Suggested Answers To Short Quiz

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johnkarls
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Suggested Answers To Short Quiz

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SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO SHORT QUIZ

[Disclaimer = Approximately 75% of the questions and their answers come from the original proposal and other materials outside Prof. Guiora's book. However, they comprise additional examples of his points and support his conclusions.]

Question 1

What four Constitutional provisions are focused, solely or partially, on religion?

Answer 1

No establishment of religion (separation of church and state); freedom to practice religion; freedom of speech; and freedom of assembly.

Question 2

Why can't President Obama visit a Muslim nation unless his appearances are confined to U.S. military bases or to the insides of buildings for which security is provided solely by the U.S. Secret Service?

Answer 2

As we have studied in the past, the death threats against Presidential Candidate Obama during 2008 were many times that of death threats against any other candidate in recent history - and the additional threats were NOT coming from American racists but from Muslims, both in America and around the world.

The reason was that many Muslims believe that Islam requires every good Muslim to kill apostates - former Muslims who leave the faith. We saw this in particular when we read "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali for our June 2008 meeting. [Please see Q&A 12 below for additional information about her and her fear that she would be assassinated in The Netherlands or, since going into hiding, in the United States because of a supposition by other Muslims that she was/is an apostate.]

It makes no difference that President Obama apparently never was a Muslim. Under Islamic law, you are a Muslim if your father was a Muslim. And President Obama's father, who was a student in Hawaii when President Obama was born and abandoned his family before President Obama's second birthday, was a Kenyan Muslim. Therefore, under Islamic law, President Obama is an apostate.

Accordingly, if President Obama were to visit any Islamic country and speak in, say, a public square where security is provided, in part, by local security forces, there can be no assurance that the local security forces would not contain at least one member who would suddenly wheel and fire at President Obama as a result of a religious obligation as a good Muslim, even though s/he is in all other respects completely reliable.

Question 3

According to the U.S. Supreme Court, does "Freedom of Religion" permit the practice of polygamy? Permit children of Jehovah's Witnesses to refuse to salute the American flag? Excuse Amish children from attending school? Invalidate the requirement of the University of California Board of Regents for male students to take ROTC? Invalidate the requirement of New Hampshire to obtain a license to hold a parade? Permit Jehovah's Witnesses to violate child-labor laws in distributing religious literature?

Answer 3

No - Reynolds vs. U.S. (1879)

No - West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette (1943) and Minersville School District vs. Gobitis (1940)

No - Wisconsin vs. Yoder (1972)

No - Hamilton vs. Regents of the University of California (1934)

No - Cox vs. New Hampshire (1943)

No - Prince vs. Massachusetts (1944)

Question 4

What is the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 ("AIRFA")?

Answer 4

The facetious answer = a law enacted before it became politically incorrect to refer to Native Americans as American Indians.

The serious answer = a law enacted to reverse several court cases in order to permit, among other things, the use of peyote (a drug derived from cactus) in religious ceremonies (however, AIRFA did not reverse the court cases that prohibited the handling of deadly snakes in religious ceremonies).

Question 5

How many states have enacted statutes protecting members of religions that believe solely in "faith healing" from being prosecuted for "reckless homicide" if their children die from being denied medical care?

Answer 5

30

Question 6

Who was "Son of Sam"? How many people did he kill? Why did he kill them? What was society's view of "Son of Sam"?

Answer 6

Sam Berkowitz was sentenced to 365 years in jail for terrorizing NYC in the mid-1970's, killing 6 people and wounding 7 others.

He was a member of a "cult" that introduced him to drug use, sadistic pornography and violent crime. He claimed that he had been commanded to kill by a "demon" that possessed his neighbor's dog.

It is interesting that society would label a religious group that believes in violent crime as a "cult" and a religious deity that commands violence as a "demon" rather than a "god" or even a "false god" as if goodness is a pre-requisite for god status.

Question 7

What was the Spanish Inquisition?

Answer 7

The infamous and long-lasting attempt by the Roman Catholic Church in Spain to torture and kill anyone who did not pledge allegiance to the Roman Catholic faith. It was aimed especially at Jews and Muslims and Protestants. [Spain, at the time, ruled The Netherlands which was Protestant and it should also be remembered that much of Spain had been part of the Arab Empire which, of course, was Muslim.]

