A lot of people have been talking about The Cordoba House AKA the “Ground Zero Mosque”.
First up I’ll say I’m overall intentionally ignorant of this case because from what I hear about it, it sounds like a dick move, and while there are a Billion Muslims on this planet, most of whom are wonderful people, and as a non-practitioner of organized religion, overall I find most of them practically indistinguishable in their religious practices and beliefs from Christians and Jews. (I will also note all three of their holy books speak fondly of Abraham) There does appear to be some element, as a Muslim Friend of mine put it, of the “Crazy Muslims” in this building.
Blah blah blah, there’s talk of insults, of conquering, and of terrorists. In the end I don’t care because as far as I know they’re footing the bill to buy the land and build the Mosque, and the land doesn’t have a zoning conflict. (Not that I’m a huge fan of zoning laws either). That’s really the end of it. I don’t have to like it, care for it, or even go there. If they want to build their little temple there, I see no power anybody has (or SHOULD have) to stop them.
I do think its a dick move, and if I’m correct in that and this Mosque becomes a festering sore that some predict, well I see that as nothing more than a good thing. If this is a temple filled with “Crazy Muslims”, well maybe the regular kind will start speaking out against them giving the faith a bad name. If it becomes a terrorist training camp? GOOD, that means the FBI entry team will be storming a dedicated building, rather than exchanging gunfire in say a low-income apartment building filled with innocent families.
If it turns out to be nothing….well why would we have tried to stop it in the first place?
I’m not going to tell them to stop because I don’t like it, because #1 I know I don’t have that right, and #2 There are a lot of things we all do that other people might not like, I don’t want THEM to have that right to make us stop either.
So there’s my thoughts on it. What’s yours?
I really don’t like it. At all.
Do they have the “right” to do so? Sure. But “dick move” aptly describes it.
Furthermore, it offers a lovely symbol to jihadists who would love to come worship and walk over the ashes of our 9/11 victims. And remember the line about strong horses and weak horses? Pretty hard to imagine a bigger symbol of a weak horse than allowing the Cordoba House in the shadow of Ground Zero.
I think a fitting response would be to plan to open a BBQ Pork joint across the street. If it gets approved, then perhaps the builders of the mosque will understand that the right to do something, doesn’t make it the right thing to do. If it doesn’t get approved for reasons of cultural sensitivity — as I predict would be the case — well, that’s clear double standard discrimination.
BBQ Pork and strippers….with full bar of course!
Oh on the notion of Skin, IIRC there is no law against being topless in NYC, so maybe a topless protest, complete with Vendors selling pulled pork and Italian Sausage. Sadly I think it IS illegal to drink on a public sidewalk in NYC….
Things like THAT are the way to fight shit like this….not telling them they can’t build their Temple because the popular kids say they have cooties and are big-fat meanie heads.
Everybody loses on that!
You could get a street cart permit and sell pork sausages and dogs and such on the sidewalk by the front door…Just sayin’.
OTOH, Islamic martyrdom books say that the soul of jihadists are so pure that nothing can defile them, so it would depend on the attitude of the muslim…
No need to open a BBQ joint, I am sure there are hot dog vendors (the non kosher kind) that could just move a couple of streets over.
I do think that those people actively opposing this mosque are making bigger asses of themselves than the builders are. Do I think that the site of the world trade center is holy ground? Hell no!!! If I had my way, we would have thrown up a dozen 1000 ft buildings (complete with shopping malls, hotels, apartments, office space, and maybe a even a high end gentlemen’s club) to show the terrorists that sure, dropping the towers hurt, but freedom and capitalism reign supreme. Unfortunately, all we are left with is a hole in the ground and a bunch of squabbling.
Hell even the Kosher all-beef dogs (which are the best If you ask me) are non-halal, and they cater to the Evil blood-drinking zionist Jews that are the cause of all strife in this world….or something like that.
Yeah I’m with you for the plan to quickly rebuild the two towers but make them taller and bigger. Send them the message “How’d that work out for you”.
OK off to write up a grant proposal for a topless carwash!
And…on one level, I have to partially agree with a friend at the time:
“If this hadn’t happened and you asked me what I thought about killing a bunch of lawyers, brokers, government agents, and their support mechanisms in NYC — and I hated NYC when I visited it — after a couple of beers I might have toasted that idea.”
I know, window seat to hell, right?
I didn’t like NYC the one time I went there, not that I wanted to blow it up, but it wasn’t very friendly. Other than passing through the airport, I only spent one week of my life in the city on purpose, and it was a land of rude people that were always in a hurry and a lot of stuff was smelly as a hog farm.
Great post. I agree, they can do it but it is a total dick move. What’s more is the fact that once they knew people objected–they continued their plans.
No cultural sensitivity for those non-muslims, no empathy for those that lost loved ones, none of the emotional sensitivity that is demanded for their religion.
IIRC there is no law against being topless in NYC, — I’m thinking there is money to be had in a topless car wash near that location.
TOPLESS CARWASH!!!! OMG, I COULD RETIRE AT AGE 40!!!!!!
Dude. No one wants to see you topless.
😉
Unquestionably a dick move, but if they did whatever was necessary to get building/remodelling permissions on the site of land/space they are going to use, then it is theirs to use, and sucks for the rest of us. If people were really specifically interested in stopping this from happening, they would be organizing to the point of being able to buy out the space from underneath the mosque, and move on.
Unfortunately, NIMBYs of all colors and flavors never quite get around to doing that, so now we have the zoning nightmare that is America… Yeah, this sucks, but squashing it would suck harder.
It’s a shame NYC couldn’t have made some rule prohibiting ANY particular religious establishment to be built in that area. I don’t care if the Pope himself decided they need a cathedral there. For any one religious group in particular to build on the grounds is pretty damn insulting to the many people of different beliefs who died.
Il’d put this in the “Fat People in Lycra” file: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.