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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Religious Intolerance - The Intolerance of Those Claiming To Be Religious – Christian Theocracy

Throughout history, the one common denominator of most religions is the ideal of doing good and being a better person. Personal sacrifice, humility and integrity are also fundamental tenants.


So why is it that one religious group can hate and fear another group so badly? It isn't a new phenomenon. The Romans persecuted the Jews. Christians conducted the Crusades.

So the claim that Muslims are out to destroy Christians is just a continuation of a very old story.

It is said that the most horrific acts in history have been done in the name of "God".

I just don't get it. Well I do really; because none of this " God" fiction is real, so it makes humans that believe that God is real, crazy.

If you follow my blog you know that I don't believe in a "God" – at least the “god” that is talked about among most major organized religions. I just have too many questions for which there are no good answers. First and foremost, why would an all powerful being inflict so much pain and suffering on his people, especially the poor and downtrodden? Perhaps there is a larger force at work. I admit I do not have the answers but it seems to me that the stories of "Jesus" are really no different than those of Mercury, Venus or Zues.

I am in wonder of the majesty of nature and our universe. I also agree with the Dalai Lama:

"I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness...."
So I sit here perplexed about the ongoing fight over the Ground Zero Mosque, which is really more of a community center. To review: the Cordoba House will be two blocks away from the actual WTC site. It's being installed by American citizens, the chief of whom, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, is an American citizen who has worked with the Bush administration on Muslim outreach. These are peaceful Muslims who had absolutely nothing to do with the terrorist attacks nearby. The opponents have dubbed it the "Ground Zero Mosque" suggesting it is being built by terrorist and will be offensive to the memory of those who died.


While I have my own issues with organized religions, I believe strongly that everyone should be entitled to practice whatever religion they choose. Religion can be good. It provides comfort to millions. And the basic ideals of sacrifice and humility are valuable lessons for us all. So I just get so confused at the amount of time one religious group spends in seeking to defame and destroy another.

It seems straight forward to me - this country was founded on Freedom of Religion. The pilgrims fled Europe because they were being persecuted for the way they worship-- and now here we are doing the same to other Americans. Either we are a country that believes in Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Speech or we are not. If we live up to what we proclaim, then there are no grounds to deny the building of a Muslim Community Center anywhere in this country.

It must be an election year because Republicans are once again rolling out September 11 as a wedge issue. You know, because they care about honoring the fallen - when it helps them politically.

If we take Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Newt Gingrich at their word, their objection to the proposed community center two blocks north of Ground Zero is that the entire area is hallowed ground, and a Muslim facility so close to the site is an insult to the victims and heroes of September 11.

Of course this is entirely about stirring up anti-Muslim fear and demagoguery to score political points. It is a cheap and obvious exploitation of the widespread American prejudice that anyone who happens to be a Muslim is equally as guilty and offensive as the terrorists who hijacked and crashed two airplanes into the World Trade Center towers. Timothy McVeigh was raised as a Christian ... why not ban all Churches in Oklahoma City then? Or should we outlaw Catholic churches in light of all the sex abuse cases of priests molesting choir boys?

This theocratic mindset is dangerous. What this theocratic mindset illustrates is how actions are perceived depending on who is doing them. When a Conservative has extra-marital sex, they are a good person doing a bad thing. When a liberal is faithful to their spouse, they are a bad person doing a good thing. The default is that Christians are fundamentally good, but they sometimes do bad things, like murder gay people. Non-Christians are fundamentally bad, but they sometimes do good things, like allow Christians to discriminate against Muslims. Theocrats always know who the evil doers are - the ones for whom laws are made for - everyone except themselves.

This all comes down to persecution. One religious group persecuting another and if you don't practice a religion, they all persecute you. Ultimately if you are in a religion it is as if you are in a gang and your allegiance is with that gang and its rules. You must join the “gang” or be persecuted. Once you are a member of a religion (the gang) your allegiance is with that gang and its rules. Worse still, when the rules of the gang contradict the rules of the government - like it does here- you are asked to choose the rules of the gang or else.

There should be no question what to do but laws are blatantly ignored. That has been the problem throughout history – it is what religion has always done – and is why religion has no place in our government.

What are others saying?

