Ground-Zero Mosque: Exercise in Hate or Just an Overreaction?

I'm going to address something now in a way that will probably be unexpected for a known Atheist and Anti-theist. I figure in order to stir up some controversy, I'll post about the proposed ground-zero mosque. I'm not an expert on the subject and I frankly don't care for the building of any places of mass delusion, but I do know that those opposed to the building of this mosque probably have the wrong reasons for opposing it.

For those of you who don't know, there are approved plans for the construction of a giant mosque/community center about 2 blocks away from ground-zero in New York City. To put that in perspective, the building being knocked down to make way for the Islamic community center was hit with airplane debris.

But I digress, because this is not the stance that I will take here. I have things to say to both sides of the controversy.

A lot of people are upset that there will be a safe-haven for Muslims in the area who we all know were the people who carried out the 9/11 attacks. I mean, isn't it so distasteful to laugh in the face of the heroes who lost their lives saving those people and of the innocent people who died? As one woman put it so very well on a sign she upheld at a protest: "Don't glorify murders of 3,000. No 9/11 victory mosque".

I don't want to come off insensitive but I really think people forgot what diversity there was in the lives lost in the attacks. There were Muslims who undoubtedly lost their lives in the attacks as well. This community center will be operated by a group called the Cordoba Initiative which plans to give a voice to moderate Muslims. What do people think will happen if there was a community center where moderate Muslims have a chance to talk things out? Do they really think these people will be mobilized by the "victory" at ground zero? I think that people have lost track of who the attackers were- extremist Muslims who were at war with western values, not moderate Muslims who want their own place on the tip of Manhattan. I think this is another instance where people's sentiments get the best of them. They hear "mosque on ground-zero" and the only connections their brains can make are "Mosque = Muslim, Muslim + Ground Zero = Bad therefore, Mosque + Ground Zero = Bad. As my own father said to me when he heard about the news: (paraphrasing) "They're taking over. This is a stepping stone in their plan. If there's a mosque at ground zero then they're going to start recruiting from there." I disagree though, especially since this Cordoba Initiative has been entirely transparent so far. Moderate Muslims are the kinds of Muslims that you want around if you have to have Muslims around. They're fairly peaceful people with strange customs like insane cleanliness and prayer. They don't condone violence; if they did, it would make them extremists. I think that the one-track mindset that Americans have of a war against Islam needs to be re-directed into a war on fundamentalism, no matter the religion being associated with it.

That being said, I'm talking to you, moderate Muslims who undoubtedly will never gaze upon this page: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? Stop disturbing shit. You knew that people were going to be pissed. Yes, I know there are a lot of you, and like every religion, you like to push yourself into places where you're not wanted but holy jumping Jesus, why there? Why at ground zero? Do you want people to be angry with you? Do you know how tacky that is? Yes you have the right to build anything you want on the land that you bought, but that doesn't mean that you should. As much as people might be overreacting and as much as they're allowing their silly imaginations to run wild about terrorist training schools in the middle of Manhattan, it doesn't make it right. If you really want people to convert to Islam and embrace it, you should probably not be dicks, or else you'll just be attracting the crowd that actually blows stuff up; and the last thing you need is more bad P.R. Not that I care, because as I will undoubtedly tackle in future posts, I'm terrified of Islam so the less of you the better.

So that's what I've got.

More than anything I'm determined not to take the side of Newt Gingrich who wrote on his website, "The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over," adding that the decision over whether to build the facility was "a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites." And as always I won't take the side of Sarah Palin who wrote in a facebook message to her followers: "Many Americans, myself included, feel it would be an intolerable and tragic mistake to allow such a project ... to go forward on such hallowed ground".

All of this wishy-washy sentimental, right-wing bullshit always runs well with ignorant Americans who are always upset when people with a separate point-of-view get their way.

So readers, I beg you, let me know what you think of all this. This is one of those times where I might just be barking up the wrong tree.