Posted on 08/11/2010 2:32:32 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The proposed community center would enrage bin Laden, so why are Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich taking up his cause?
Have you heard about the "ground zero mosque?" They're going to build a great towering monstrosity of a thing, a gloating reminder of what they did to us on 9/11, a thumb in the eye of any real Americans who want to pay respect to those lost on that tragic day.
It will, according to Rudy Giuliani, be a "desecration" of ground zero. Newt Gingrich has called it an "assertion of Islamist triumphalism." And Sarah Palin was so incensed at what she called a "stab ... in the heart" that she coined a new word, calling on peaceful Muslims to "refudiate" the project.
It's too bad they're wrong. The debate over the so-called ground zero mosque, which is neither a mosque nor at ground zero, is certainly a cause for anger and outrage. But it's not because some Americans want to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed right to worship freely. Rather it's troubling as an expression of a new Know-Nothingism that is infecting our politics, especially on the demagogic right.
The phrase "ground zero mosque" conjures images of a minaret-adorned structure sprouting on or abutting ground zero. But the truth is less provocative. The project is sponsored by the Cordoba Initiative, a group whose stated mission is to achieve an "atmosphere of interfaith tolerance and respect" among Muslims, Christians, and Jews. The $100 million building they want to construct, called Park51 (for its address on Park Place) is not a mosque as such, but rather a community center with a restaurant, a swimming pool, a performing arts center, and, yes, prayer space. (Muslims, by the way, already gather weekly in the existing building to pray. Should they be barred from doing so?)
And it's not at ground zero. Park Place is a small street two blocks north of where the twin towers stood. The intervening blocks have buildings taller than the planned center. Someone standing at ground zero, in other words, would not be aware of Park51's existence; though when the Freedom Tower finally rises from the World Trade Center's footprints, it will be visible throughout most of lower Manhattan and beyond. Park51 will be just another building in what Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a defender of the project, called the "diverse and dense" city.
The symbolism of a Muslim community center being just another building in the shadow of the Freedom Tower is one we should embrace. It speaks to our diversity and the strength of our ideals. It's certainly more attractive than that of political leaders in the world's most powerful nation rallying to deny its most fundamental rights to a tiny minority.
Opponents say that Park51's mere proximity to ground zero is an intentional political statement, and it almost certainly is. It says that not all Muslims are radical killers and thugs, and that Islamic moderates won't be cowed into letting terrorists be the face of their religion. Isn't that what we've wanted?
Certainly it's a provocative message, one that will incite rage in Osama bin Laden and his ilk. Interfaith tolerance and respect are the last things on their agenda. So why are the likes of Palin, Gingrich, and Giuliani taking up bin Laden's cause?
Perhaps because the distinction between the terrorists and the religion, which George W. Bush was so careful to make after 9/11, is no longer operative. But it bears repeating. The fact that all the 9/11 terrorists were Muslim does not make all Muslims terrorists, any more than the fact that Ku Klux Klansmen are avowedly Christian makes all Christians white supremacists. The problem isn't religion but fanaticism.
Indeed, the Park51 debate is symptomatic of a new nativist fanaticism emerging in certain quarters of our politics. You can also see it in Murfreesboro, Tenn., where plans for a Muslim community center (or mosque, as its critics call it) were a hot issue in the Republican gubernatorial primary. One candidate, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, suggested that First Amendment protections for freedom of religion might not apply to Muslims. "Now, you could even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, way of life, a cult, whatever you want to call it," he said in a campaign appearance, a video of which was posted last month on YouTube.
And the trend is evident in recent calls to deal with a new phantom menace, sharia, or Islamic law. Ramsey, who placed a distant third in his primary Thursday, also talked about the danger of sharia gaining power in this country. It's an admittedly imbecilic fear but it's one shared by legislators in Oklahoma, who will likely put on November's ballot a referendum pre-emptively barring state courts from using sharia, and in Iowa where the GOP party platform weighs in against "any effort" to implement it in this country. This illusory threat has gained enough credence that Gingrich, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute last month, described it as a "mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States."
And it's not just Muslims who demagogues are demonizing. There's the hysteria over the supposed crime-soaked tide of illegal immigrants pouring across the southern border and the federal response to illegal immigration. Consider that violent crime rates in border states have declined in recent years and that this year the administration deported a record number of criminal aliens.
