Mosque Madness
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| Fox News - 8/2/2010 |
LeeZard is troubled by the broohaha over the planned Islamic Community Center and Mosque near “Ground Zero” in New York City’s lower Manhattan. I am more than troubled; anything that breeds prejudice and hate (= ignorance) makes me sick.
Rick Lazio, the Republican front-runner in the New York State gubernatorial race, calls the imam behind the center’s development a “terrorist sympathizer.”
Sarah Palin Tweeted after President Obama expressed support for the development, “Mr. President, why are they so set on marking an area w/ mosque steps from what you described, in agreement with many, as "hallowed ground”? (Grammatical error – question mark outside of quotes – is hers).Palin further mangles the language with this Tweet, “"Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn't it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate." Arrrrghhhh!!
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) joined the fray. He said, “it is analogous to allowing the Nazis to put a sign next to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The New York imam leading the project, Gingrich charges, is a “radical Islamist.”
And, saddest of all, the Anti-Defamation League, which proclaims at the top of its Web site homepage, “Fighting Anti-Semitism, extremism and bigotry,” stunned many when it came out against the community center/mosque. Said the ADL, “while "proponents of the Islamic Center may have every right to build at this site, and may even have chosen the site to send a positive message about Islam," it is ultimately "not a question of rights, but a question of what is right."
Moreover, despite "the bigotry some have expressed in attacking" those behind the building of the mosque (which the ADL deems "unfair" and "wrong"), it is their judgment that "building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain - unnecessarily - and that is not right."
Puh-leeze, you can’t have it both ways. If you are fighting bigotry then fight all bigotry. This contradictory stance is not new for the ADL. LeeZard once sat on the Board of the Seattle chapter of the Anti-Defamation League. I quit because the organization wanted to suspend the Bill of Rights First Amendment (Freedom of Speech) and block Neo-Nazi groups from marching in Chicago.
There is no evidence that the man behind the Islamic Center, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, has any connection to terrorism. In fact, according to Time Magazine (8/3/10) he is, “actually the kind of Muslim leader right-wing commentators fantasize about: modernist and moderate who openly condemns the death cult of al-Qaeda and its adherents — ironically, just the kind of "peaceful Muslims" whom Sarah Palin, in her now infamous tweet, asked to "refudiate" the mosque. Rauf is a Sufi, which is Islam's most mystical and accommodating denomination.”
Additionally, the proposed center is not at Ground Zero. It is actually five blocks away from the World Trade Center site and there are other mosques nearby. The Associated Press instructed its reporters and writers NOT to use the term "Ground Zero Mosque." Yet, polls show that more than 60% who responded are against the new Islamic Center. LeeZard isn't one of them.
Unless and until anyone can prove that Feisal Abdul Rauf has terrorist connections, he has every right to build that center wherever he damn pleases. I don’t like Islamic terrorists any more than I like Nazis but our democracy cannot survive if we systematically pick and choose who gets to enjoy our freedoms and who doesn’t.
And, saddest of all, the Anti-Defamation League, which proclaims at the top of its Web site homepage, “Fighting Anti-Semitism, extremism and bigotry,” stunned many when it came out against the community center/mosque. Said the ADL, “while "proponents of the Islamic Center may have every right to build at this site, and may even have chosen the site to send a positive message about Islam," it is ultimately "not a question of rights, but a question of what is right."
Moreover, despite "the bigotry some have expressed in attacking" those behind the building of the mosque (which the ADL deems "unfair" and "wrong"), it is their judgment that "building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain - unnecessarily - and that is not right."Puh-leeze, you can’t have it both ways. If you are fighting bigotry then fight all bigotry. This contradictory stance is not new for the ADL. LeeZard once sat on the Board of the Seattle chapter of the Anti-Defamation League. I quit because the organization wanted to suspend the Bill of Rights First Amendment (Freedom of Speech) and block Neo-Nazi groups from marching in Chicago.
Additionally, the proposed center is not at Ground Zero. It is actually five blocks away from the World Trade Center site and there are other mosques nearby. The Associated Press instructed its reporters and writers NOT to use the term "Ground Zero Mosque." Yet, polls show that more than 60% who responded are against the new Islamic Center. LeeZard isn't one of them.
Unless and until anyone can prove that Feisal Abdul Rauf has terrorist connections, he has every right to build that center wherever he damn pleases. I don’t like Islamic terrorists any more than I like Nazis but our democracy cannot survive if we systematically pick and choose who gets to enjoy our freedoms and who doesn’t.
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