[Warning: Post only for individuals on higher planes of thinking. Users unable to imbibe information contained in chunks longer than a text message or Facebook status update are advised to skip over for purposes of TL;DR, and to continue with the filling of their dirty gym sock]
Give me a fucking break. The "logic" behind the opposition to this construction project is as amorphous as the explanations its adherents use to defend it, trying their best to conceal their profound ignorance and/or bigotry all the while. If there is A SINGLE cogent argument against the completion of this center, it's been awfully afraid to show itself. Furthermore, the wording and rhetoric being thrown around in discussions of this "news" is
so obviously crafted for demagoguery that anyone with half a brain completely tuned out coverage and checked facts for themselves.
Let's see:
Mosque. Powerful image in the US citizens' psyche. Minarets piercing the sky, the singing of daily prayers, bearded Imams shuffling about. Questionable though polling may be, recent Pew research indicates a general disdain for Muslims in the US, with 4 in 10 having an unfavorable view toward followers of Islam. I'll assume everyone has a very good idea in their heads as to which partisans those people are likely to be. A perfectly charged word to be bouncing around in the mediasphere, for some. Too bad it's bogus. A prayer room or chapel in a hospital... makes the hospital a church? No, not really. A prayer room in an Islamic Community Center is, that's right, also not a MOSQUE. But the energizing of a certain base for a certain spate of upcoming elections, and the hopes that a certain political seachange in a certain legislative institution will take place make that word strategically stupid to ignore. I've worked briefly in a Jewish Community Center and first of all, it's just simply not called a synagogue and doing so is flagrantly misleading, and second, frankly, persistently referring to the physical building as a synagogue would make you sound like what you probably are, an ignorant tool. A completely relevant statement on the website of such a center states:
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The Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo is just that…a COMMUNITY Center. Membership is open to all members of our community without regard to race, age, gender, religious preference, marital or economic status.(Note: Emphasis theirs)
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Ground Zero. Even more of an
explosive image (pun totally intended)! It's so emotionally charged that there were way more of you who just got pissed off reading that than who thought it was funny. Point made. Though again, totally bogus with regard to the proposed construction project. Most major media outlets took the bait, or simply hooked it themselves, when this "story" first climbed its way out of the sewers of the conservative-conspiracy nut blogosphere. 'Ground Zero Mosque' was everywhere. It was everywhere because it glued eyes to TV sets and fingers to pages, not because it was at all true. And it's not.
There is no fucking ground zero mosque, nor is there a ground zero islamic community center.
This brings us to the two loudest forms of vomit spewing from the mouths of the project's opponents...
1)
Proximity: Stop the ground zero mosque! Ok, ok, ok, it's not actually 'ON' ground zero itself, but it's TOO CLOSE! This islamic center is simply TOO CLOSE to ground zero! Right. And then people, even people as moronic as Chris Matthews, pressed with the obvious question - How far is far enough? Additionally, how can the resultant anti-Mosque (read: anti-Muslim/brown person) sentiment spilling over in cities across the country be explained through "proximity" to New York? This, of course, was met with much stuttering and behind-the-scenes strategy changes to steer away from such a bullshit argument. Which brings us to the next phase...
2)
Wisdom: This is my favorite. I just fucking love this one. It so paralyzed Democrats that even Reid became willingly strung along for fear of losing the slim margin of white voter support that Biden managed to secure for the presidential win, a margin that conservatives have been successfully whittling away at for the past year. So the argument goes, "Of course NOBODY says they don't have the RIGHT to do it... but should they?". You know, considering the previous administration's actions and the general touting of 'conservative values' and upholding the constitution, it seems those same people have a severe case of JKLOL when it comes to protecting the very rights it guarantees. In the current congress alone, Republicans have proposed
at least 42 constitutional amendments. But I digress. The fact is, whether or not you think this center should be built in its proposed location simply does not fucking matter. Whether or not you think your daughter's public school should exclude persons of color does not fucking matter. Whether or not you think a state law should never be overridden by a federal law does not fucking matter. Some might say "If you don't like it then gtfo of my country!". Does dissent matter? Absolutely. But this is not some honest reassessment of the wording of the Bill of Rights. It's already been said ad nauseam: This isn't about the First Amendment. Ok good, then that tells us the only reason this "story" hasn't fucking gone away yet is because it makes conservatives MAD and WANT TO VOTE, and the presence of so much ignorance and ill will toward Muslims generally serves as a catalyst to keep up the "story's"media momentum through the elections.
"But I am getting in touch with my inner pussy liberal and the building of this MOSQUE is so INSENSITIVE to me as a citizen, because that site 2 blocks away from the building is HALLOWED GROUND" you might say. Well, there's the largest and most telling conflation in this entire farce -- the idea that 'they' perpetrated 9/11. The Muslims. Now 'they' want to build their victory mosque!
Uh, hello? THERE IS NO 'THEY'.
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Originally Posted by Congressman Nadler (D)
It is only insensitive if you regard Islam as the culprit, as opposed to Al Qaida as the culprit. We were not attacked by all Muslims.
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The fact that these people in New York, these citizens who've done NOTHING to earn the ire directed at them but practice a faith that 4/10 US citizens 'don't take kindly to', are still being so nonchalantly equated to suicidal maniacs is fucking disturbing, sad, and not surprising. Fucking pathetic.
And in co-opting the bullshit formulation of the opposition, I ask (rhetorically):
Sure you have the RIGHT to stand up and try to argue for the circumvention of the First Amendment rights of Islamic residents of Manhattan, but wouldn't it be WISER to simply shut the fuck up?