  • Ted Olson, former George W. Bush solicitor general, attorney behind the case against California's gay marriage ban, and husband of a woman who died aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, said Wednesday that President Obama was right about his analysis of the "Ground Zero Mosque" as a constitutional right protected by the First Amendment.
  • Peter Beinart writes: "Yesterday, I wrote about what the "Ground Zero" mosque disaster reveals about the Republican Party. In short, it reveals that the Bush administration was a false dawn. Bush, for all his flaws, believed that the GOP should be a universalistic party based on traditional values, a big tent for “faith-based" conservatives of all races and creeds: Muslims, Hispanics, Mormons, African-Americans, whatever. Now it is clear that the post-Bush GOP is a far nastier creature: A party seething with hatred towards vulnerable religious and ethnic groups."
  • Robert Creamer writes: "Every time a Republican 'leader' attacks the notion that a mosque be built two blocks from Ground Zero, they legitimate the claims of Bin Laden to young impressionable Muslims across the world.
  • Donna Marsh O'Connor writes:  "Why would we support a mosque at Ground Zero, particularly when there are many families who say it pains them? And, too, because we know it really does. We are all, 9/11 families in pain. We do it because it's American."
  • Carla Seaquist writes:  "Let's face the fact: What does it mean to assert that a mosque "desecrates" hallowed ground? It means that the desecrating being done is by people who are evil, unclean. And that is wrong, wrong, wrong."
  • A group of conservative GOP Muslim and Arab American officials:  In a letter to Republican leaders, the group of authors criticized members of the party for abandoning the principle of tolerance that has defined the GOP from Lincoln to Bush. In the process, the authors -- who include former Bush administration official Randa Fahmy Hudome and former Reagan administration official and prominent D.C.-based lawyer George Salem, as well as David Ramadan, who worked on both of George W. Bush's campaigns -- make similar philosophical and substantive arguments as other defenders of the proposed Cordoba House.
But then there are others who have a much more extreme viewpoint.

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association Wants to Deport American Muslims.  Why, because he says that Islam is a religion of hate and Christianity is pure. That Jesus was the “Prince of Peace.” (I guess Fischer never heard about the Crusades. We know that Cheney did because he instituted means of “enhanced interrogation” which were used during the Crusades which were then referred to as torture.)
Next month, Fischer will be going big-time: He is listed as a "confirmed speaker" at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit (the AFA is an event sponsor), which is scheduled for September 17-19 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Other confirmed speakers include Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Rep. Mike Pence, and Mike Huckabee. It will be interesting to see what kind of reception he gets from the crowd if he goes full-bore Islamophobic. My guess is somewhere between shock and awe.


So let’s look into that idea that Christianity is a “better” religion.

We don't actually know what Jesus preached about anything (or even if there was an actual Jesus who bore any similarity to the legendary one). I'm not saying he didn't exist, but there certainly are no historical records proving his existence. And the words he supposedly said were not written down until 150 to 400 years after his supposed death, meaning multiple generations lived and died before Jesus' words transitioned from oral tradition to written gospels.

And, for what it's worth, the Koran is an often self-contradictory document, much like our Bible. You can find what you want in it. For every avocation of murder of the unbelievers (we have similar passages in the Bible) there are appeals for peace and tolerance. It's no more right to cherry pick the Koran that to cherry pick from Biblical passages.

So let's look at some "peaceful" Bible passages:
Leviticus 20:9

"'If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, and his blood will be on his own head."
Exodus 22:20
Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the LORD must be destroyed.
Deuteronomy 14:6-10
“If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is of thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. Thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God.
Leviticus 24:16
"Anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death."
Acts 3:23
"And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear the prophet, shall be destroyed."
Chronicles 15:13
All who would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman.
I don't believe that most Christians are bad or evil.  Nor do I believe that these passages were meant to promote hate and fear.  But why are so many so quick to condemn Muslims?

Hate and fear are divisive. The politics of using divisive issues to whip up your base is like smoking around a powder keg. We are all at risk!

