I just got done reading an article in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that at first I agreed with, but by the end, I had completely flipped. The article was about a meditation room at Normandale Community College in Bloomington and what it had become. What it had become was a mosque, essentially.

Actually, it is a mosque, replete with a divider to separate the men from the women during prayer and the little sign at the door asking you to kindly remove your shoes. It also has an arrow to point the worshipers toward Mecca and pamphlets instructing women to cover their faces and make themselves seen and not heard in public.

See, starts out okay, then delves into territory that most Americans aren’t comfortable with.

Religion is a touchy subject throughout history, so I try to stay as hands-off as possible. Whatever god (or gods) you need to worship are your business and none of my own. Whatever you need to do to do what you do, I’m usually okay with. But there are limits.

Considering that most universities have a place of worship for Christians somewhere either on or near campus, I find it completely understandable that Muslim students should have a place where they, too can congregate and worship together. It’s only reasonable, right? After all, this is still America, the place where we claim to allow freedom of religion, even though we have people clamoring about the “war on Christmas” and whatnot, we’re on the whole a pretty reasonable bunch.

But relegating women to second-class status, as some tenets of Islam do, is clearly over the line. Taking over a facility intended for all of the students on campus, filling it with your own faith and making others feel unwelcome in a public place, not cool. Placing literature about the room that is filled with derogatory statements about Jews and Christians, now that’s just, well…un-American.

Like I said, I’m all for the college providing it’s Muslim students with a place to practice their religion. My big problems come when one groups religion begins to impede other students and people, degrades women and bashes other religions. Yes, we have freedom of religion, but we have other laws here, as well. If what you’re doing religiously comes into direct conflict with those laws, you have to adjust.

Now, I’m sure that there are thousands of incidents that anyone could cite from the inception of our country until today where the Christian majority of our country has done as much as these students at Normandale Community College have and much worse…actually, I’m sure of it. I was brought up Lutheran and I can remember some pretty insensitve bake sales and inflammatory pot-luck lunches.

But I’m not speaking for them, or any other religion. I’m speaking simply as a resident of this country and a follower of (most) of it’s laws. So, before you get all pissy and rail against me in comment form below, know that I could easily do some research (as could you, actually) and find incidents like this that would pertain to just about every major religion and religious faction. But, I just happened to read this particular article this morning.

In the end, I guess I could sum up my feeling on this issue like this:

Religious equality = good idea.

That religion effecting the equality of other citizens = not a good result.

I think we can all agree on that.