Fareed Zakaria and the "Terror Mosque"

When I was in grade school, some 10-15 years ago, I was taught, somewhat naively, that the US was the beacon of freedom and justice in the world. And I still believe that, in comparison to other nations, it still, in many ways, is, even if we are plagued by corruption and greed at every level of government.

Yet even as I grew older and became more disillusioned with the world around me, I still believe in the American idea, the nation of freedom and opportunity, where anyone, of any creed and any faith, can succeed.

Which is why I am deeply disgusted by the behavior of Americans in light of the Cordoba House in New York City, some two blocks away from where the World Trade Centers once stood. Many Americans feel that such a "mosque" (and I put mosque in quotations because it is not a mosque, it is more of a YMCA type of place with a room for prayer) is offensive to the victims of that terrible Tuesday morning. Yet, the Cordoba House is only offensive if you equate all Muslims to the type of Jihadist Islam that Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda embrace!

Islam, like Christianity, has many different sects and Al-Qaeda is only part of it. Claiming that all Muslims are supporters of anti-American, anti-Western terrorism, is nothing more than bigotry and ignorance. Many Muslims died on 9-11, other than the 19 hijackers, innocent Muslims, hated by Osama because they lived and worked in the United States and did not ascribe to his strict interpretation of Islam.

Fareed Zakaria, a political commentator on CNN.com explained this very well and below is a clip of his show hosted on Crooks and Liars.



As Zakaria explains, Al-Qaeda hates Sufi Islam. The Muslims building the Cordoba House are Sufi Muslims. It is asinine, stupid, and ignorant, to equate the Cordoba House with the terrorists who attacked us on 9-11, especially since those terrorists would glady kill Imam Faisal Rauf for the simple reason that he is a Sufi. There is absolutely no reason why anyone would be against this project.

And yet, these protesters are everywhere now. Not only in New York, but across the nation. According to Time Magazine, the city of Wilson Wisconsin had an ugly, hate-filled town meeting when a prominent doctor, Dr. Mansoor Mizra proposed construction of a mosque (Time Magazine, Aug 30, 2010, page 23.) One man even asked Dr. Mizra if there would be weapons training at the mosque.

Weapons training.

How stupid and bigoted can you get? The article goes on to describe some of the other idiotic statements brought up at the town meeting, such as "the political objective of Islam is to dominate the world with its teachings." Which is not true of all sects of Islam, as much as such a saying would not be true of all sects of Christianity or any other major religion. Its a sweeping generalization that does NOT describe moderate Islam and ignorantly mixes the every day moderates with the extremist Jihadist whom we are fighting in Afghanistan.

Another citizen said "I just think its not America." And this pissed me off. This was the inspiration of my opening paragraph. I was brought up to believe that America was a land of freedom, free expression, free religion, free speech, etc. America is strong because we stand behind its principles, we stand behind its freedoms. It isn't freedom for all, provided that you are a white christian, it is freedom for all, of any creed, ethnicity, faith, and so on. This freedom is the America I was taught about in grade school, not the America we have become, an America of fear and bigotry.

Its disgusting, and I am disgusted. 61% of Americans oppose the Cordoba House (Time, Aug 30, 2010, pg 23) and for what reason? Because it would be an 'insult to those who died on 9/11.' Muslims died on 9-11, Sufi Muslims who are not extremists, are not terrorists, died that day because they did not follow Bin Laden's strict beliefs. I think they'd be insulted. As well as everyone else who died that day, would be insulted to see us throw away Constitutionally protected rights that they died for. These people died because we have freedom of religion and now we're going to strip it away because we're afraid of some Islamic boogieman?


We are not Saudi Arabia. We are better than Saudi Arabia. Our Constitution is stronger than their monarchy. We shouldn't be stooping to their level. Saudi Arabia, where Mecca is located, does not believe in freedom of religion, a fundamental human right. This is immoral, but what can we do about it? The US has no jurisdiction over Saudi Arabia. But the US has jurisdiction over itself. It takes pride in its freedoms, it takes pride in its cultural diversity and so it should embrace the Cordoba House as a symbol of our religious tolerance, and not rejected it out of bigotry, fear, and hatred.

