Four days ago we celebrated the 235th birthday of our country, a country birthed out of passionate desire for liberty and self-governance.
Against that backdrop, police Captain Paul Fields was demoted and suspended because he refused to surrender his constitutional rights when ordered to attend an Islamic proselytizing event held at a Muslim Brotherhood-connected Islamic Center.
Sadly, very little attention has been paid to this in the media, even in the more conservative talk radio media. So why have we at ACT! for America decided this is an issue we need to aggressively fight?
Here’s why, and it’s the same reason our friends at the Thomas More Law Center have filed a lawsuit on his behalf.
Protecting freedom.
I have no quarrel with government officials choosing, voluntarily, to attend religious events of various faiths. But Captain Fields should never have been compelled to attend an Islamic service and observe classes on Islamic beliefs, simply because he was a police officer and was ordered by his superior to do so.
Would the ACLU sit by quietly if a Muslim officer were ordered to attend a Sunday morning Christian service, called “Law Enforcement Appreciation Day?” We all know the answer to that.
If the disciplinary action taken against Captain Fields is allowed to stand, without protest or outrage, the message sent to government officials, not only in Tulsa but across the country, is that they can compel subordinates to attend Islamic events, and no one will resist.
As much as Islamic terrorism concerns me, I am as concerned about the threat radical Islam—and the political correctness that enables it—poses to our freedoms.
That threat is incremental, where tyranny chips away at freedom little by little, until one day freedom is gone.
Just ask Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, our chapter leader in Austria who was recently convicted of “denigrating a religion,” about incremental loss of freedom.
Our Founding Fathers understood incremental loss of freedom. That’s why they protested even small taxes imposed on them unlawfully, not because the amounts were large, but because of the precedents they set.
We at ACT! for America do not have the human or financial resources to engage every issue or fight every fight. But the case of Captain Paul Fields is one we must rise up and fight.
Government officials in Tulsa need to know there are Americans who will resist politically-correct driven assaults on our freedom. The Islamic Center of Tulsa needs to know this. Groups like CAIR and ISNA need to know this. Government officials around the country need to know this.
If we, as an organization, make a strong enough and loud enough stand, they will know.
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If you cherish freedom as I do, and you haven’t already done so, please join us in adding your name to our petition calling for the reinstatement of Captain Fields. We’re only 4,000 signatures short of our goal.
Thank you.
Yours for a safe—and free—America,
Guy Rodgers