Robert Creamer sums it up nicely.
It is also obvious that this is yet one more in a string of attempts by mainstream Republican leaders to win elections by dividing Americans against each other. The attack on Democrats who support the right of Muslim Americans to build a place of worship two blocks from Ground Zero in New York lies squarely in the tradition of the Republican "southern strategy" that fanned the fires of racial resentment and scapegoated black "welfare queens." And of course it's hot on the heels of Republican attempts to whip up fear of gay Americans and their right to marry, or depicting Latino Americans as encouraging pregnant Hispanic mothers to sneak across the border in order to "drop anchor babies" to guarantee American citizenship.

One big difference: All Muslims did not attack the United States that September day. A small group of radical Muslim terrorists attacked the United States. And they attacked all Americans -- including Muslim Americans -- many of whom died at Ground Zero. Chicago's Irish-American Mayor Daley was infuriated when a bunch of young "patriots" marched on a Chicago-area mosque after 9/11. He put it clearly when he said, does it make everyone who is Irish a terrorists because of the IRA?
America was founded on the concept of Freedom of Religion.  If you are a Christian you should stand up for the rights of religious Muslims to build their own house of worship.  Freedom only works if we are all free.  Don't let hate and fear win out.

41 comments:

  1. Here is a link to more quotes from the Dalai Lama:

    http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/dalai_lama.html

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  2. Fucking AMEN! You nailed it to the cross. Fantastic.

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  3. I think Obama is brave for doing what is right and not what is popular.
    He walks the talk. Thank you President Obama for your strength and wisdom. Sadly, most Americans are small minded and ignorant.

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  4. Newt Gingrich's comment that putting a mosque there is like putting a Nazi sign near the Holocaust museum is wrong. Nazi's as a group were responsible for the Holocaust; Islam was not responsible for 911. Al Quaeda was. You could say words in the Koran justified Al Quaeda, but you could also say words in the Bible encouraged the persecution of the Jews. This mosque issue is really about a religious war that heas been going on for thousands of years. Religion is culture dependent and many Americans are afraid of multi culturalism and politicians use that fear to win elections.

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  5. Yes, Ms. Walsh you a correct. The church going voting base, the masses that actually belief the theocratic BS don't even know they are being used and manipulated by their so called faith leaders. There are two distinctly different types of Republicans, 1.- Those red state folks who are dumb enough to belief the shit they shovel. ie. Sara Palin,
    Glen Beck etc. And 2.- The McCain, Cheney type republicans. Those who are smart enough to know people buy this load of shit and in turn use it for votes. They are smart enough to know it is wrong but they don't care they just want votes.

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  6. The United States is not a CHRISTIAN run country as much as Christians would like that to be the case! What the hell happened to the separation of church and state! Take God and religion out of the damn government. They are unrelated issues.

    We are a nation of countless faiths including non believers. The majority of Christian believers trying to bully anything different from their own narrow views are just wrong.

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  7. I really like your analogy of religions to "gangs." That really helps put things into perspective. Great article. R. Jenkins

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  8. I love how the miniscule number of people who practice the Muslim faith and brought down the towers are now the spokes people for the whole entire religion. If that's the case than we shouldn't let any more Catholic churches get built because they all rape little boys and no more Christian churches should be built because let's face it so much hate and war have been perpatrated in the name of Christianity that it aint even funny!!! love I'm so g0d damned fed up with all the stupidity, bigotry & hatred that is increasingly being practiced in this country, UNREAL!!

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  9. If it is such a big deal build a church and and a synagogue there too. Freedom of religion, right? The problem with the church is that there are so many Christian denominations that there will probably be such a long debate on whether the church should be Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Lutheran, etc. that the mosque and the synagogue will be built before the ground is broken for the church. I wonder what kind of church Christians would agree on. - cdhj12000

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  10. Churches and mosques offend me because they are symbols of people who believe in fairy tales.

    So lets not have any more religious buildings built.

    Oh, McDonalds offends me too, so please take those down.

    Julia Bailey

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  11. I fond this backlash extremely fake. No one wanted to ban any christian churches near the Oklahoma site after a white American Timothy McVeigh decided to level the place. This country has to enforce the law. Allowing this mosque to be built would prove that America practices what they preach, which is equality and religious freedom for all. I understand the pain that others who lost loved ones may be feeling. But do they want our country to become like the republican party and promote hate and division for the sake of appeasing angry christians who want revenge and votes? News flash, I think we are even now with muslims since we have gone in and killed thousands of them in Iraq and afghanistan with still no real resolution to any of our efforts. The only people who get a pass on this opposition are the actual victims who lost loved ones on 9/11. Other than that people need to calm down and remember a thing called the constitution, and let this mosque be built. This is why we are better than other countries, because we stand by our laws no matter how insenstive it may seem to others.

