3 Responses to “Ground Zero Tolerance”

1. 1 DT August 24, 2010 at 3:22 am

   Strippers didn’t run airplanes into the two towers.

   Let’s be honest here. If the terrorists had been IRA Catholics, and if the building being proposed were a Catholic church, I have little doubt that those calling for tolerance would be demanding that Catholics show tolerance towards the sensitivity of the victims, the exact opposite of what we see today. It’s not even a question in my mind. “Religious freedom” would take a back seat to “victim sensitivity” if the religion in question were a majority religion in the U.S., one that liberals tend to dislike.

   And you know what? That’s OK because it should in either case. The Muslims who want to build a mosque there have shown incredibly poor taste. Imagine a Christian wanting to build a church next to a bombed out then rebuilt abortion clinic where dozens of women and doctors had died. Even if the Christian in question denounced the bomber, it would still be insensitive and crude. Why rub salt into the raw nerves of people who have suffered so much? A church or mosque can’t be built down the street?

   Sorry, I’m with the people complaining on this one. If push came to shove in a court battle I would want to see the law upheld. But before it ever reaches that point some Muslims with a little more common sense and decency should pull the Muslims who are trying to build the mosque aside and say “Hey, it doesn’t help our faith, image, or community standing to do this. Let’s just accept that these people were traumatized and give them a wide berth so they come to respect us rather than fear or hate us. If we show them care and respect they won’t associate us with the monsters who did this, and maybe when their nerves aren’t so raw we will be able to build here as friends.”

   It’s like the difference between a cop screaming “you have no right to photograph here” and a person on the street nicely asking “please, I do not wish to be photographed.” The law and my rights are the same in either case. But when someone asks nicely sometimes you just accept they have their reasons and feelings about it and move on out of common decency.

   Reply
   • 2 babydiscarted August 24, 2010 at 6:39 am

     @DT – You raise some good points here. But sadly, this whole furor has served to reinforce radical Muslims’ view of the west and enables them to justify their actions.

     http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129387963

     I can see there is insensitivity there, but the larger point is that it makes us look bad to be so intolerant. There are some core principles this country was founded on, and religious discrimination is not one of them.

     Reply
2. 3 eliot August 24, 2010 at 9:19 am

   “Strippers didn’t run airplanes into the two towers.”

   Neither do muslims. Zealots do.

   Would you ban churches from Oklahoma City because the perpetrators of the OKC bombing belonged to a Christian Identity church? Then why would you possibly conflate ‘muslim’ with ‘terrorist?’

   Reply