There are so many hot topics out there today that it’s had to figure out what I want to go on about first!
Here lately, though, there’s been one that’s been occupying an annoyingly large amount of media attention.
The so-called “debate” over whether or not “The Muslims” should be allowed to build a “mosque” “at ground zero”.
Listening to the hysteria over this one is seriously giving me a headache, for several reasons.
For starters, the so-called Mosque isn’t a bloody Mosque!!! It’s a community center that also includes a place of worship. Why this is making people crazy is beyond me considering the building it will be replacing is already used for this purpose.
It also is not AT ground zero, it’s a couple of blocks away, on PRIVATE PROPERTY. We are proposing telling an individual that he cannot build what he wants on HIS property because He’s Muslim and it’s a Muslim building. Honestly, folks, that is disgustingly anti-American. Not to mention anti-constitutional.
“The Muslims” do not want to build a cultural center. Abdul Rauf wants to built it along with his organizational supporters. “The Muslims” are not a coherent, unified group of people any more than the “the Christians” are and generalizing them that way makes about as much sense generalizing groups into things like “The Whites” or “The Blacks”. It’s perpetuating the bigoted hysteria that already has a strong foothold here.
If you Google “proposed Mosque” or “mosque controversy” you will see picket sign after picket sign that really should make any American sick to their stomach. Choice examples read:
“I learned all I needed to know about Islam on 9/11”
“Islam= Terror”
“You can build a Mosque at Ground Zero when we can build a Synagogue at Mecca”
The problem with these statements is that the vast majority of them don’t even make any sense! They are pure and simple hate-mongering, fueled by fear and very strong emotions centered around loss. It’s as if people have allowed their grief and their “patriotism” to run amok into something sinister and ugly.
The bottom line for us Americans is that this is a country that was founded upon ideals regarding Freedom of Religion. NOBODY is discriminated against for their faith, regardless of what is going on outside of our borders. Whether or not Christians and Jews can build their houses of worship in Saudi-Arabia or Mecca is IRRELEVANT here. It’s true that a small but very dangerous sect of Islam is a threat to anyone that gets in their way. But that has NOTHING to do with us and how we run our country. Generalizations like “I learned all I needed to know about Islam on 9/11” are dangerous at best and disgusting at worst.
I hear arguments against this proposed center that focus on how “Muslims” should be sympathetic and compassionate regarding the feelings of their neighbors. But the only message I’m hearing is that non-Muslim feelings are the only ones that matter!
Newflash: Innocent Muslims died on 9/11 as well. Not only that but American Muslim soldiers have died fighting for US causes in the middle-East! I keep hearing this nonsense that American Rights are being violated. No, no they aren’t…not yet. And I keep hearing that “the Muslims” should be more considerate of American feelings. I’m guessing we only count non-Muslim citizens as American now?
The issue feels complicated because of the intense and multi-layered feelings surrounding the events that happened only a few blocks away. I completely understand that. However, it is not a complicated issue! The bottom line is that someone wants to build a religiously oriented community center on their private property. That is their constitutional right. End of story. The proposed community center isn’t even AT ground zero, it’s a couple of blocks away. A few blocks away from from Ground Zero in the other direction is ::drumroll please:: A MOSQUE!!!!
The only thing my fellow Americans are doing by making such a big bloody stink out of it is fueling the ill-sentiments between our countrymen.
It’s really sad to see this on my own home soil. Bigotry. Racism. Fueled by the very same things racism and bigotry have been fueled by since lost ages: Fear and Ignorance. We are better than this, guys. That is why we have so many Muslim people here from the Middle-East! If these people wanted to live in a place that was as bigoted and intolerant as their homeland then they would have stayed in their homeland!
People are PISSED that Obama took them to task over this issue and I have to scratch my head in puzzlement over how they could possibly be surprised. I’m not an Obama “supporter” per se, but I do seem to remember a huge part of his platform being about change and about breaking down barriers of racism and bigotry. HELLO PEOPLE?!!!
