What A Great Idea!

[Psykhronic]

As much as I despise extremists, I'm glad to live in a country with the first amendment. I'd rather not go down the road of "I don't like what you say so you are not allowed to say it".

And I find the banning of religious items in Quebec, at public work places, to be overreaching. Ban something like the burka or niqab, sure, that's a public safety issue (hiding oneself - could rob a bank and the cameras won't pick up dick about their face or body). But a hat, headwrap, or a tool of execution on a chain aren't much of anything.

[Heir Apparent]

Only if people were ducks.

What a canard!

{ [for the non-Europeans] Canard in English = misleading story, Canard in French = Duck}

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Well I don't know about anywhere else in the world, but in the States both the Neo-Nazi's and the KKK are protected under the 1st Amendment, as are the Westboro "Baptist" Church.

I'm not sure I see the correlation between generally harmless traditional religious garb and extremist groups either.

Why should the first amendment protect the right to lie and mislead the public? Simply forcing them to be factual and non-fraudulent would dry up their support. I don't see the issue. Simply put, you should have the right to be stupid all you want, and tell people about your stupidity all you want too, but you are refrained from making known un-factual statements.

Nazi extremist - Got mit uns, very strong (at least internal) Christian support.
KKK - very strong christian support
Al-Qaeda - very strong muslim support

That's a pretty good correlation to me. If any of the groups had been irreligious, they would be unknown to us, without support.

Why do you assume everyone has to listen to the lies and untruths? If one group can say what they like without fear of being arrested, any group should. I don't oppose the KKK holding demonstrations. Am I going to attend one? No, I don't agree with their message.

If you lived in Poland and wanted to hold a rally for atheism, there is a high chance you'd be arrested for blaspheming. Do you think that's fair?

Edit - you didn't get my point either. You appear to be comparing Sikh and Jewish traditional religious garb to Neo Nazi and KKK uniforms. That doesn't make sense.

[Minimalist]

Ban something like the burka or niqab, sure, that's a public safety issue (hiding oneself - could rob a bank and the cameras won't pick up dick about their face or body). But a hat, headwrap, or a tool of execution on a chain aren't much of anything.

That would be singling out muslims. Better to ban them all. Nice to see the shitwits having to play defense for a change.

[Dionysius]

Great idea and initiative. The dis-ease of religious non-culpability for one's actions and the deference of responsibility for the state of the things needs to be snipped at the root.

The...I'm happy because of Jesus or I'm despondent because of the devil and similarly-minded coping mechanisms must needs be replaced with more collectively responsible and productive rationalizations.

[Doubting Thomas]

The libertarian in me doesn't like this idea. I'm all for freedom of expression, even religious freedom of expression, as long as it doesn't infringe upon anyone else's rights. The idea of banning certain religious items seems to be overreaching and government meddling into people's personal lives. Now I would understand if it's a public office here in the U.S. and no religious displays would be allowed due to the 1st Amendment, but I think it's wrong to ban them for the general public and in private businesses. I wouldn't even ban someone wearing a swastika arm band or T-shirt. At least I'd know who the extremists are so I could avoid them.

[Brakeman]

Why should the first amendment protect the right to lie and mislead the public? Simply forcing them to be factual and non-fraudulent would dry up their support. I don't see the issue. Simply put, you should have the right to be stupid all you want, and tell people about your stupidity all you want too, but you are refrained from making known un-factual statements.

Nazi extremist - Got mit uns, very strong (at least internal) Christian support.
KKK - very strong christian support
Al-Qaeda - very strong muslim support

That's a pretty good correlation to me. If any of the groups had been irreligious, they would be unknown to us, without support.

Why do you assume everyone has to listen to the lies and untruths? If one group can say what they like without fear of being arrested, any group should. I don't oppose the KKK holding demonstrations. Am I going to attend one? No, I don't agree with their message.

If you lived in Poland and wanted to hold a rally for atheism, there is a high chance you'd be arrested for blaspheming. Do you think that's fair?

Edit - you didn't get my point either. You appear to be comparing Sikh and Jewish traditional religious garb to Neo Nazi and KKK uniforms. That doesn't make sense.

I didn't comment on Sikh or Jewish Garbs, but nonetheless if those groups make their money and gang-like social pressure by lying and committing fraud upon the populace, their outside symbols should be banned, if any are. We ban gang symbols and clothing in our schools and in some American cities (I think), should these gang members not have their rights to proclaim their allegiances in the same way as the jews? Why would a municipality want to ban gang symbols? I would think it is to decrease the intimidation factor where one can feel compelled to join because of the number surrounding you. Do you not feel that christian groups use their strong social pressure to intimidate your children? Are my children free to live in a land free from the gang-like tactics of christians?

[Heir Apparent]

It seemed like you were attempting to compare the two so I was confused. As far as I'm aware, I don't know of any schools that explicitly ban any sort of self representation. I could be wrong about that, I don't live in an area that has gang activity. Also as far as I know most gangs tend to represent themselves by colors, not symbols.

But again, it's unfair to compare any sort of violent gang to traditional religious beliefs that tend to be entirely non-violent. This area has a large group of hardcore fundies and they don't go around pushing people to believe their garbage so again I have no clue what you're going for on that front either.

The religious should be able to proselytize and display their beliefs on their own time, just separate from government. That's what this country was founded on and I don't believe in stifling beliefs, otherwise we are no better than catholic Poland.

[Minimalist]

We ban gang symbols

There's a difference between a cross and a gang symbol?

[Beta Ray Bill]

Also as far as I know most gangs tend to represent themselves by colors, not symbols.

You need to come to my neighborhood and see all the shit these gangs keep drawing on my fence!