So, how do they start off the article?
The "Ground Zero Mosque" (officially Park51 and formerly the Cordoba House) is a proposed Muslim mosque under construction two blocks away from the former World Trade Center, which Muslims destroyed on 9/11, killing almost 3,000 people.And we're off to a great start! Even the name itself is misleading, emotional string-tugging propaganda. How? The mosque is not going to be built on Ground Zero. It's going be in the vicinity of Ground Zero, like two blocks away. Also, it's going to be a community center, which will have an auditorium, a theater, a performing arts center, a gym, a pool, a basketball court, a daycare, a bookstore, a cooking school, a food court, and yes, a prayer space. So if they were going to be more accurate, they should call it the Near Ground Zero Community Center. But that's much less scary to white people
And how about the way they word it? It sounds like they think 9/11 wasn't an act of terrorism by a radical fringe group of Muslim extremists trying to affect political change, but a collective declaration of war by Islam itself. When a Christian shoots a doctor that provides abortions, does everybody consider all Christians violent extremists. When Tim McVeigh blew up a building to try and spark a righteous war against the government, were all Christians terrorists? Or did people realize that just because someone has perverted a belief system into a justification for things unjustifiable, they aren't actually representative of that belief system? Because this is no different that a Muslim terrorists. Extremists who have taken a belief system and perverted it into a justification for violence to meet their political ends. It's not unique to one religion. It's not even unique to religion itself
This whole thing is disgusting. All the arguments of the community center's opponents basically boil down to the idea that building it in proximity to Ground Zero would be "insensitive".
Does anybody remember the time after 9/11? Do you remember people defiantly saying that we need to continue living our lives as usual, and that we can't compromise our ideals, because if we do we're handing a victory to those who attacked us? As cliche as it sounds, it's kind of true
Muslim have a guaranteed constitutional right to free worship, and that absolutely included the right to build a place of worship on private property. Nobody can be denied that right just because it might hurt somebody's feelings. That's a complete betrayal of the ideals of America, a betrayal of one of the core reasons for many of the colonists leaving England and coming to the New World - religious freedom
And when it comes to things like freedom of speech or religion, it's the unpopular positions that have to be defended and protected the most. No one is at risk of being denied the right to agree with everybody. No one is going to face opposition when building a Christian church, when the majority of people identify with that religion. These rights don't just exists to protect the people from government tyranny. They also serve to protect against a far more insidious kind of tyranny: tyranny of the majority. Tyranny of the majority is much more pressing threat, because all it takes is apathy and fear, and we have plenty of that. And when it becomes OK for one group to be denied their inalienable rights, all bets are off. You've opened the door to a huge shit storm. It's a very slippery slope, and one that's very hard to climb back up
I'll say something again that I think bears repeating: The Constitution is Sovereign. And the Constitution protects freedom of religion. It is completely independent of popularity. The people don't have the right to deny it. If the owners of the building want to build a community center, they have every right to. Sensitivity and feelings are completely irrelevant. As terrible as 9/11 was, it doesn't give anybody an excuse to demand a group be denied or give up their rights. I thought conservatives valued rights and liberty above all
I hate this phrase. It's said so often it's basically lost its meaning. It's basically used to describe anything conservatives don't like. But in this case, I think it's completely appropriate. This community center bullshit is un-American.
The worst part of all this? The bigotry is spreading. The issue is no longer confined to New York. All over the country, disgusting people are trying to prevent the building of mosques. At least with the New York situation, there's something to provide the emotionally driven backlash (regardless of how flimsy it is). But there were no terrorist attacks in these places. They're just ignorant morons who want to keep out people who are different than they are, or are given in to the asinine fear mongering that these mosques will be used as terrorist training camps
It's sad, it's despicable, it's disgusting, and it's shameful. And now I have to go unwind, because I'm seriously angry and it's probably giving me an ulcer
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