Thread: Mosque to be built close to Ground Zero

I disagree. I think this whole mess is just ridiculous and mostly just ignorant Americans spouting hate. The Cordoba House is a center for Muslim-West relations that is supposed to promote interfaith understanding. It has a mosque inside of it but it is technically not a traditional mosque. The Cordoba House is a center open to the whole community, it is not a gathering place for Al-Qaeda. People are not taking the time to learn what the Cordoba Initiative even is about they hear the word Muslim and instantly think of terrorists.

I am very happy that Mayor Bloomberg understands the importance of upholding the U.S constitution and our civil liberties. Something Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and the many opponents to this center do not seem to comprehend. The Huffington Post has a nice collection of stupid quotes you should check out.

Anyway to get a better understanding of this whole deal i highly recommend this more up to date article by John L. Esposito.

Nah True, you're full of it. Gonna be a bad thing here. Jmho, but nevertheless......a bad thing.

Why will it be a bad thing?

I genuinely loathe it when an entire group of people are somehow held responsible for the actions of a few. To say that it's insensitive or related to Al-Queida in any way is just absurd.

I'd have to agree with those who think it's a good idea. This is a powerful statement to the entire Muslim world that we ARE accepting of the faith, and we're NOT holding grudges. [Whether or not that's strictly true....] This is the best PR campaign you could ever dream up for the United States. And, I think there's no good reason why it shouldn't be built- if this was a church, or a synagogue, no one would care. But because it's a Mosque, suddenly there's a problem? Smacks of discrimination to me. Nah, I'm totally for this.

Ok...finally got time to expound on this. To me (I can't speak for the other people here in the USA), this smacks of rubbing our (Americans) faces in it. "OK, we blew your buildings all to Hell, now we're gonna piss on the site too" by building a Mosque there.

I understand perfectly that all Muslims are not martyrs or looking for jihad. One of my best friends is of the Muslim faith. And I agree that painting the entire Muslim faith with the same brush is wrong. I'm not trying to do that at all. I have no problem with "Live and let live". Discrimination? Not to me.

The Imam who is leading the project says having a mosque at the site of the terrorist attacks will send a signal to extremists, the New York Times reports:

Yup, it'll send a message, the one I just said above.

I guess I fail to see how they aren't Americans, just like us. So, wouldn't that be like slapping themselves in the face?

It seems like if they bought it they should do what they want with it. Someone would have to step in and deny them their religious freedom, and that hardly seems like "the american way".

Originally Posted by Like2spray

Ok...finally got time to expound on this. To me (I can't speak for the other people here in the USA), this smacks of rubbing our (Americans) faces in it. "OK, we blew your buildings all to Hell, now we're gonna piss on the site too" by building a Mosque there.

That's bullshit though. You can't say that in the same breath that you say not all Muslims are jihadists. "We" refers to the terrorists who blew up the towers, not every single Muslim on the planet. It's a different "we" to the guys who are building a mosque that isn't even on the actual site. Also, who cares if the extremists like it? It's not like they'll do anything differently as a result.

Originally Posted by True

Firstly the "one of my best friends is Muslim" argument is exactly like the "i'm not racist i have black friends" or "i'm not homophobic i have gay friends". So lets just acknowledge your prejudice for what it is.

Exactly. I think anytime you start a statement with "I'm not racist, but...." pretty much means that you are, in fact, racist.

Building a temple is not pissing and rubbing it in our faces. It's building a temple. If you believe that not all Muslims are extremists, then why can't the non-extremist Muslims build a temple near Ground Zero? Otherwise, yes, you ARE saying that basically all Muslims are extremists because obviously it doesn't matter what the people actually building the mosque say, we can't trust them, they're REALLY in cahoots with al-quaida and they're REALLY just pissing on us, they're not making a peaceful overture or being respectful or anything like that at all, nope. Impossible!