[skSURF]

Not really sure I get all the animosity towards this project. I though this article provided and interesting perspective on the mayors view.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/nyregion/13bloomberg.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

[Harry Balzsac]

I think his speech in support of the center is his finest moment as mayor.  While I think there are certain people whose oppostion to the center is understandable in a purely emotional way, I think MOST of those who oppose the building of the center are pandering to the basest instincts of humanity and are capitalizing on our very worst impulses for political gain.  Lazio, Pataki, and, especially people from outside NY, like Gingrich (who has been truly revolting) and Palin, are really driving this stuff in a way that I find disgusting.  I've not heard any person offer a legitimate, rational reason why the muslim equivalent of the 92 St. Y shouldn't be built nearly three full blocks from Ground Zero.

[frroK]

Didn't you know, the Muslims are going to take over!!
 

[jscottk]

My once a day post.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop911mosque/

Feel free to sign it.  I did.

No mosque at Ground Zero

[flower box]

I've sent that video out to almost everyone I know and signed it.

[Harry Balzsac]

My once a day post.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop911mosque/

Feel free to sign it.  I did.

Why?

[jscottk]

Members/Lurkers its pretty rare when Box and jscottk agree on a political issue.
You might want to take note.
Stop thinking in decades and start thinking in millenniums.

And just to be clear, I'm not just anti-Islam, I'm anti-religion of all denominations

[RayG]

Open in a year? Fat chance. This is NY... The unions will make this nearly impossible to get built. They aren't exactly full of "diversity". The Building Dept will be on them doing surprise inspections and stop orders EVERY DAY.  That $100,000,000 will be pissed away in various 'cost overuns', attempted payoffs, etc... before a shovel full of dirt is moved.

[Harry Balzsac]

And just to be clear, I'm not just anti-Islam, I'm anti-religion of all denominations

Are you anti-freedom? 

[RayG]

And just to be clear, I'm not just anti-Islam, I'm anti-religion of all denominations

Are you anti-freedom?

Like the Islamists?

[Harry Balzsac]

And just to be clear, I'm not just anti-Islam, I'm anti-religion of all denominations

Are you anti-freedom?

Like the Islamists?

What does that mean?  Are "the Islamists" building the cultural center?

[HydroGlide]

agreed on the revolting, bigoted stances some are taking (kind of hard for the SIOA to claim they work for religious freedom) - i also agree that all organized religions are often capable of more harm than good - but I am on board with the whatever gets you through the night approach to letting all religions have the basic freedom to worship.  The one thing that Islam is not doing well in this specific case is broadly projecting contrition for Islam's role in 9/11 - same issue we all may (or may not) have with the pedophiles protected in the Catholic Church.  If Islam made it clear globally that this mosque is being built as a symbol of peace, as a loving tribute to those of all races and religions murdered so near its new construction, along with a public very public statement regretting that  Islam was involved (however far off the reservation that connection may have been) in any way with the 9/11 destruction  - then it might be a little more acceptable to those that think in the middle.  The people behind the construction (and financing) of this mosque have been a little too quiet for my tastes - but I may have missed it - i try to avoid teh news as much as possible these days.

[Harry Balzsac]

A fair point, HG, but Islam, like Christianity, is not a monolith with a unified central leader who speaks for all muslims.  Muslims are every bit as geographically and philosophically diverse as christians.  No one person speaks for Islam.  Even if there were such a central leader of Islam, I am not sure that he would necessarily need to offer contrition for the perversion of his faith by the 9/11 terrorists any more than Christian leaders should apologize for Timothy McVeigh's perversion of christianity.  McVeigh, after all, was aligned with the right-wing, anti-government Christian Identity movement.  I wonder, were any churches built within walking distance of the Murrah Federal Building in the years after the OKC terrorist attack?

[jscottk]

If a neo Nazi* group wanted to build a "Welcome center" across the road from Auschwitz**would we be having this debate?
A lot of the funding for this project is shady at best.  Are the sponsors who are building it, responsible for the attacks on 911?
No of course not, but neither are the neo-nazis in present day responsible for the holocaust, so why there?
Why name it after the first great mousqe in Spain that was the foundation of an Islamic take over of Europe?***

ok im done.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Nazism
**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp***http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mosque_of_C%C3%B3rdoba

[Harry Balzsac]

So Muslims are neo-Nazis?  That's what it sounds like you're saying and that is the tenor of the majority of the opposition.
 
Opposition to the building of this cultural center is manifestly anti-American.  The reasons put forth by the opponents of the center reveal an ugliness that is now, unfortunately, the standard under which we debate.  The casual willingness to use fascism and nazism as analogies is intellectually dishonest.
 
I've not heard one rational, legal and sensible argument from anybody opposed to the building.