Monday, August 16, 2010

"Ground Zero Mosque"

God knows I wanted to avoid addressing this egregious instance of right-wing propaganda. But that became impossible when my mother called me from Canada all terrified to ask: "Is it true that Obama is building a mosque on Ground Zero?" It took me a while to explain why the American President is not in charge of municipal construction projects, but even that didn't help lower her concern.

The following picture summarizes my attitude to the whole "Ground Zero Mosque" hysteria:

I found it here. There is hardly anything more one can add to this intelligent post and the great illustration.

10 comments:

David Gendron said...

hahahahha! Nice idea! :)

My position on this issue is the following:

1) If some organisation possesses without agression some piece of land, the possessor can build a mosque on this piece of land. This is called "possession right" (I favor this) and this applies to property right (which I'm against because it sticks with the time) too. The new thing here is that many capitalists are against the property rights...just for this mosque!

2) All of these mosques, churches, synagogues and other religious temples are pieces of shit and I disapprove all of them. Thus I have no problem to protest against that kind of religious temple. But again, this is not the matter of the State and this mosque can be build because of 1), and the same christians have no problem with "Faith initiative" and "No child left behind" government-christian bullshit!

3) But we should question the government of The Netherlands on this issue. Netherland's governement subsidizes the same islamic organisation than the promoters of this new mosque, and this is unacceptable!

http://www.minbuza.nl/en/Key_Topics/Millennium_Development_Goals_MDGs/Dutch_aim_for_MDG_3/MDG3_Fund/List_of_45_Projects/American_Society_for_Muslim_Advancement_ASMA

Clarissa said...

You either accept the construction of all kinds of religious temples or you accept none of them. Deciding which one is "better" is unacceptable for a country where the freedom of religion is a huge part of the Constitution.

David Gendron said...

Personnally, I will be more precise, I accept all religious temples, but I protest against them all!

Steve Hayes said...

I've no idea what is proposed, who is proposing it, or what the objections to the proposal are. All I've seen is that there seems to be a big fuss being made over it.

And, as someone pointed out, what's one mosque next to a ground zero in New York when the Americans have put dozens of ground zeroes next to mosques in Iraq.

Melissa said...

I am floored that this has turned into such a big deal.

Of course it's not surprising that the far rightwing Tea Party types are coming up with shit like this...but the fact that the mainstream media sees it as an opportunity for reasonable debate? That even some otherwise intelligent, rational people can regard this as more than just Fox News' typical wingnuttery? Unbelievable.

HOW IS THIS EVEN A QUESTION?

(Didn't mean to explode all over your blog; I know you agree. My frustration is with the situation, not with this post.

Richard said...

“Ground Zero” is already close to strip clubs, adult bookstores and goodness knows what else. So the idea that a Mosque would demean the memory of those who died there strikes me as a bit silly. Unfortunately political demagogies of all stripes have taken the issue as their own and are daily issuing inflammatory, but empty clarion calls of one sort or another. There is no doubt that 9/11 was a tragic day for all Americans, but I don’t think denying any minority the rights they have under the Constitution is a good way to memorialize it.

ej said...

I'm glad you posted on this, Clarissa. Did you read that NYT article about how the hysteria about this mosque is leading to little Muslim-hating groups around the country opposing the constructions of mosques all over the US? There are some really horrifying quotes in that article. One person, for instance, claimed that Muslims should not be protected by freedom of religion because Islam is hell-bent on replacing the Constitution with Sharia law. Really frightening stuff.

I haven't been terribly impressed with Obama (and didn't expect to be when he got elected), but his speech saying that we have to let all Americans practice their religions freely made me happy (though it's crazy that that even needed to be said).

Clarissa said...

ej: I know what you mean about Obama! Because of the crazy birthers and all those people (20% of the population, isn't it?) who believe he is a Muslim, I imagine that it must be tough for him to stand his ground on this issue. But it's time for us to have a president who is familiar with the Constitution of the United States.

There are people who claim they are so patriotic but have no idea that one of the central tenets behind the very creation of this country is the freedom of religion.

This whole instance of public hysteria is beyond appalling. The unemployment is still very high. Many people's unemployment benefits are running out, education is suffering huge budget cuts everywhere, soldiers are still dying needlessly and killing people for no reason across the world. But still there are huge groups of people who are howling at the moon because of a community center and mosque. That's beyond crazy.

Xavier said...

News Corp’s number-two shareholder funded ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ planner

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100820/bs_yblog_upshot/news-corps-number-two-shareholder-funded-terror-mosque-planner

Anonymous said...

Sod the mosque...what a way to stop terrorists from flying another plane into that site!