by Andrew Walden
Hawaii has no Christianity Day, no Judaism Day, and no Buddhism Day--but Hawaii's Democrat Legislators have decided to violate the "establishment clause" of US Constitution -- for Islam.
Affirming that their desire to submit to Islam supercedes their adherence to the sacred principles of the US Constitution, by a 22-3 vote the Hawaii Senate approved House Concurrent Resolution 100 which designates September 24, 2009 as Islam Day. The State House had earlier approved the measure.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution reads:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
The First Amendment was inserted into the Constitution in part to prevent the establishment of a state religion such a the Church of England. The Hawaii Legislature takes a small step in that direction by giving special recognition to Islam.
HCR 100 was earlier passed by the State House.
RELATED:
HCR100: http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov
Bill of Rights TEXT: http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090506/BREAKING01/90506084/-1
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/06/hawaii-lawmakers-pass-create-islam-day/
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/06/ap/national/main4997108.shtml
But Republican Sen. Sam Slom argued that the United States has become too sympathetic toward Islamic extremists.
"I don't think there's any country in the history of the world that has been more tolerant than the United States of America, and because of that tolerance, we've looked the other way a lot of times, and many thousands of our citizens have been killed by terrorists," said Slom, a Republican.
The lone Democrat voting against the bill opposed it on church-state separation fears.
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/05/islam-day-passes-in-hawaii.html
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/05/06/hawaii-passes-islam-day-law/
There is, as far as I know, no “Christianity Day” designation in Hawaiian law, though the state did designate Good Friday a government holiday, which courts ruled was “primarily proposed to increase the frequency of legal holidays.”
No such rationale here.