Private Property Rights and “The Mosque”

To make your analogy more appropriate... first you would need your fundamental Baptists to fly a plane into the worlds largest gay conference center killing 3,000 or so gays.

Then try to build your new church near that same site - while not renouncing the murders and claiming that gays are not tolerant of your views.

 

Not fond of a strip club anywhere.

But remember--it wasn't 20 strippers who hijacked those planes and crashed them on September 11, either...

 

Within the last 75 years, we had millions of Lutherans in Germany who supported and actively cooperated with the Nazi party to systematically murder tens of millions of Russians, Eastern Europeans, Jews, homosexuals, Roma, the handicapped, communists, anti-Nazi priests and pastors, and other political prisoners.

Do you hold all Lutherans responsible for those acts? Do we claim that Christians (in general) support genocide?

Obviously not.

Do we assume that all black Americans are sympathetic to the Nation of Islam or the Black Panthers?

Obviously not.

Do we assume that all Baptists are segregationists simply because a shocking number of Baptists supported segregation only 50 years ago?

Obviously not.

Do we assume that all Hispanic people are likely illegal aliens?

I hope not.


For me, it comes down to this:

1.) If we truly believe in religious liberty, we should support their right to go through the proper channels to build a meeting place for people of their religious identity. (I realize that most people posting in this thread affirm this.)

2.) The "hallowed ground" of ground zero is clearly not some sort of special park or zone in the midst of Lower Manhattan. It is a busy multi-cultural part of a bustling modern city that reflects both the best and worst of modern U.S. life. A new community center (or even a full blown mosque) will not be any kind of "victory mosque" since Islam has clearly taken a massive hit in the court of public opinion.

3.) Everyone should be innocent until proven guilty, including people who belong to the same ethnic group or religious family (FYI, there are a variety of subgroups within Islam, and only a small part of Islam is radicalized) as those who have committed atrocities. It is foolish prejudice to assume that treating Muslims decently and fairly is rewarding terrorism.

4.) In my opinion, this controversy is less about Islam than it is about being able to score political points by fear mongering and the vilification of a religious minority. (And no, I'm not a supporter of Obama and the Democratic Party, I have no love and appreciation for Islam, and I hope we have a massive turnover in the upcoming elections.)