It should go without saying that the events of 9/11 were an unprecedented tragedy in our history. Absolutely. The agony of loss and the sting of betrayal are not something we are going to be quick to forget. It is completely absurd to think that the Muslim community, particularly those who are actually from the Middle-East, doesn’t understand the devastation and havoc wreaked by terrorism. They lived with this every day of their lives until they came here. We must be careful to guard ourselves against becoming as narrow minded and fanatically driven as those who caused the tragedy in the first place. It isn’t a victory for terrorists if that center gets built. Terrorism is effective in as much as it cows the general populace and incites panic and fear. As it has been said: Fear is the Mind-killer.
If we allow ourselves to get caught up in the rabid hysteria against Islam in general, then the terrorists have won.
yes, yes, yes.
have you seen this?
http://snarla.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/venn-diagram-al-qaeda-islam-muslims.jpg
it annoys me to no end that people keep insisting that muslims are the enemy when TERRORISTS are the real enemy, you know? *sigh*
Twitter: RCThoughtfulMom
says:
No I had not seen that but it’s really just…wow!!! Can I post this to FB?
The problem with the premise of your argument is that America was founded on the principle of freedom from the religious persecution of Christians who weren’t welcome in their home countries in Europe. It was not founded on the principle of religious freedom for anyone else. And whether or not the more intelligent of our forefathers intended to include the religious freedom of non-Christians is, well, a matter of controversy. There was no religious freedom for the native tribes during the early years of European settlement. There was no religious freedom for those unwillingly imported from Africa, and there was no religious freedom for those who came here from Japan, China, Korea, or Vietnam.
It’s certainly not any different today. The attitude of “religious freedom for ME, but not for YOU” is still glaringly obvious in every sector of society, in every state, in every city, suburb, and rural area. Some places have managed to create microsocieties so that like-minded individuals can move together in the same circles, and the surrounding communities usually exist in a sort of uneasy tolerance that varies from polite but frosty smiles when people pass on the streets to barely-contained violence held to a simmer by vigorous law enforcement, but it is not the same as true accepance, and it is not true freedom.
I expect I’ll spend the rest of my life fending off my own extended family, missionaries, well-meaning parent groups, neighbors, teachers, administrators, law enforcement, and trying to avoid the notice of child services, because my religion isn’t tolerated here. The only reason pagans are off the front pages of newspapers today is because the most recent violent-crazy offender group happens to have called themselves Muslim. It wouldn’t take a very large event to change the tides and make another non-Christian group Public Enemy #1 again.
Twitter: RCThoughtfulMom
says:
Sunny you make a very good point. Racism and religious bigotry aren’t new here and I didn’t mean to imply that it was. I’m just really disgusted to see such simple-minded hatred being spewed by people who think they are better than the extremists who spew simple-minded hatred. It’s absurd. Whether individually practiced or respected or not, constitutionally, we have religious freedom. People also have that right to be bigoted assholes within their hearts but that doesn’t change the fact that legally, this is a simple issue and the “debate” is ridiculous.
I can’t help but wonder how long it will be before we’ve got “Muslim” camps. Hell maybe we can use the same ones we stuffed all the Asian people into during the LAST fear-driven hysteria. @@
Thanks for this. It’s good to hear people thinking through the issues.
There is always more that unites us than divides us. I was particularly struck by this when visiting the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus “Initially, the Muslim conquest of Damascus in 634 did not affect the church, as the building came to be shared by Muslim and Christian worshippers. ” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umayyad_Mosque
It’s interesting to see through history how communities and faiths have been tolerant and supportive of each other, as well as the times they’ve been intolerant and destructive. Although, wouldn’t it be great now to see a building that was part church, part mosque, and part synagogue? After all, technically, we all worship the same God, albeit in different ways and with different emphasis. But, I really believe if you look for the common ground, you can usually find it!
Very well said!
Twitter: RCThoughtfulMom
says:
Barroness Black, I had not heard that before! That’s amazing! I agree that we all worship the same God and it makes me sad to see so much hatred destroying our collective people’s ability to truly love our neighbors. I don’t believe we show God’s love to anybody by persecuting them for not worshiping the way we do.
Tenielle, thanks!