Question 8

What was the Roman Catholic Doctrine of "Blood Guilt"? Would it be politically incorrect to notice that the liquidation of 6 million Jews in World War II was proper under the Roman Catholic Doctrine of "Blood Guilt"? When did the Roman Catholic Church finally abandon its Doctrine of "Blood Guilt"?

Answer 8

The Roman Catholic Doctrine of "Blood Guilt" held that every Jew alive at any point in time including the present, is responsible for the death of Christ.

It is politically incorrect to notice that The Holocaust was proper under the Roman Catholic Doctrine of "Blood Guilt"!!!

However, one of Germany's most famous trial lawyers, Weddig Fricke, wrote a famous book on the subject = "The Court Martial of Jesus: A Christian Defends The Jews Against The Charge Of Deicide." Fricke wrote the book in the wake of defending a person who had killed 9 Jews in a concentration camp as a "wonderful Grandfather" whose only fault was being misled by his Roman Catholic religion. [Only the northern half of Germany is Lutheran, while the southern half has always remained Roman Catholic.]

According to Fricke, the Roman Catholic Church did not abandon its Doctrine of "Blood Guilt" until 1961 - 16 years after the end of World War II.

Question 9

Who was the first "economic communist" (from each according to ability, to each according to need)? What was the view of Karl Marx and the old Soviet Union toward the first "economic communist"?

Answer 9

Jesus Christ - "Sell what you have, give it to the poor, and come and follow me."

The view of Karl Marx and the old Soviet Union toward the first "economic communist" was that Christianity was "the opiate of the masses" and they could never be motivated to revolt so long as they were "laying up for themselves treasures in heaven." Accordingly, Marx and the old Soviet Union were ruthlessly atheist.

Question 10

Should "Freedom of Religion" cover the practice of human sacrifice?

Answer 10

Of course not!!! But it does!!!

Not only in the United States [please see Q&A No. 4 re the number of states that prohibit the prosecution of parents who permit their children to die as a result of denying them medical treatment] -

but also other supposedly civilized nations!!! [Please read on!!!]

Question 11

Does The Netherlands, because it prides itself in being "liberal" in its treatment of the Muslim MAJORITY in each of its major cities, permit "honor killings"?

Answer 11

Yes!!! This was the whole point of Ayaan Hirsi Ali running for the Dutch Parliament!!! [Please see the next Q&A.]

Question 12

From our having read for our June 2008 meeting "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (the Somali woman who became a member of the Dutch Parliament and, since 2004, has been in hiding in the U.S.), why is the analysis by our current author (Prof. Amos Guiora) so disappointing with regard to the assassination of her friend and colleague, Theo van Gogh?

Answer 12

By way of background, The Netherlands during the last several decades has prided itself in being liberal to the point that it has accepted such a large number of political refugees that all of its major cities have a MAJORITY Muslim population.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali came from Somalia, a predominantly Muslim country along the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.

She was encouraged to run for the Dutch Parliament by Dutch intellectuals such as Theo van Gogh to focus the Dutch public on the paradox of Dutch liberalism admitting so many Muslims and permitting them to adhere to their own culture - which included "honor killings" of Muslim women on Dutch soil!!!

Theo van Gogh had made a documentary film featuring Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her views that the supposed "liberal" policy of The Netherlands in permitting the free practice of religion in general, and Islam in particular, was in fact as NON-liberal as Islam itself, particularly with regard to Islam's treatment of women.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali had been elected to the Dutch Parliament based solely on these views. Her book "Infidel" mentions that about the time she stood for Parliament, another newcomer to Dutch politics (Pim Fortuyn) stood for Parliament even though he and a group of non-political friends had just formed an ad hoc new party based solely on these views. And that Pim Fortuyn was assassinated two weeks before the election in which his new "party" emerged to form the new Dutch government. Pim Fortuyn had been attacked verbally before his assassination for being "racist" - a difficult charge to level against Ayaan Hirsi Ali since she was a Muslim born and raised in Somalia.

Muslims, who had assassinated Pim Fortuyn on the brink of assuming power based solely on the issue of Muslim NON-liberalism on Dutch soil, assassinated Theo van Gogh and left his body with a letter stabbed to his chest!!! The letter was addressed to Ayaan Hirsi Ali and, in effect, said "You're next"!!!

