I don't usually start my blogs off with a quote, but I found this one (from a Michael Cohen article titled "Why I Miss George W. Bush") appropriate for this post:
Our nation must be mindful that there are thousands of Arab-Americans who live in New York City...And we must be mindful that as we seek to win the war, that we treat Arab-Americans and Muslims with the respect they deserve ... the attitude of this government is we should not hold one who is a Muslim responsible for an act of terror
- President George W. Bush (A few weeks after Sept 11th)
Yes, you read that name right... President George W. Bush. This is the same Bush that presided over the bifurcation of the pre and post-9/11 world. I challenge all my readers to find an era before the Bush presidency, pre-9/11, where Islamic extremism and Islamic terrorism became a everyday topic for a long period of time (in our case, 9 years and counting). Putting aside the Aircraft Carrier sized "Mission Accomplished" bumper stickers and the sheer stupidity of calling something a "War on Terror," let's look at the substance behind the Dubya remark, putting in its historic context:
In the first few months after 9/11, Islam became a vulnerable minority religion in the United States. I remember stories of people attacking mosques and hearing about death threats against Muslims, or those who looked like Muslims. The United States had just entered a war in Afghanistan against a the Taliban who used Sharia Law to justify public executions and tyrannical rule. Most Americans did not understand the difference between the Religious Extremists who were responsible for the 9/11 hijackings and an everyday religious Muslim. It is in this environment of suspicion and paranoia that Bush made this remark. Bush's message was not only that we honor the Constitutional right of freedom of religion by respecting Islam, but that we should not succumb to swaying from our founding values, thereby confirming the affects of the 9/11 terrorists (and their backers) actions.
Bush's message rings true today, in the right over building a mosque at Ground Zero. President Obama used straightforward language to explain his support for the mosque (from a Hugh Collins article):
As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable.
What is most effective about Obama's statement is that he did not politicize it. He told it as it was: This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. Just like Bush, Obama has emphasized that we not change our values in the light of the actions of a few extremists.
But, it seems as if some people don't see the contradictory or unsound nature of their opposition. Here are some remarks made against the Ground Zero Mosque, and my answers:
1. There should be no Mosque because there are no Churches or Temples in Saudi Arabia.
This isn't Saudi Arabia...don't even talk about religious tolerance and mention Saudi Arabia in the same sentence.
2. Obama has abandoned America by supporting the Mosque.
OK. Not relevant. Hyperbolic appeals to patriotic emotion and personal insults don't count as viable arguments. Next.
3. Putting a Mosque there would insult the 3,000 who died during 9/11 and all the troops that have died fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
To honor those who died and those who are fighting, we should make sure our American values, including the value of freedom of religion are kept intact. Ever heard of something called a united "home front?"
4. Putting a Mosque near Ground Zero is like putting a Nazi museum near Auschwitz. Nazism and Islam are both religions.
Oh god, no. I thought I had read enough about Nazi references. Islam is a religion, Nazism is a political, economic and social movement in Germany during WWII that was tyrannical and SECULAR. Extremist outliers in Islam were responsible for 9/11, and the majority of Islamic scholars have rejected violence. Nazism, and Auschwitz are representatives of a vast movement dedicated to the mass murder of Jews, Gypsies, Russians, Poles, Gays, etc. with a highly interconnected system that perpetuated genocide. They were not the exception, they were the rule.
5. The mosque will desecrate the ground of those who were murdered by people who practice Islam, or at least an element of Islam. Islam is not just a religion, it is also a political doctrine. (Former Sen. Rick Santorum)
This is blatant disregard for the fact that mainstream Islam has denounced the use of violence. You do not collectively punish an entire religion for the acts of a few extremists.
And, that last part...(expletive) you. You're a Roman Catholic-Republican-former Senator, and you are saying that a dangerous aspect of Islam is because it is a political doctrine as well as a religion!!! Really?!?!?! This is coming from the same guy whose positions on privacy, abortion, gay rights and evolution are derived from his Christian morals! The same guy who helped pass the Workplace Religious Freedom Act! Hypocrite doesn't even come close. I guess you were asleep when Christian conservatism also became a "political doctrine." Christian doctrine has pervaded U.S. politics since Independence. It wasn't meant to (ala "separation of church and state"...whatever that means anymore), but it's still there.
Emotion, personal attacks, hyperbolic rhetoric and ridiculous comparisons don't make viable arguments. These naysayers are forgetting the simple value of religious freedom, which must be kept intact.
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