If you have been following the news, you will notice the issues that dominate national and cable news concern very specialized citizens of this country, yet the pundits have made it all of our business. Now, I am forced to have an opinion regarding the proposed mosque at Ground Zero.
Before we get into these issues, let me tell you what Sarah Palin has to say about the proposed Islamic cultural center’s construction. Last July, Palin’s Twitter account called for “peace-seeking Muslims” to help halt the progress of the proposed cultural center, which is planned to be built on the land formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory.
All Muslims are “peace-seeking Muslims.” The idea to put the cultural center in the same neighborhood as Ground Zero is not an insensitive one. Surely, to the rest of the nation, the diction that produced “Ground Zero mosque” makes the project seem like a bad idea — that would be. But the proposed site is not Ground Zero. But Newt Gingrich and Palin, your wishes are granted.
When did Islam become abject? Like, the religion — not the rightist rhetorical technique. Yes, we can trace some of the most significant acts of violence in recent American history to various levels of deviations from Islam. Yes, we did aggressively engage two nations with high Muslim populations.
But when has the American culture been one to generalize an entire people based on the misconceptions and fear-mongering of its policy makers? Oh. If the principal organizer of the project can finance the construction, it should be done with the approval of the City of New York.
Tons of construction workers are refusing to work on the project, but their unity is nonexistent. New York construction worker Mike Bakovic told AOL News he would work pro bono on the construction of the cultural center.
“Muslim people have the freedom of religion, same as everyone else, the Jew, the Catholic, everyone else,” Bakovic said. “Islam is peaceable, like every other religion.”
Obviously, families that lost loved ones during the attacks on Sept. 11 should, intuitively speaking, be against the cultural center’s construction. But not all of them are. According to the Associated Press, New Yorker Talat Hamdani lost her son — an EMT — to the attack, yet she supports its construction. She is not the only New Yorker who lost a loved one who supports the cultural center.
A version of this article appeared in the Aug 25 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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Ben Woody, this is quality stuff. Couldn't have said it better myself.
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"But when has the American culture been one to generalize an entire people based on the misconceptions and fear-mongering of its policy makers?" You clearly didn't get much exposure to American immigration history in high school US history. American culture has consistently generalized entire people groups based on misconceptions (irish, native americans, catholics, etc etc etc). It's what we do.
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What's more offensive is when tourists treat ground zero like it's times square:
http://hotchickssmilingatgroundzero.com/
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"This problem is not America’s problem  it is New York’s topic for debate." - So was 9/11 not America's problem but just New York's?
"I believe building that cultural center would be like giving Osama bin Laden and the Taliban and Al-Qaeda the middle finger." - You never checked history did you? It is common for Muslim nations to destroy iconic structures and rebuild mosques on top of them. Letting them build a mosque near Ground Zero is not a 'middle finger' response.
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Unless you believe that all Muslims destroyed the Burlington Coat Factory and then decided to build a mosque on it -- your second point is invalid.
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Oh, it's exclusively New York's problem? Cool. New York doesn't need my tax dollars in the form of federal funding for terrorism, then, because it's their problem.
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One does not have a thing to do with the other
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Well, everyone who is outraged by a mosque being built should boycott oil from Muslim countries. That'll show em!
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So now it is a cultural center, eh?
And people believe this? Amazing. Who was it who said, "A sucker is born every minute"?
Studies done on mosques in the West (and this includes mosques in Europe) indicate a significant majority of them preach and teach hatred of the West.
No doubt, though, the "Park 51 Mosque" will not be like all these other Mosques, and will instead be a place of love, compassion and tolerance.
The wonderful thing about all this is it's not too far from the Brookly Bridge and that bridge is for sale and I'm the listing agent. Please contact me with any serious offers for purchase of said propetrty.
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what studies? show em.
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