- Joined
- Mar 21, 2005
- Messages
- 25,893
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- Location
- New York, NY
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- Political Leaning
- Slightly Conservative
As I see it, there are 68% of Americans who can't make a difference between terrorist criminal monsters and the religion of Islam. There is no point in debating that: Either you think the entire religion has to be held responsible for 9/11, or you have no problem with a mosque there. There is no grey area.
I just don't understand how you can possibly think this is so black and white.
I think they have an absolute right to build their mosque there. I'm not offended by their decision. I even think it's somewhat irrational to be particularly upset by this. However, a blind, deaf and dumb 8 year old could have predicted that there would have been a fair number of people who would be upset by this, regardless of whether it would be rational for them to feel that way. I think that if all else was equal, it would be a better decision in terms of avoiding controversy for the backers of this mosque to have chosen a different location. I understand that all else is probably not equal, and that there are probably several reasons why they would choose this place over the alternatives. However, that doesn't mean that I can't think that it would be fortuitous if there happened to be another location available that served everyone's needs even better. Even if the people opposed to the location are entirely irrational, they're still people who may be less favorable toward Islam in general upon seeing this. That would be a shame, and a step in the wrong direction for improving relations. You can call that dumb, but it's a simple reality.
And don't attack a strawman. Nowhere did I equate gassing millions of people with opposition to building a mosque.
But the xenophobic, bigoted climate against an entire religion is definitely comparable. You could easily get the anti Muslim croud for whom "Islam = terrorism" to support a "final solution of the Muslim question", there is not the slightest doubt about it. Just read what these people write on forums like this one. Not even mentioning what you could hear on American streets in the first few months and years after 9/11.
"Nowhere did I equate the gassing of millions of people to the opposition to this mosque. I just said that it's definitely comparable and that it's entirely plausible to believe that opposition to this mosque will lead to another holocaust."