No matter. This is the politics of fear, not the politics of fact. It's a politics that targets, most simply, "they," whether they're from a different faith or a different country. They're everywhere—even the president was born in Kenya, we're told. So be afraid, and stay that way.
According to Schlesinger, we're all frightened of 'others' and too stupid to see the wonderful benefits of having a defiant symbol of Islam adjacent to Ground Zero. It's no big deal to Robert and of course, he tries to wrap the issue in a false 'freedom of worship' burqua, ignoring the fact that there are many Muslim mosques in Manhattan. No one is stopping Muslims from worshiping at any of them. We're just asking that another mosque not be built at this specific location. Of course, that would be too easy. Schlesinger has to seek and find 'hidden' motivations for opposition to the mosque, including, (what else?) religious bigotry. Yeah, Robert, that must be it. You moron.
The willful insensitivity and disconnect from reality of leftists is writ large in this piece by Robert Schlesinger, in a 'news' magazine that few bother to read anymore. In fact, this thread on FR may be the most exposure this article ever gets. Too bad the article is blatantly fallacious. Oh well, consider the source.
BTTT
What’s the point of this bizarre article? Lie down and die, so the muslims can take over without having to murderously annilate us? Don’t protest as they impose the torture of sharia upon us? I think this author needs to wake up and smell the coffee. I am woman hear me roar! It’s time to wake up and be intolerant of intolerant ideologies. As much as I fear their bad behavior, I fear surrender by tolerating their wicked ideologies even more.
Thanks for your service to our nation AFNamVet.
Robert Schlesinger is opinion editor at U.S. News and World Report, a liberal blogger on Thomas Jefferson Street and the Huffington Post, and writes a biweekly column for U.S. News. He is the youngest son of the late historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and the youngest brother of Stephen Schlesinger.
Robert Schlesinger is opinion editor at U.S. News and World Report, a liberal blogger on Thomas Jefferson Street and the Huffington Post, and writes a biweekly column for U.S. News. He is the youngest son of the late historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and the youngest brother of Stephen Schlesinger.
Follow the money.
At least us “know nothings” don’t have our heads up the @sses of the Kennedys like a Schlesinger! Except for his name he would be unknown.
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know especially in the world of politics and this idiot proves it!
Schlesinger came to U.S.News & World Report as a freelancer and blogger for a variety of publications, including Salon.com, Economist.com, the Huffington Post, and the New York Times Magazine
Thanks D1.
“, also talked about the danger of sharia gaining power in this country. It’s an admittedly imbecilic fear “
An imbecilic sentence written by an imbecile, Perhaps they don’t read what goes on in England and the rest of Europe to a lesser extent.
I didn't know they were still in business.
That guy is nut he would never go up against Great Britain the Most Powerful Navy in the World, so you all on the Right need to stop your war mongering, and your attacks on Il Duce too he is a great man.
I don't think I need a /Sarc tag
New Yorkers have given us people like Charles Schumer, Hitlery Clinton, Anthony Weiner, Geraldine Ferraro. The list is endless.
They've lied (laid? layed?) down with dogs for years and now they piss and moan when they wake up with fleas?
Screw 'em.
Liberals have a willing suspension of REALITY.
“which is neither a mosque nor at ground zero”
BULL SHIITE!
Where’s that pic of Kent Brockman saying “I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.”
Someone should change the caption to read: “I, for one, welcome our new muslim overlords.”
This dipsheet writer will make a useful tool for our future socialist, democrat, one-world-government, muslim masters.
Probably you meant they "have lain down with dogs", but your first try looks like a well-aimed pun to me.
Don’t be too worried about that mosque in GZ. It will be taken down by a cargo jet that “lost control” loaded with jp-4 and other chemicals when mixed together will provide a 3000 deg temp.
Obama’s State Dept. is helping to promote the building of the Ground Zero Mosque, by providing Saudi Imam Rauf a taxpayer funded trip around the Middle East, so he can rally the Islamic States to fund the 100 million dollar NYC “Ground Zero Cordoba Mosque:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/feds_funding_zero_imam_mideast_trip_OTq9dmoHpxbaKvJbB4VLGM
Feds funding Ground Zero imam’s Mideast trip
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