Islam for Pols: a Primer;" We’re in favor of religious toleration for those religions that practice toleration."

Pajamas Media  ..."But here’s the rub: tolerance only works when practiced by all parties to the social contract. It’s one thing for a Unitarian and a Catholic to tolerate each other. They have some important doctrinal differences. But they do not endeavor to kill or enslave one another on account of those differences.

"The friction of difference works differently when you add Islam to the equation. Why? Because Islam does not — in principle as well as in practice — acknowledge a legitimate sphere of operation for the secular as distinct from the sacred realm. There is no “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s” in Islam because Islam — that’s mainstream, garden-variety Islam, not just its wacko Wahhabist allotropes — regards everything as subordinate to the will of Allah."

Roger Kimball

Romney’s Religion Problem /Sharia is not about private faith, but public institutions.   By Andrew McCarthy      (Linked to in the above article, TW wanted to make sure you saw it.)
"Mitt Romney is said to be the early frontrunner in the GOP presidential sweepstakes. One rival, Newt Gingrich, is perceived as floundering in a swirl of unforced errors and staff insurrection. Yet when it comes to Islam, which will continue to matter mightily in the next administration, the frontrunner could learn a thing or two from the flounderer. The issue is not religion. It is the seditious Islamist political program."....
"When the threat came from 20th-century totalitarian ideologies, Gingrich concluded, “we discovered after a while, well you know, there are some genuinely bad people who would like to infiltrate our country, and we have got to have the guts to stand up and say, ‘No.’” It is every bit as essential today to say “No” to Islamists who use the shield of American religious liberty as a sword in the service of a dark political program — one that has precious little to do with spirituality. It remains to be seen whether Republicans will offer a presidential candidate with the guts to do it. If Mitt Romney is to be that candidate, he’s got work to do."  (Emphasis added)

"...Steyn was accused of “flagrant Islamaphobia” after his bestselling book America Alone was excerpted in Canada’s oldest newsweekly magazine, Maclean’s, in 2006."  "Author and columnist Mark Steyn’s week-long trial for “hate speech” began in a British Columbia courtroom on June 2 [2008]"....
"Canadian Human Rights Tribunals boast a 100% conviction rate on such “hate speech” cases, and have already handed down lifetime bans against the likes of Rev. Scott Boision. That Christian preacher is now forbidden for life from ever citing Bible verses regarding homosexuality in his sermons, or “in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the Internet.”"

Free Speech vs. Muslim Sensibilities "Steyn repeatedly reminded readers that his opponent, Dr. Mohammed Elmasry, was a rather unlikely defender of "human rights":

"... he's the guy who said on Canadian TV [in 2004] that he thought all Israeli civilians over the age of 18 were legitimate targets for murder. In other words, he is an objective supporter of terrorism - I've got no complaint against that: he's entitled to his views, I just wish he thought I was entitled to mine.

"But it does show you how absurd this is, that a guy who is an active supporter of terrorism is suddenly the poster-boy for Canadian human rights."