I share the same concerns about whether the developers of this mosque are peaceful religious leaders or terrorists skulking behind our ideal called freedom of religion...however...the proposed mosque is not adjacent to the World Trade Center site, It is two full blocks, and then across the street. In downtown NYC, this is probably two neighborhoods and three zip codes away. Really, some buildings there have their own zip codes. In fact, if you went two blocks in a westerly direction from the WTC, you'd be just about in the Hudson River. Downtown is a small area with enormous vertical communities, and tremendous diversity. A block over is a world away.
According to the daily mail it will be a 13 storey mosque... Obama: I have 'no regrets' over my comments on the Ground Zero mosque | Mail Online
Hmmm thanks for that post. I've been reading on here that the Islamic center was going to be 2 blocks away and as such this would be a world away from ground zero. Looking at the map on the above link it might be 2 blocks away but doesn't look that far away to me - a 5 minute walk perhaps? Are they allowed to practice their religion? For sure. Are they building on this site in innocence? Hmmm do not know. Is my gut feeling that they are building there out of badness? Probably yes. Am I a racist bigot? I'd say no and my facebook friend list would reflect that I'm not (and yes a couple friends are muslim).
Sorry, but imo you are acting like a racist bigot. For what other reason would anyone assume that they are building there "out of badness"? Not only is there absolutely no evidence to indicate that, but there is plenty of evidence that has been posted on the thread to indicate the opposite. The old "I have a black friend" doesn't absolve you of anything.
Good Read, being near 9/11 wasn't even thought about in the decision making, making those against it, even dumber in their thinking: As if the mosque controversy could not get any weirder, it turns out the person who found the site two blocks from Ground Zero was a teenage reality show contestant from Queens. Not that young Francisco Patino can really be faulted. He was just doing the bidding of a real estate developer who hired him in 2006 after chancing to see him on "American Inventor." The show happened to be on a floor-model TV while the developer was shopping at a Sharper Image in Manhattan. "I saw him on TV and I like him," the developer, Sharif el-Gamal, said Wednesday. Patino was a 19-year-old immigrant from Colombia who played on the Queens College soccer team and had gotten on the reality show with a dual-passenger bicycle he developed after he and his older brother tried to ride the same one. He was a decidedly appealing contestant, embracing the spirit of invention and entrepreneurship that made his adopted country great. He appeared crushed when he was voted off in the finals, but a special guest came on the air to urge him on. "Hey, Francisco, I'm Lance Armstrong. ... I want to wish you luck. ... Live strong!" Gamal hired Patino and presented him with a map of the Financial District. The teen's orders were to scout out properties that might be suitable for an Islamic community center. "I told him to go out and find available buildings for the project, and he did," Gamal said. "He's a phenomenal kid. ... He's a good one." Patino compiled a list that came to include the old Burlington Coat Factory on Park Place. The owner said that by happy chance, it was being shown the following day. Gamal went to see it and was not at all put off by its proximity to Ground Zero. "We were looking at buildings all over the area. I liked a lot of them, but this was the one we ended up on," the developer recalled yesterday. "It was just meant to be." Now 23, Patino declined to comment yesterday, not wishing to speak until he got permission from his boss at Chase Manhattan Bank. Patino surely was aware of the building's location in relation to Ground Zero. And he surely knew about the war on terror, as the brother who had helped inspire the bicycle, Sergio Cadavid, had gone on to join the Army, serving two tours in Iraq. Even so, Patino was barely a man in 2006 and had only come to this country when he was 12. No young newcomer could be expected to understand the sensitivities beneath the contradictions. We solemnly called it hallowed ground and spoke of the importance of remembering the murdered innocents, yet five years after the attack we had yet to build a memorial. Human remains were still being recovered in 2006 because there had been such a hurry to get traffic on West St. moving again that an area under a service road had not been properly searched. The Deutsche Bank building on the other side of The Pit was being demolished with such criminal indifference to fire safety that two firefighters eventually would be killed there. And the Burlington site was available in the first place only because businesses were not answering the call to stand up to the terrorists by relocating downtown. Patino may not have been aware of any of these particulars, but nobody who walked down Park Place in 2006 could feel the area was being treated as sacred ground. He surely could not have imagined the passions and pain that would be roused four years hence. Read more: Reality TV finalist Francisco Patino steered developer to mosque site near Ground Zero And if anyone was really that scared of muslims, wouldn't you want more muslims to convert to Sufism, then Sunni or Shiite sects?
