Nothing. Islam is the largest religion in the world. The extremists fit into a small minority. Therefore, it would be irrational to suggest in any way that a mosque is a symbol of terrorism or a threat to the USA.
Fox news recently did an interview the Republican Senator of Texas, John Cornyn. When asked about this topic, Cornyn said, "Whether you're connected with people, whether you're listening or whether you're lecturing to them, I think this is sort of the dichotomy that people sense, that they're being lectured to, not listened to, and I think that's the reason why a lot of people are very upset with Washington," Cornyn said.
As you can see, he is playing the "Americans are being condescended to by the elite Ivy League liberal grads" card. This is a recurring theme and tasteless strategy used by Republicans whose constituencies consists of back-woods hicks and low IQ hillbillies. That's who buys the rhetoric of repubs such Cornyn, unlike us educated elitist northern folk. Now I understand that as a libertarian, I agree more with republicans than I do democrats. However, many of the tactics I see used by republicans in their arguments just seem phony and calculated. The "common sense" approach to everything in politics is getting tiring to say the least.
One of the common arguments against the building of the mosque near ground zero is that it insensitive to those who died on 9-11. I do not understand this one bit. By doing research, one can easily find out that Muslims too perished in the 9-11 attacks, along with Christians and many other religious people. Whether or not building the mosque is in "bad taste" is completely subjective. What is objective is the law and the constitution, which both fall on the side of those who wish to build the mosque.
These arguments for government intervention in a religious freedom issue mainly plays on the emotions of Americans who are sensitive to what happened in the atttacks on the Twin Towers. For those of who are mature and intelligent, labeling any mosque as a terrorist base/breeding ground is illogical upon any fair analysis. But not for many flag-waving lunatics, apparently.
Ironically, it seems that the Americans who are the most patriotic are the ones that you are most embarrassed to share the same nationality with.
2 comments:
I stumbled upon this blog, and I have enjoyed reading it so far.
I was neutral to the Ground Zero Mosque, but I guess conservative bloggers have swayed me against its construction.
I think Charles Krauthammer has a good point (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/12/AR2010081204996.html)
The Maverick Philosopher, Bill Vallicella, also brings up some excellent points if you're interested (http://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2010/08/more-on-the-ground-zero-mosque.html#more).
Best,
Jeff Hammond
And that is where most conservatives lose their credibility...the rule of law is on the side of the Muslims in this case. Most of what I read from people who are against the building of the mosque are nothing more than attempts to play on the emotions of sensitive Americans, rather than objectively seeing this as an issue of religious freedom, which we all have here in this country.
Following their logic, Mosques are to be seen as symbol of terrorism. This does nothing but breed hatred toward those that had nothing to do with what occurred on 9-11.
The Krauthammer article that you linked was very interesting to say the least. I found it astounding at how well he masked the fact that he was typing blatant contradicts; on one hand, he fully admitted that the Muslims had the religious right to build the Mosque and that a very small minority were terrorist.
However, he concluded that the mosque still shouldn't be built, and used examples of zoning laws that we have in this country that restricted things such as liquor stores next to schools. What he fails to realize is that a place of worship is in no way harmful to the people of New York, while his examples were.
Thanks for linking the other blog Jeff, I will certainly check that out as well.
Take Care
Post a Comment