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  12. I fondly recall my last visit to the World Trade Center on a brilliant May day in 2001. I arrived early for an afternoon meeting with a client, had lunch by myself at that small park on Liberty Street, right at the corner of the Trade Center. It was a falafel, from one of the street vendor carts lining the park.

    What struck me was the amazing variety of people swirling through there, in all sorts of dress, from every corner of the world. It was like the UN, but without the stuffy diplomats.

    Having more time to kill before my meeting, I strolled a few blocks down to Wall Street, circled back through side streets crowded with yet more vendors, selling everything from Indian silks to Persian rugs and German toys. The Trade Center was a magnet for the world and all its diversity.

    The client I was visiting that day died four months later when a plane struck the building while he was having a breakfast meeting at the Windows on the World restaurant. I'll always remember him, but I'll also always remember how wonderful it was to feel I was visiting the world itself at that welcoming place.

    It is shameful we have lost that welcoming feeling and so many now oppose a religious center a couple of blocks away.

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  13. So today's new talking point for those opposed to the Islamic community center (no doubt given to them by Fox News) is this;

    "Sure, this group has the constitutional right to build this mosque, but should they? Why can't they be more sensitive?"

    So allow me to translate this... what the community center opponents are basically saying is the group shouldn't build the Islamic community center because they are Muslim and the 19 hijackers were Muslim. Their argument tries to connect the Sept. 11th attacks to the Islamic community center using religion as a common thread. In other words, a Muslim is a Muslim is a Muslim, which simply equates to the argument that if an African American robbed a liquor store, all African Americans rob liquor stores. The right is trying to look like they're "constitutional scholars" with this new argument, but it's simply old wine (bigotry and xenophobia) in new skins. -DRASH

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  14. "Are there many sushi bars around Pearl Harbor?"

    Uh, actually, yes. And plenty of other Japanese American businesses. In fact, quite a few of the politicians in Hawaii and Oahu are Japanese-American.

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  15. I have heard plenty of moderates condemn extremists, they just don't get much airtime to have their voices heard. Maybe foxnews should give them their own show. I wonder why republicans hate the constitution so much.

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  16. I would rather a mosque in my town than the Westboro baptist church. And I live in Manhattan.

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  17. Thank You President Obama for upholding the Constitution. It is what makes our country so great.

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  18. There's a catholic convent outside Auschwitz which would make the point perhaps, more forcefully....

    I'm sure some Christian places to worship for all our soldier over in Iraq too. Where is the sensitivity there?

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  19. Exactly. By the author's logic, we shouldn't build churches anywhere near the many abortion clinics bombed by Christian terrorist, nor should we build churches near the Olympics park in Atlanta because of the 1996 Christian terrorist attack. Furthermore, basically site of violence by the Christian terrorist organization the Klu Klux Klan should not have churches built around it because it would be insensitive to the victims.

    The fact of the matter is these types of people are extremists - by the very definition they are not mainstream, so it makes about as much sense as saying every Christian church in the United States is a house of terrorism as it does for a Mosque. Some people are bigoted idiots, but that's the beauty of the internet - everyone gets his say.

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  20. When oh when is the government going to keep RELIGION, out of this so-called "secular democracy" we call the United States of America?

    Tolerance does not entail promotion of one belief over another, (as in the rampant insistence that America is a "Christian" nation) or as with this project, politicize, and therefore legitimize Islam.

    Humanity should be moving away from primitive superstitions, instead we are more and more moving backwards to a time when barbaric conflicts and protracted wars were fought in the name of "holy" books.

    BL

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  21. I don't judge all Christian's because the Arian brotherhood and KKK claim to be acting in Christ's name when they carry out act's of violence against gays and minorities.

    I don't much care for any faith, I find them all to be self inflating and divisive. "My God is better than yours" seems to be the central tenant of most. But that's a person's personal choice to believe in one God or another, and my personal choice not to believe in any.

