. Included under sentence of death under Islam are all people who venerate a Goddess, since this is said to be the gravest of "sins," defined as a category of what Muslims refer to as "shirk," meaning association of any "partner" to ( their conception of ) God , aka "Allah." This, in effect, condemns to death all Hindus, since Hindus worship a variety of Goddesses, many Buddhists since Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhists venerate female deities or equivalents, many or most Taoists and Shintoists, Shamanists who have central Asian background, as well as Neo-Pagans, Ishtar devotees, many American Indians who follow their traditional religions, people from tribal parts of Africa, Melanesia, Brazil, or elsewhere , and still others. Also condemned to death under  provisions of shirk are Atheists, anyone said to be guilty of "blasphemy,"  even  simple and honest criticism of Muhammad or the Qur'an, anyone who seeks to  witness to a Muslim about another religion, any Muslim who converts to another  faith and quits Islam, and  still others. None of this is tolerable under the US Constitution.

Nor is Quranic and more general Muslim anti-Semitism ( anti-Jewish bigotry ) or anti-Christian prejudices explicit in the Qur'an tolerable under the Constitution or laws which derive therefrom.  

It must be clearly understood that Islam is a religion of intimidation and threats that allows Muslims, through the doctrine of Taqqiya, to dissimulate, that is, to lie about their religion or misrepresent it to others. Such misrepresentation, it should be noted, may be unintentional given the high rate of  (as usually defined ) illiteracy in many Muslim countries and the "religious illiteracy" of many Muslims generally, as pointed out by researchers, to the effect that such people may , out of a desire to "go along to get along,"  that is, adopt the behavioral customs of others. But such things should not be misleading and lull Americans into falsely thinking that Islam is functionally little different than other religions fairly well known in the United States. On the contrary, as outlined here, Islam is qualitatively vastly different.

Nothing in this Amendment shall be construed to allow discrimination against persons of Arab or Iranian or Pakistani or other background often associated with Islam. Indeed, it should be pointed out that Arabs may be Christians and in America often are , Iranians may be Zoroastrians, Pakistanis may be Hindus, and so forth. Nothing said here is intended to promote violence against Muslims anywhere outside of the need for actions in war, or against terrorists,  or for purposes of self-protection against Muslim violence. Nothing said here is meant to incite people to destroy property owned by Muslims, either in the United States or elsewhere.

Important : Any Muslim who repudiates Muhammad, the Qur'an, and Islam, shall be excused from all provisions of this Amendment since, by definition, he or she would then no longer be a Muslim. This repudiation must be genuine, however, and made under oath. If it is discovered that false pretenses were involved the individual shall immediately be subjected to all applicable laws, retroactive to the time of the false repudiation. There is no requirement for a former Muslim to convert to any other religion although this shall be that person's option.  

This Amendment is specific to Islam in all of its forms, without exception, although members of the Ahmadiyya sect, inasmuch as they have already rejected parts of the Qur'an, shall not be under purview of American law as it applies to those parts of Muslim teachings it regards as superseded.  Upon informed judicial review, much the same may be said of specific Sufi sects.  The key word here is "informed."  It must be regarded as  essential for any court that its members educate themselves, at a recognizable level of competence, to the nature of Islam when deciding such cases. The courts must be cognizant of Muslim propensity to conceal the truth and not be deceived by camouflage vocabulary, euphemisms, or other devices meant to mislead people about the true beliefs and intentions of followers of Muhammad. 

Nothing said here is intended to apply to independent religions which may make use of the Qur'an as an historic document that has been superseded by later "revelations" or other binding pronouncements, provided no criminal recommendations in Muhammad's book, or later equivalents, are regarded as currently in effect. "Criminal" in the context of this Amendment refers to American law as derived from the US Constitution.

Nothing said here is in any way meant to disparage arts of the past inspired by Islamic culture, architecture associated with the religion, Arabic or Persian poetry or the like, traditional Muslim costume, Mid Eastern or Turkish calligraphy, Muslim historic writings,  in principle the philosophy of Ibn Sina ( Avicenna ), historic accomplishments by Muslims in the sciences, or anything similar, all of which have intrinsic worth.

This Amendment in no way infringes on any other religion except Islam. It is the express hope and desire of this Amendment that there shall never again be a need for such an addition to the Constitution. But as things are, and might well be into the indefinite future, it is necessary to outlaw Islam in the United States in order that the religious freedoms of Americans who are Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu , Zoroastrian, Baha'i, Taoist, Confucian, Jain, Shintoist, as well as Goddess devotees, Neo-Pagans, New Age believers, Atheists, and still others, are protected and spared from the depredations of Muslims. 

It may well be that "average Muslims" have little or no interest in the criminal-in-character dimensions of Islam , but this is no excuse for belonging to a religion which exists in radical opposition to the US Constitution and repeatedly produces fanatics inspired by the Qur'an who murder innocent people and commit many acts of violence in efforts to "live up to" teachings at the center of their de facto anti-American religion.

