Prediction: Islam Will Neutralize the Christian Right in U.S.

After losing in court with an atheist group a few years back, something dawned on me. It was that atheists are not the right group to offset the Christian right. The right group to do this would be a non-Christian religious group. I was so convinced about this I sought out people from different religious traditions in Fargo, ND where I lived at that time and invited them to join in the effort we atheists were engaged in at the time. 

People from other religious traditions, however, could not understand why we cared about the Ten Commandments monument on public property which was our issue at the time. They did not see the point of putting themselves, and their children, out in the light of public opinion over this stone object few people noticed. Now, events and the politics have changed. Other religious traditions are being pushed to the front of the battle.

The change is most striking in Texas. Texas has just the right mix of in-your-face liberals to shout back at in-your-face Trump Republicans. The state is so big, 25 million people, any religious tradition has significant numbers even if the percentage is tiny. For example, Muslims are only 2% of the Texas population. That means half a million Muslims.

Local and the state government, including Trump-like Governor Greg Abbot. are trying to stop construction of a mosque with an adjoining shopping district. At the same time, public schools are ready to promote Christianity and debunk Islam. Some are saying Islam needs to be banned in Texas. Muslims in Texas are being forced into a public fight just to live where they want to live. 

If the courts rule in favor of Muslims in Texas, for example allowing them to build a mosque where some Texans want to prevent it, this will be a big and humiliating loss for the religious right. The blanket assumption the U.S. is "a Christian nation" will become doubtful to even the least informed in our country.