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  22. I don't judge all Christians for the hateful actions of the Westboro church, the institutionalized pedophilia and misogyny of the Catholic church or the generally xenophobic stance of most American evangelicals. So how can anyone judge all Muslims for the acts of a few. A large part of American mind sets are sadly ignorant and full of hate and fear. Cindy- austin texas

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  23. How can someone say they are Christian when they are so filled with hate?

    Bravo!

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  24. To the author of this blog: Your a nutcase liberal. You are un-American.
    Respect those heroes who died for this country in 911. Muslims are evil. You sound like a godless freak. God has a plan for you in hell.

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  25. To the hater: It is you're a nutcase not your a nutcase. Learn some english.

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  26. Top Republican Attorney Who Lost Wife On 9/11 Speaks Out On Mosque


    This afternoon, Ted Olson — whose wife died in the September 11th attacks — distanced himself from other conservatives and told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that he did not oppose the building of a mosque near ground zero.

    “It may not make me popular with some people, but I think probably the President was right about this,” he began:

    OLSON: I do believe that people of all religions have a right to build edifices or structures, places of religious worship or study where the community allows them to do it under zoning laws and that sort of thing. And that we don’t want to turn an act of hate against us by extremists into an act of intolerance for people of religious faith. And I don’t think it should be a political issue. It shouldn’t be a Republican or Democrat issue either. I believe Governor Christie from New Jersey said it as well, that this should not be in that political partisan marketplace

    Olson also discussed the recent court decision to stay Judge Walker’s decision overturning Proposition 8 and why marriage equality is “consistent with conservative

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  27. It is ridiculous to read the amount of Americans against this. Not only does shadow a tremendous legacy of freedom of religion; it undermines so many principles, and, most probably, brings to light the hypocrisies of so many individuals who would ridicule this situation in other countries. I am ashamed.

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  28. i admire mayor bloomsberg and president obama for standing up for what we all say we believe in, and i find newt gingrich and sarah palin (when i can figure out what she's saying) mean-spirited and ugly self-promoters.

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  29. I can only quote Mr. Christopher Hitchens when presented with dilemmas such as this; "Religion poisons everything"

    S Gilbert

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  30. This is a Christian Nation! We are right to oppose those people. They are the ones trying to kill us.

    Katie.

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  31. his "controversy" over the placement of a Muslim establishment around the corner from the site of the WTC attack is a text book example of mass hysteria. Barring any legal prohibitions or local ordinances, who is anyone to tell a group representing one of the major world religions where they may or may not buy and use space? This particular chicken coming home to roost hatched out of the wholesale denigration of Islamic religion and culture that our nation has allowed to take place. The casting of Islam as a particularly violent or sexist religion can only be proffered out of complete ignorance of history--and I don't mean just Muslim history; I mean all history which of course includes Christian and Jewish history. What we witnessed in the aftermath of September 11th was tantamount to the depiction of the Japanese as monkeys during WWII. There can only be one explanation for making a controversy out of this and that is the desire by some groups to continue to create the impression that calling into question what Muslims innocent of any crimes do is still fair game for "debate." I am proud of our president for having the courage to take the correct position on this issue. Vincent NYC

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  32. I think it comes down to advance knowledge. When Hiroshima was bombed, only a few people knew it was going to happen. No collective guilt for Americans. Vietnam want on year after year. Great collective guilt for Americans. Only a few people knew 9/11 was coming, so no collective guilt for Muslims. To ask Muslims to grovel because co-religionists knocked down buildings is just stupid. Same for asking reactionaries to disown Little Timmy. It's a one-off.

    Now, Iraq is something else. We saw it coming, and yet have tolerated murder, for no reason, for almost a decade. I know I feel enormous guilt about not having the courage to spend all my energy to stop those who wanted to invade. I also wonder why they are not in jail, and are allowed to live out peaceful lives, after causing so much destruction.

    Same with Vietnam, but we did struggle for long years, and eventually caused enough ruckus that continuing was no longer worth the pain. And, only a few of the murderers went to jail, but not for their real crimes. The psychopath Kissinger is a desired dinner guest, when he should be on death row. Jack Walsh

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  33. How many feet distant from Ground Zero is acceptable to those people who believe the proposed Mosque is too close ? I would guess any where in Manhattan is too close for them, maybe anywhere in New York City. Then again maybe the words "New York" would exclude the State too. The extreme anti-Mosque party might think anywhere in the USA or even Western Hemisphere is too close.

