Imams can be prevented from attending Muslim executions

The Life and Liberty Minute

The Life and Liberty Minute features Bryan Fischer, the host of “Focal Point” on American Family Radio. It’s a laser-like 60 second focus on an issue of the day, using the Word of God and the Constitution to analyze and explain.

Imams can be prevented from attending Muslim executions

Transcript:

Bryan Fischer here with today’s Life and Liberty Minute. Alabama would not allow an imam - a Muslim clergyman - to be in the room with a Muslim criminal when he was executed for raping and murdering a 15-year-old girl. It wasn’t a matter of religious liberty - it’s Alabama policy not to allow anyone to be present for an execution who is not an employee of the prison. A Christian chaplain was available to provide counsel and prayer for the condemned man. But despite all the bleating, there was no constitutional violation here. The First Amendment, according to Associate Justice Joseph Story, was written only to protect the free exercise of the Christian faith and to prohibit the establishment of an official national church. All other regulation of religion was left entirely to the states. What this means is that Alabama doesn’t have to permit Muslim imams to attend executions if it doesn’t want to.