Dana from "Life is Good" asked me to make sure I read her most recent post "Few Words Needed". The post and the comments that follow raise some good issues. Two other posts Regarding the Mosque Near Ground Zero and Yeah,…,what he said. Sam Harris on building Mosque near Ground Zero from Coyote Sings are also worth reading on the subject.
Rob-Bear is right in that the US is determined to make Muslims out as the bad guys of the 21st Century. Starting with Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations.
And they are getting a great deal of help from certain members of Islam themselves. If you want a list, read the news. At the rate they are going, people are soon going to rise up in a rage and attempt to destroy them off the face of the earth. Maybe that is the plan
A thousand years ago, Islam was the centre of civilization. Christian Europe was a land of barbaric beliefs and practices. Now they have nicely changed places. What happened? Lots of books try to come to grips with that issue. Bernard Lewis has written a number of books on the subject. Karen Armstrong's Islam, A Short History is a very moderate and balanced look at Islam.
American Muslims have every legal right to build a Mosque where ever they want in United States if they have control of the property and meet zoning bylaws. President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg both acknowledge this fact. They have the right to do it. And it has been painted in the best politically correct language that they should do it. They are fools if they do. First it is in incredibly bad taste. Second the instant some Islamic preacher uses it as a bully pulpit to celebrate a victory over the infidel and encourage more acts of violence, it will set the Muslim-American community back decades, possibly permanently, in trying to co-exist in America.
And Islam may appear to be THE most serious menace to the world. They are a Red Herring. "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross", Sinclair Lewis. The Religious Reich bent on a "Godly" society and global hegemony will make the Taliban seem like moderates. And like Hitler's Jews, Islam will be the made-to-order scapegoat.
All Muslims should not be tarred with the same brush just as all Christians will not want to be tarred with the same brush tomorrow.
I will not wade too far into this because I will start getting flaily (as evidenced by my attempts to rationally discuss this with my poor husband last weekend) - but this sums up many of my thoughts: http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2010/08/16/on-that-ground-zero-mosque/ and I also quite like the article referenced in that one, which can be found here: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/08/16/100816taco_talk_hertzberg.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to catch up with Violet's posts in a bit.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, you're being very moderate about this. Good for you!
Thanks for the link to my blog and I agree with the Sinclair Lewis quote. I'm all too familiar with Christianity.
ReplyDeleteA couple of points:
ReplyDeleteWe don't pick and choose what parts of our constitution we enforce.
There were Muslims inside the World Trade Center who died.
There's a mosque inside the pentagon.
It's not a mosque they're building but a community center with a prayer area on the top two floors.
Good points, all. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYou may also want to read
http://www.tnr.com/blog/foreign-policy/76929/what-moderate-islam
This is a simple issue for me. Black and white. No grey areas.
ReplyDeleteThe group who wants to build this Islamic cultural center own the property. Their plan has passed the litmus tests of the various local bureaucratic boards. It is their right to build whatever they want.
Period.
All this panty bunching and discontent is only giving the losers who laughed when the twin towers fell more satisfaction.
Get over it. Move on.
As you say, it is nothing but a red herring.
I have been reading everything recommended. Violet, your two were very good. Rob-Bear, Please post the comment you sent me.
ReplyDeleteOther posts (and please read the comments below the articles as they are often as illuminating as the articles, both for good and bad):
http://www.tnr.com/blog/foreign-policy/77050/losing-hearts-and-minds-development-and-its-discontents.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/foreign-policy/76990/american-values-ground-zero-mosque-constitution-law
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/77078/brief-word-park51
And this one:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10991021
Fox News Poll says 64% said the mosque should not be built there and 61% said they have every right to build it.
Which is where I sit on it.
Thanks to all who commented and sent links to articles.
ReplyDeleteThis link made my blood boil.
http://www.theroot.com/views/cordoba-house-iraq?page=0,0
I am now firmly on the side of build the community centre.
ahem....stepping up to the podium....
ReplyDeleteLegal this, "Right to" that, and tie it up in the flag under liberty for all....
and it still JUST AIN'T RIGHT.
Where was this need for a mosque in that area PRIOR to 9/11?
It didn't exist then, so in all common sense, just place it elsewhere. I'm sure that's not the only area in New York that is available.
Dana, lots of new places of worship being built in the last 10 years. And it is almost 10 years. Life moves on. Smart people move with it.
ReplyDeleteYes, Americans are always talking about their "rights" and their "freedoms". Only applies to their rights and freedoms and not those of other Americans?