As I sit here in Singapore, I am quite embarrassed by the uproar being raised in my home country regarding the proposed building of an Islamic cultural center near ground zero in NYC. Embarrassed, but not surprised because there are elements of the right that have no respect for the tenets of the constitution unless they can parse a certain section that suits their particular cause. This is a simple issue: the US is either a secular country ruled by law, or it is a country ruled by religious zealots and emotional mobs. In a country ruled by law, a building permit would be issued if no local laws or restrictions were violated. What certain people "felt or believed" would not be a consideration. Come on America; you can be better than this..
Welcome aboard PK!
ReplyDeleteI have some thoughts on this topic that I will share later...
Got to get ready to ride...it is getting in the 100's F so our "depart" is 7 sharp...late...
...ok, religious freedom is clearly a fundamental tenet of the usa...end of story...the right to an islamic center should not really be a question...
ReplyDeleteJob mentioned this the other day - "Why does Obama bring up this issue?" All I could reply was to point out the above, to which he replied, but he should be addressing job creation, and I agreed that was a more relevant issue, but thinking about it a bit further, I think the real reason is as follows...
...as far as politicizing this issue, it runs two ways...in my view, the bigots have been "pantsed" by the prez...let them keep shooting off their mouths and see just how deep the bigotry goes...it is rabbit hole deep...the smarter ones have already figured out that they have been painted into a corner and realize that they are in a no win situation, many of the rest will slowly figure it out, while a few never will and will continue to wallow in their bigotry to the delight of their like-minded followers...
and, then there's this...poll result -
ReplyDelete"a poll showed that nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they think Obama is Muslim. That was up from 11 percent who said so in March 2009. The survey also showed that just 34 percent said Obama is Christian, down from 48 percent who said so last year. The largest share of people, 43 percent, said they don't know his religion."
...now that is clearly due to political entities distorting the truth - lying...so i addend your post with..."there are elements of the right that have no respect for the tenets of the constitution, or the truth"...
Muslim debate is a political distraction, wedge issue, seeking to create divisions in this election year as well as a understandably, genuine emotional issue. Obama recognize the right to proceed but questioned "wisdom" of proximity to GZ. I think the proximity would actually celebrate our religious freedoms.
ReplyDeleteHas not religion been at the center of historic conflicts and justification for much of mankind's violence. Is not terrorism, to a great extent, based in religious intolerance.
Should it matter if Obama was a Muslim or for that matter an atheist.
Christopher Hitchens for President.