  This Amendment should not be interpreted to in any way legally encumber the US Government in its dealings with Muslim-majority nations. During the era of the Cold War, the United states maintained diplomatic relations with various Communist regimes despite the fact that America and the Soviet Union and other Communist states were enemies.

However, there are implications for US military policy, among them, immediate dismissal of Muslim chaplains and all other Muslim personnel from the Armed Forces of the United States,  releasing the military services from all obligations to such personnel. As well, under no circumstances shall American forces permit any implementation of Shariah law in any territory under its military authority. 

What this Amendment is primarily intended to do is to make it unequivocally clear that Islam is  incompatible with the US Constitution, which is already true, and to outlaw Muhammad's religion within the United States and its territories and possessions. It is expected that, as  a result of this Amendment, American foreign policy shall become openly opposed to Islam and that the US Government will adjust its treaties and other international relationships accordingly. It follows that   it should be understood globally that American values as enshrined in the Constitution are antithetical to Islam. In conclusion, this Amendment recommends that the United States should embark on a policy  of opposition to Islam and promotion of freedoms derived from the  US Constitution as superior to the beliefs and values of Islam. 

Additional information :  This Amendment partly reflects a document published at the Free Republic website on April 20, 2008, entitled -- PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AGAINST ISLAM In several places the wording of that material has been duplicated verbatim. Much about it is highly commendable. However, it could not be re-used in its entirety because of various problems not understood by its author. Moreover, his position that Islam is a political movement and not a religion, while Islam does exhibit a clearly political and Fascistic dimension, is ultimately far too simplistic and indefensible. Therefore, many new clauses and arguments are new to the Amendment you now are reading.

Reference should be made to two other documents that make the anti-Constitutional nature of Islam unmistakably clear. These are :

( 1 )  Sharia Law and the US Constitution , by Louis Palme , published at the website, Annaqed " The Critic " on October 14, 2009, and

( 2 )  Questionnaire for Muslims seeking U.S.citizenship, by Billy Rojas, author of this Amendment, sometimes published under a somewhat different title.

Also, a conference on the subject,  SHARIA vs. THE CONSTITUTION, was convened on November 16, 2010, at--

Congressional Meeting Room North

The Capitol Visitor Center

Washington, DC

Among guest speakers was a US Congressman . The panel discussion on the theme was intended for "Congressional staff."  The event was conducted under auspices of --

The Center for Security Policy, The 7th Amendment Advocate and The Legal Project  

While there are many issues which deserve extensive comment, that raise a variety of questions, three additional sources are especially relevant here, namely :

( 1 )  " Ex-Muslim: Proposal that Islam is Tolerant is Fallacious, Dangerous," an article about Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her argument before the National Press Club in late October , 2010, and

( 2 )  Islam's Ignorant Defenders, by David French, on the subject of both Muslim ignorance of their own religion and the even worse ignorance--overwhelmingly-- of many people who defend Islam in America. This was published at the patheos website on November 10, 2010, and

( 3 )  Islamists' Twin Assault on Free Speech, an article by Daniel Huff  for October 28, 2010, published in the Middle East Forum newsletter, which makes the point that Muslims are currently seeking to muzzle free speech by all means open to them , in flagrant disregard of the First Amendment, in an on-going and coordinated attempt to outlaw criticism of Islam or, at a minimum, to create a climate of fear among US citizens, especially opinion makers, to make them unwilling to say anything that might offend Muslims.

Barry Sommer, instructor at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, and host of the CTV news program, "Islam Today," suggests several other books that are relevant to this Amendment :

Andrew Bostom, The Legacy of Islamic Anti-Semitism

Nonie Darwish / Thomas Nelson,  Cruel and Usual Punishment :

   The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law

Steve Emerson,  Jihad, Inc

Brigitte Gabriel, They Must be Stopped

Robert Spencer , Why Christianity is a Religion of Peace and Islam Isn't

Additionally, a book that must be regarded as essential reading for anyone who wants to be genuinely informed about Islam, recommended by both Mr Sommer and myself, written by an ex-Muslim originally from Pakistan, is Ibn Warraq, Why I am Not a Muslim. The book was published in 1995 and obviously does not discuss events since September 11, 2001, but there is so much of value in the book that any  bibliography on the subject of Islam should include this volume.Not to read Warraq's volume, it can be said, is not to really be informed about Islam.

For commentary that demonstrates the connection between Islam and anti-American politics, a book to recommend is David Horowitz, Unholy Alliance  --Radical Islam and the American Left. The "Left" in question for the most part consists of Marxist-Leninists,  Communists or Communists-in-Everything-But-Name. That is, the Cold War enemies of the United States , those who still are active, plus their youthful recruits, see in Muslims useful allies in their objective of subverting the US Constitution and replacing our form of government with something similar to the system once known in the former Soviet Union. Not to understand these  facts   for what they are, would be irresponsible.  

In summation, there is so much that is wrong with Islam on purely objective grounds as far as any American citizen who regards the Constitution as the best possible source of law available is concerned, that it is unavoidable to make it known to the public that Islam is incompatible with the US Constitution, and, therefore, should be outlawed from the United States of America.