But no. Fareed Zakaria, I suppose, will be ignored, not only because he's rational and logical, but because he has brown skin and Arabic looking name, kinda like how 24% of Americans STILL BELIEVE OBAMA IS A MUSLIM (Time, Aug 30, 2010, pg 26) because his middle name is 'Hussain.' No, I suppose we'd rather live in ignorance and fear than actually learn about other cultures and learn to coexist with other people. I suppose we'd rather reject our Bill of Rights because we're afraid.

Thank you America for giving in to terrorism. Osama bin Laden has won. This is exactly what he'd want us to do, destroy our very freedoms ourselves.

I am disgusted.

Oh and before I finish, let me dispel some myths.

1. The Cordoba House is NOT a mosque, it is a community center with a prayer room.
2. The Cordoba House is NOT on Ground Zero, it is two blocks away in an abandoned Burlington Coat Factory that was damaged on 9-11
3. The Cordoba House is NOT opening on 9-11-11, that is an unsubstantiated rumor
4. Imam Faisal Rauf is NOT a radical, he is a Sufi Muslim "well known for supporting interfaith dialogue" (Time, Aug 30, 2010, pg 22)
   

Please America, stop spreading ignorance and hate. I was naive enough to think we had learned our lessons 50 years ago during the Civil Rights Movement . . . I guess we haven't.

J Kuhl Signing Off

America is a Land of the Free

Before I even begin, let me fully quote my favorite part of the US Constitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Now, in New York, there's a bunch of stupid ignorant crap going on about a mosque being built within the vicinity of Ground Zero. The ignorant bigots claim that it'll be opened on 9-11-11, to mock Americans, but that rumor has never been substantiated at all.

And now they've gone further. A conservative group has called to ban all mosques in the US. And there have been numerous protests lately over other planned mosques in the US.

This frightens me because another guy in another nation tried banning a religion, some sixty years ago.



His name was Hitler.

Last I checked, America promised freedom of religion, freedom to believe whatever you desire. Muslims have every right to practice their religion, as much as any other religion. The vast majority of the Muslims do not profess the radical beliefs that the 19 hi-jackers from Al-Quaeda did on 9-11. Most are disgusted by the acts of the Taliban, Al-Quaeda and other extremists and many came here for American freedoms.

Now that they've come, we're going to betray them with bigotry? We're going to ignore our most sacred Amendment, the one protecting our most valued freedoms because we're scared? We're going to turn to ignorance and hate because we're frightened of some bogey man from the middle east? Is the (F)Right Wing out of their ever-loving minds? We built this nation on the idea of freedom and we don't need to go tearing that down because we've become so ignorant as to be afraid of some Muslims. 90% of the Muslims here in the US are ordinary people.

Sure, we have our fair share of radicals. We got the guy who failed to blow up a car bomb in times square and the major who gunned down several servicemen in Fort Hood, and so on, but they represent a radical extremist view point that most muslims do not share.

Some people argue that all Muslims are extremist because the Koran tells them to murder people who aren't Muslim. By this logic, Judeo-Christains are also murderers. The Old Testement is filled with Hebrews killing non-Hebrews in the name of God.

Why don't we start living up to our own standards and behaving as if we believed in the strength of our own Constitution? A mosque 2 blocks from 9-11 (actually, Islamic culture center) is not anything to throw a fit about. We should welcome it really, and show the world we really do believe in freedom of religion.

And we definitely do not want to be this:



Oh and if Sarah Palin wishes to profess to be a lover of the Constitution, she needs to embrace the construction of this Islamic center, not condemn it.

Then again, if she ever says anything with an iota of intelligence, I'll eat my hat.

J Kuhl Signing Off