Comments on: “Ground Zero” Mosque

By: Elliott

Elliott — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:18:35 +0000

I totally agree. Alienating Muslims will just make their communities more insular and secretive, which is precisely what we DON’T need.

By: Demarcus Burton

Demarcus Burton — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:47:30 +0000

One issues that is missed in this debate is how wonderful the US Muslim religious community is on the war on homegrown terror. A well-integrated Islamic community is a great source of information to the country. This does not happen in Europe due to widespread discrimination.

By: Elliott

Elliott — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:35:10 +0000

@Chris, I fixed it.

@Celeste, assuming this is a serious inquiry, I haven’t made any effort to optimize this site for mobile devices, for the time being.

By: Celeste

Celeste — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:44:03 +0000

Hi! Is it OK if I go a bit off topic? I am trying to view your blog on my iPod Touch but it doesn’t display properly, do you have any suggestions? Thanks! Celeste

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 03:09:02 +0000

It’s bugging me that I can’t edit the grammatical error out of that last post…

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 03:07:28 +0000

I know, they’re becoming a parody of themselves. Hopefully this kind of nonsense combined with tea party will somehow force the right to fragment into the diverse groups that somehow align to make up the republican party. Hopefully Wall street elite conservatives can’t vote for a candidate who almost openly states that Islam is bad.

By: Elliott

Elliott — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:36:13 +0000

What gets me is Newt Gingrich and the whole “Cordoba is secret Muslim code for conquering the West” BS. What kind of paranoid basketcase does it take to come up with that crap? Why are we even giving these people audience?

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:04:20 +0000

I find it shocking that well-known figures are making the argument that a mosque near ground zero is a slap in the face to 9/11 families. Unless 9/11 families believe that Islam was somehow the perpetrator of the terrorist attacks, I don’t understand how it could possibly be offensive to them. There is no sense in which Al-Qaeda represents Islam or is somehow the product of Islam; they’re the product of political extremism and every non-bigoted person knows that.

Since the only people possibly offended by building a mosque near ground zero believe that “Islam did 9/11″ in the face of all available evidence, there should be no problem with offending those people. Especially because it’s reasonable to be suspicious that the people clinging to that belief are doing so not because it is supported by evidence, but because it is supported by a racist/bigoted world-view. Bigoted attitudes should never be tolerated in the American public sphere, no matter who has them or why.

And as for people who think that the mosque is a bad idea because it’s going to provoke controversy, a similar argument could have been (and was) made against desegregation in the 50s. There might be some room to be pragmatic, but this country would be abandoning the best parts of its cultural traditions if it were hamper the free practice of religion in order to placate irrational, bigoted sentiments.

This whole debate really sickens me because the mosque could have been an opportunity for American to announce that it does not hate the Islamic world and truly does not believe that it is at war with Muslims in general. It was the perfect opportunity for America to stand by its ideals of religious freedom and acceptance, not just tolerance, of difference. Of course, now the Islamic world will (rightfully) be even more suspicious about what many Americans really think of them now. This is a disaster.