Aug 20, 2010

On the Mosque at Ground Zero

Though I personally oppose the building of the mosque near ground zero that has been in the press of late, John Mark Reynolds at Scriptorium Daily has a very interesting contrary take on the issue that I think is worth conisidering. A key comment from his post reads:

Americans instinctively oppose the 9/11”mosque,” because we don’t see fair
play from the Muslim world. We must overcome this justifiable irritation,
allow it to be built, and then trumpet our demands for equal treatment using
it as an example.

Read the whole post here.


4 comments:

Toph Morris said...

This is America and we respect both freedom of religion and reasonable uses of private property.

Bingo. Except, obviously, I think, he's wrong. Americans SHOULD respect freedom of religion and reasonable uses of private property, but this whole debacle has convinced me that we don't. Either America is founded on the principle of religious freedom or it's not. I may not approve of Muslim beliefs, but to deny them the ability to build and rebuild their religion's reputation is to put us into the same religious mentality that spawned the voyages to the New World in the first place.

Michael Glawson said...

There is no legal grounds to stop the building of a Mosque there. So there's no issue of whether 'they' should be prevented from building it. The question, rather, is whether building it is in good taste - whether building it would quite justifiably be interpreted as an act of extreme insensitivity. It would be analogous to constructing a large church on the spot where some fanatical Christian had bombed an Arabic neighborhood out of some religiously-motivated hatred for their people.

Anonymous said...

I believe Muslims will take over because if they are taking all this space in the world even after 2000 years of being hated and torchered, killed and have been fighted against. This is amazing because if they werent getting war placed on them all this time they would already own the world. so for another 100 years watch out cause their gonna take over just a matter of time because God or ALLAH must love them if there is so many of them and they keep on serviving war after war all the time. So if you cant beat them join them. So thank you for writting about this because I have made it final I will convert to muslim and pray to allah because of you notifying me of this spread in great faith.

Thank YOU so much ALLAH HERE I COME! p.s. thank you!

Toph Morris said...

The question, rather, is whether building it is in good taste - whether building it would quite justifiably be interpreted as an act of extreme insensitivity.

Michael, I get your point here, but I'm not sure I can wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment. By saying, either in the original context of the extremist Muslims who were behind 9/11, or in your context of building a church on the site of a fanatical Christian bombing, you're effectively lumping in the few with the whole. In other words, I can't get past the idea that you're saying because these Muslims or these specific Christians did this thing, all members of the religion should be held responsible and accountable for those acts. While I would certainly agree that on a fundamental level, their own teachings may encourage such acts, experience tells me that most of them just aren't like that.

My point is this: after 9/11, there was a lot of hatred stirred up in America for all Muslims. This is categorically immoral on our own behalf, and stems largely, I think, from a deep lack of education on the matter. And I can't help but feel like all this anti-mosque sentiment is based on that, and not on a matter of insensitivity.

Either way, it's beside the point, though. Legally, they have every right to build a mosque where they bought the property to build. The reaction of the American public, in large degree, scares the heck out of me.