More on the Islamic Center

The op-ed piece in the New York Times by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf
is impressive. HE is impressive. The man has indeed spent his time
and energy on building bridges between Islam and other religions,
which is what makes the furor over the community center even more
execrable.

The flames of the furor have been fanned by extremists in this
country, and by politicians that ought to be more responsible and more
thoughtful (I suspect to foment more opposition to President Obama and
all Democrats who support the constitutional rights of the Islam
community). The facts that get lost in the cacophony of voices are 1)
all adherents to Islam are NOT extremists any more than all Christians
or Jews are extremists; 2) Muslims, too, died in the 9/11 attack; 3)
freedom of religion means freedom of ALL religions, not just yours or
mine; 3) the proposed community center will take the place of a
derelict building last used as the Burlington Coat Factory; 4) if
ground becomes "sacred" because someone died there, then ALL ground,
it seems to me, must be sacred, since probably someone, sometime, died
there; 5) if all this ground is "sacred" what are businesses like a
porn shop, bars, and a tanning parlor doing there?! 6) the proposed
community center is at least two blocks away from "ground zero" which
in NYC is two neighborhoods away; and 7) it has now been 9 years since
the 9/11 attack, and still nothing in the way of permanent memorial
has been erected there.

The furor is all about xenophobia, and the fact that some of us need
someone to hate -- and Muslims are the chosen ones. Frankly, I'm
getting sick of my compatriots and the general lack of compassion,
human understanding, and logic.

The whole incident surrounding the misguided Florida church and the threatened buring of the Q'uran never should have happened, and never should have gotten all the publicity it did. Still, we are free to say whatever we want to say, no matter how many people it may hurt. If the pastor changes his mind again and decides to go through with the book burning, I hope the local police find some legitimate reason to arrest him and anyone who might be aiding him. This intolerance and hatred is not at all Christian.