She has been in hiding in the U.S. ever since. She is employed by the American Enterprise Institute and, inter alia, wrote an OpEd article in the Wall Street Journal on February 18, 2011, warning the West against being lulled/gulled by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

*****

I apologize for such a long digression on the background of Theo van Gogh's assassination.

However, our author's discussion of the assassination (pp. 46-48 of our book), compares TvG and his assassin on the basis that both had "the potential to incite"!!! And poses the oft-repeated theme that a "potential to incite" wielded on religious grounds is far more dangerous than a "potential to incite" wielded solely on secular grounds.

This is disappointing because our author fails to recognize that TvG's assassin and the Hofstad Network (a terrorist organization according to the Dutch Government) to which he belonged, engage in incitement TO ILLEGAL ACTS.

However, Theo van Gogh (and Ayaan Hirsi Ali) were NOT engaging in incitement to illegal acts!!! Theo van Gogh was assassinated, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali went into permanent hiding, merely because they were calling for democratic changes to be enacted into Dutch law governing whether Muslims should be permitted to continue to engage in such practices as "honor killings" on Dutch soil!!!

Question 13

According to the book "Women of the Klan" by Sociology Professor Kathleen M. Blee (copyright 1991 by the University of California Regents), who were the Ku Klux Klan? Why were they always burning crosses on lawns?

Answer 13

Prof. Blee, since the KKK had had two heydays with the second occurring in the 1920's, decided to preserve the oral history of the "Women of the Klan" in the upper Midwest before they died of old age.

She found that the KKK existed across the entire U.S. (which included New England as documented in a posting of one of our members) and comprised the pillars of society - "all the best people in society, including judges(!!!), belonged"!!!

She found that the KKK was based on "family values" which fit "hand in glove" with the organization packets sent primarily to the most prestigious religious congregations in each community.

The twist???

The organization packets observed that the best "glue" for the new KKK flock would be a group of people to hate and that it really didn't matter whether the group was African-Americans, Jews, Catholics, etc. - recommending that the minister select the group that his particular congregation already hated most!!!

So who was the person in the white bed sheet on the white horse at the head of the formation???

Most likely the minister of the most prestigious protestant church in town!!!

And why were the KKK always burning crosses on lawns???

To put "the fear of God" in their victims!!!

Question 14

What is the Jewish provision of "din rodef"? What is a "pulsa denura"? How many Rabbis gathered on the sidewalk in front of the home of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the Eve of Yom Kippur 1995 to recite the ancient execration of "pulsa denura" demanding his assassination for attempting to implement the Oslo Peace Accords? Who assassinated Yitzhak Rabin and what was his motive?

Answer 14

In Hebrew, a "rodef" is a pursuer. Under Jewish law "din rodef" originally meant that every bystander is obligated to apprehend (and kill if necessary) anyone who is "pursuing" another person to murder her or him. "Din rodef" has long since been expanded to include anyone who threatens the property as well as the person of another Jew.

["Din rodef" is similar to the English-American common-law requirement to raise a "hue and cry" that will pursue a wrong-doer until her/his apprehension.]

A "pulsa denura" (aka Pulsa diNura or Pulsa Denoura) is a religious ceremony in which angels are invoked to block heavenly forgiveness for a subject's sins - in other words, a curse.

On Yom Kippur 1995, ten rabbis recited on the sidewalk in front of Prime Minister Rabin's house the execration of "pulsa denura" demanding Rabin's death for attempting to implement the Oslo Peace Accords which called for surrendering Jewish control of Gaza and the West Bank.

Two months later, on November 4, 1995, Yigal Amir assassinated Rabin. Amir was a right-wing Israeli radical opposed to the Oslo Peace Accords.

*****

It should also be noted that when Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was deciding upon and implementing the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, the Israeli media reported that his opponents also recited a "pulsa denura" curse on him!!!

Six months later, Sharon suffered two strokes and has been in a coma ever since. Although most analysts link the strokes to his age (77) and obesity, medical science also holds that stress is an important causal factor.

Question 15

What is a Muslim "fatwā"?

