Daniel J. Pipes

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What may fly in UK - without a constitution - versus USA constitutional culture

Reader comment on item: Islamists, Get Out

Submitted by David J. Bardin (United States), Sep 2, 2005 at 10:06

The U.K. has no written Constitution. The USA does. Whether the proposed U.K. measures described make sense for the UK or not, they are not even available to put on the table in the USA for consideration here.

Unlike the ancient Athenians, USA laws do not provide for expelling Americans who are citizens by virtue of birth in the USA from our country unlesss they deliberately act to expatriate themselves to another country. If such Americans act in ways that endanger the USA, our peace, our domestic tranquility, we have many measures that could be applied against them -- but not exile.

Preaching in favor of Islamist dictatorship and against preservation of our Republic could not be deemed an expatriating act unless the preacher tied his actions to a particular other nationality (i.e., a sovereign nation other than the USA), not just to Sharia in the abstract.

As of today, there is no Caliphate recognized in international law as a sovereign state. So even the most intense, devoted Islamist loyalty to the idea and goal of such a neo-Caliphate could not express itself in any acts, behaviors, that USA constitutional culture and tradition could view as expatriating acts.
Faithfully, David

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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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