Re: Obama XIV: President VISTA with SP2
Getting off the education talk for a bit...does anyone else find it disturbing that so many states are taking issue with Mosques being built? Leaving out the Ground Zero issue for the purposes of this discussion, the fact is many communities are really up in arms over this. Doesn't that seem a bit un-American? I mean we can have churches on every block but not mosques?
I am not going to get into an ecumenical argument about it because that isn't the point. It seems rather ridiculous that a country that values "Freedom of Religion" seems to be against said freedom for muslims and that it appears to be many "conservatives" that are trumpeting the call. (though to be fair California is making a stink about it too and they are a bunch of granola eating hippies!) IMHO anyone who goes about trying to stop muslims from practicing or congregating (and they are if they are trying to stop the building of mosques or allowing them in their neighborhoods) is pretty much spitting on the Constitution and violating their civil rights.
What does everyone else think. (and like I said I am not discussing the Ground Zero Mosque which is its own argument)
Well, I see your point. But consider the fact that there are over 2,000 mosques already in the country. Hard to make the point of religious intolerance under those circumstances, especially when there are zero churches in Saudi Arabia.
Still, even the perception or a hint of religious intolerance is antithetical to the American tradition. We've tolerated cults and whack job religious extremists from day one. What's different about Islam? Now?
That's a question that answers itself. It started with the revolution in Iran, continued through 9/11, and the horror of a United States Army doctor slaughtering 13 GI's in the name of Allah, and the various plots that seem to be discovered nearly every week. And ends in the monstrously triumphal and inappropriate mosque at GZ. Assuming this monument to the "accomplishments" of 9/11 is built, I think Gutman's got a good idea, putting a gay bar right next door. Tends to call the bluff of those double dealing liars. I know you said to exclude the GZ mosque from this disucssion but it's hard to do. CNN released a poll today showing 68% of Americans (including a majority of Democrats) oppose this abomination.
I don't believe a thing the instigators of this mosque say. They remind me of Yasser Arafat, who was always making calls for peace in his English language speeches and calling for Israel to be turned into a cinder in his Arabic speeches. And given their track record, I'm also suspicious of the funding.
But getting back to your point, I agree, I was a little surprised and concerned the other day when I read a piece about the various communities that are resisting new mosques. I believe America was fat, dumb, happy and tolerant of Islam before 9/11Subsequent events have caused many to question whether we should re-examine that tolerance. But when some Americans are afraid, they sometimes do horrible things. I'm thinking of those three young brothers (in Florida?) in the early days of the AIDS epidemic who were burned out of their house, presumably by neighbors. Fear can make people do regrettable things.
We know that some (but certainly not all) mosques have been and continue to be centers of terrorist planning and jihadi indoctrination. We know that some (but certainly not all) Muslims wish to defeat us and to impose Sharia law. The trouble is, we don't always know which is which. And this uncertainty has led some (but certainly not all) of us to become very suspicious of Muslims in general and to backtrack from our traditional position of tolerating just about anything in the name of "freedom of religion."
And Americans understand when they're being handed a line of crap--like when the Attorney General, testifying under oath before congress, was unable to utter the words "Muslim" or "terrorist." We may be ignorant but we're not stupid.
It's a tough time in America, on a lot of fronts, but the one thing that hasn't happened is the "backlash" against Muslims widely predicted in the wake of 9/11. We are conducting a war against Islamofacism and must be prepared to fight it within our own borders. At the same time, we shouldn't abandon the pluralist instincts that have served us so well for so long.
