It is "OK" to have a religious state and to have blasphemy laws to suppress and put down all other religions.
But is it not OK for a man who is first and foremost a Christian, a Deacon in his Baptist denomination, having been sworn in as Governor, to then on Martin Luther King Day have him as a Christian all his adult life speak to a Black Baptist Church audience?
His remarks were not broadcast, only some nitwit newspaperman, which newspaper opposed him politically from the start of his race for Governor, tries to take out of context, the setting was inside a church, this alter call to his in person, present at that moment audience?
When I was growing up in Woodmont Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee we used to have then young Governor Frank Clement come preach a sermon about twice a year. Governor Clement was in fact a Methodist, but he was popular with all folks who voted for him from many different backgrounds across Tennessee. And he knew his Holy Bible and gave good sermons, too. You clearly do not understand this concept and that is your problem, not ours.
No, we do not repress anyone from freely expressing their non-violent religious opinions, which expressions are guaranteed in the US Constitution long before anyone in the US ever knew we would develop a large secondary Muslim population and religious community. But the same US Constitution which guarantees Muslims in America freedom of religion and religious speech likewise grants Governor Bentley as a Deacon, a Lay Leader in his Baptist denomination, the right to express his religious convictions and testimoney, concluding with an alter call to those not yet saved in his immediate, physical, inside the church audience.
You need to move on and find fault with yourself if you preach pan Islam out of one side of your mouth and criticize freedom of speech, freedom of religion in the US.
Our US guaranteed freedoms enable the US to be prosperous and creative which is where the bucks come from to help the developing world, which was and remains the case from my service in Pakistan in the mid 1960s down to today.