    The Muslims I know personally are just as appalled as anyone about the events on 9-11. They also seek the same peacefulness we all desire. Building a Mosque is a wonderful opportunity for reconciliation. The proposed Mosque cannot be seen or see Ground Zero. That should be a more than adequate compromise for the Anti-Mosque party objections.

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  34. To Kaite: THIS IS NOT A CHRISTIAN NATION!!! It is a nation of MANY faiths. Pull your head out of your provincial ass and see beyond your tiny circle of life. You are dead wrong to oppose other's religious freedom. It makes you a complete hypocrite.

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  35. The republican hate-mongering divisive slogans given to them by Frank Luntz and the Republican party, the Beckerheads (watch the schizophrenic Glenn Beck, who really needs psychiatric care), they all sound alike. They are really nothing but mad, frothing, rabid animals who cannot find their next victims to hate. The go from one to another like mad dogs on attack. That's the epitome of the mob. They all say exactly the same things, they all make certain they don't stop telling the lies and spreading the stories. They all believe in conspiracy. They cry about their rights being taken away, but just like the most rabid homophobes, they are reacting to their own worst demons. This is becoming the most evil society that I have been privy too. I've been on this earth 67 years. I have no less freedom than the day I was born. I have less taxes than I have ever had in my adult years. But I have never seen the hatefulness that I see day in and day out on these blogs by the true thiefs of freedom, those who want to only have freedom for themselves or those who look and think like them. They are small, small-minded, and basically led by the nose by those who will take their freedoms away, their jobs away, their money away, raiser their taxes to pay for the tax cuts for the rich. They have no understanding of reality.

    By the way, I am watching the last combat troops leaving Iraq on MSNBC. On Fox they are still yakking about the mosque and their biased slant.

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  36. I agree "Katie" is wrong. This is not a " christian nation." that is a ethnocentric view of your reality. You are mistaken. Our founding fathers
    were all atheists. All are early presidents thought religion was whacked. They were smarter back then. They only created freedom of religion to be fair and open minded. Not because they were believers. Only later did politicians get into the god delusion. They realized they could use the brand to sell people on shit the same way those who created religion did.

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  37. I have read a translated version of the Koran. I studied many faiths when I myself had a crisis of faith with Christianity as a teenager. I must say, misogyny, OCD and violence are a running theme in just about every tribal/ancestral religion.

    Islam is no more inherently violent than Judaism and Christianity. All three call for peace and love while also calling for conflict and division.

    I doubt that the general muslim public were dancing in the streets of NYC on 9/11. I dare anyone to find any evidence of that. I have known and worked with Muslims of both the orthodox and reform variety. There is nothing to be feared by these people. The people who attack us are violent nihilists, which is traditionally looked DOWN upon by the Islamic faith. They are outliers. ALL RELIGIONS ARE THE PROBLEM. None are based on reality. All are based on fiction.

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  38. Blah Blah Blah- Muslims should go back to where they come from.
    They are evil. Obama will be out of office soon enough and someone with pride will take office. Your blog sucks.

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  39. well, obama doesnt really have a choice, since the law allows it to be built there. disapproving would be like violating a right and a bunch of laws :S. besides, i dont see why people think that it's a monument to terrorism, terrorists are not muslims (period) i know a lot of muslims and islam is actually one of the most peace promoting religions out there. it's pretty racist just to say that a muslim might be a terrorist, since terrorists oppose 95% of (the real) islamic rules. people just take the 10% of info they hear on the news and never ask real muslims what they think / what islam really is. I wonder when people will learn to live together regardless of their time

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  40. For Americans, the Government and people of all faiths and those without, encouraging the Mosque to be built is just about the bravest and most American thing we could do. It shows strength, honor of our constitution and non-discrimination. It shows we did not let the terrorists win by filling our hearts and minds with hate and fear. It shows we are not a stupid nation that condemn an entire religion because of a small group of people who happen to have come from that religion. Most Americans have it all wrong.

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