Answer 15

A fatwā is a religious opinion concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar, usually an Islamic cleric. It is not considered binding by Sunnis, but a fatwā is binding on followers of a Shia cleric/scholar.

Question 16

What did the "fatwā" of Ayatollah Khamenei demand of every good Muslim with respect to Salman Rushdie for writing his book "The Satanic Verses"?

Answer 16

That every good Muslim should try to assassinate Salman Rushdie.

Question 17

What does the "fatwā" of Osama bin Laden demand of every good Muslim?

Answer 17

That every good Muslim should attempt to kill 10 million Americans with atomic bombs.

Question 18

What was the reaction of the Founding Dean of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government to Osama bin Laden's "fatwā"?

Answer 18

He wrote an entire book describing the threat and recommending that Western governments attempt to control highly-enriched uranium with the same level of security precautions they use for protecting their gold reserves.

A common criticism of his approach is that 178 suitcase-size nuclear bombs have long since gone missing from the old Soviet Union and are presumed by experts to be in the hands of terrorist organizations - so "the horse is already out of the barn" without even taking into account other nuclear material that is already missing from the old Soviet Union and from other nuclear powers.

Question 19

What was the carefully-considered policy advocated in an OpEd article during the 2008 Presidential Campaign by Candidate and U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Chair Joe Biden to deal with Osama bin Laden's "fatwā"?

Answer 19

Candidate Joe Biden's recommendation noted that nuclear material has "DNA" that indicates its source and proposed that the United States announce a policy that if any of its cities are attacked by nuclear weapons, the U.S. will immediately annihilate with nuclear weapons the country that was the source of the nuclear material of the terrorist bombs.

Irreverent wags love to point out that Vice President Biden's proposal would obligate the United States to commit nuclear suicide if the nuclear material used in the terrorist bombs was stolen from the U.S. itself!!!

Question 20

According to our author, Amos Guiora, is there a difference between a religious leader preaching that, say, the Bible or the Quran requires someone's death and preaching that it is the obligation of every member of the congregation to immediately assassinate that person?

Answer 20

Yes. At least in the Unites States, the weight of judicial authority condones the former while condemning the latter.

Question 21

Does our author, Amos Guiora, suggest that Religious Speech should enjoy greater freedom because it enjoys two Constitutional protections (Speech and Religion)?

Answer 21

No.

Question 22

If Prof. Guiora suggests that Religious Speech should enjoy a REDUCED LEVEL OF FREEDOM compared to non-religious speech, what is the rationale?

Answer 22

A congregant who would never consider committing an illegal act on her/his own, might do so if s/he thought it was the "will of God."

[Or "Allah" which is merely the Arabic word for "God" - many Americans don't realize that since Islam is based on the Judeo-Christian tradition, "Allah" is the same deity as the Christian "God."]

Question 23

Are there any legal/constitutional restraints on the infiltration of the congregations of religious-extremist clerics to ascertain what they are preaching?

Answer 23

Apparently not.

And would the government prosecute itself for doing so anyway???

Question 24

Are there any legal/constitutional restraints on importuning the members of the congregations of religious-extremist clerics to ascertain whether any of the congregants are prone to violence as a result of the sermons?

Answer 24

Yes - entrapment.

The Doctrine of Entrapment would absolve anyone who would not have committed an illegal act except for governmental instigation. But entrapment does not cover mere governmental facilitation.

An interesting question would be whether the government should, if necessary, engage in entrapment even though a criminal prosecution would be precluded. In other words, should the government be trying to protect the public or merely trying to ensure successful prosecutions???

Question 25

Would the U.S. government be derelict in its duty to protect other U.S. citizens if it failed to infiltrate the congregations of religious-extremist clerics and importune their members to commit acts of violence?

Answer 25

When the first American city is destroyed by a nuclear bomb, public opinion will undoubtedly hold that the government was derelict in its duty.

Question 26

Most experts have long-since opined that the destruction of one or more American cities as a result of the "fatwā" of Osama bin Laden to kill 10 million Americans with nuclear bombs would produce the destruction long before this of at least one or two major American cities -- so the question is whether you think American public opinion would even tolerate any religious freedom at all for religious terrorists in the wake of such destruction?

Answer 26

So what do you think???

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