This whole thing is nothing but a bunch of right wing BS drummed up by a small number of blogging right wing islamaphobic whackos, picked up and spread by FOX and the likes of Wassilla Barbie. It isn't at ground zero, it isn't funded by "radical islamists", in fact it has no funding at all. Stop drinking the right wing cool-aid and develop some independent thought! For a broad history of the "issue" I suggest you listen to the 8/19/10 edition of "To the Point" on NPR. (I know that the right will view this as a lamestream media outlet but you might learn something if you open your damn ears!). It is archived on line, just search "To the Point"
This thread does a good job demonstrating how groups are divided and how each group can interpret the same data in different ways. The Internet has made this even easier by allowing like-minded people to find each other and congregate, at least virtually. Intolerance is a bad thing. So is extremism. Too bad we can't put the zealots and bigots on the B ship. Tom
I was wondering when you were going to weigh in on this subject... and to no surprise it is the same lame rhetoric. Oh NPR, now there is an un-biased source.
Please explain how reading/listening to some source other than your normal source of information is "lame"? Oh I forgot, you are the guy who doesn't believe in evolution, but whose faith is so insecure you can't bring yourself to actually read Darwin! Nuff said.
really? you actually know everything about another member to assume their a racist bigot? i'll just have to throw away my crystal ball and consult with you all the time. :hail:
OK, I plead guilty. I tend to be an extermist when it comes to combating intolerance. I'm disappointed at how the Irrational Right has whipped in the religious bigots on this one. It is disappointing that some of them are on this site.
At least I have more than one source. I never said I didn't believe in evolution. In fact I witnessed it for myself. I saw a close family member turn from a cute, kind, intelligent, helpful, respectful young boy evolve into a left-wing, leftest, socialist nutcase right before my eyes! His parents only let him listen to NPR btw. Nuff said.
i know what you mean. wouldn't it be great if everyone in the world thought like me? alas, some are not so lucky.
Ok wise guy let's put this to a test I'll list what I subscribe too in terms of periodicals and what other media I pay some attention to. I subscribe to Newsweek in the US, and read McLeans when I am in Canada. I also subscribe to The Economist, Smithsonian and The Week. (I'm letting the Economist go as it is too expensive!) I read my local daily paper where I happen to be, mostly for local news since it has gotten so bad. I also read the local paper in Canada where I live ~1/2 time, and it is pretty good but I can't get it but once a week since we are every remote. I also read the Globe and Mail Newspaper when I can get it. I listen to NPR's "All Things Considered" fairly regularly, and "Morning Edition" when I am home. I also listen to "Talk of the Nation" when I am driving on Sat Radio. I generally listen to CBC radio, including the local morning and drive time shows, as well as "The world at 6" and "Ideas". (all depends on where I am, I do a bit of both, US and Canadian radio. I occasionally will listen to the BBC on either short wave or the web. I get very little TV, and 6 months of the year we get none. I tend to watch the local news mostly for the weather (not that I can't get that on line) and don't watch any National news on any regular basis, and I almost never watch Cable channels including CNN/FOX/MSNBC etc. I don't read blogs except linked to other items. I read Politico.com, and occasionally Real Clear Politics on line, and near elections I like to read 538.com I read between 2-4 books per week ranging in subjects as random as Origins of Species mentioned above which I read last winter, to political and economic history, to good novels, and the occasional junk novel. Finally I have a wide group of friends and acquaintances of various backgrounds and professions, ranging from a number of Doctors and Lawyers, to small and medium sized business owners to trades people, across the age, education and income sector. I am involved with 3 groups of different folks that get together one a month each to talk books, politics and general BS. This is probably my best source of information, as diverse minds produce all kinds of ideas and links to thoughts and opinions that are as diverse as those minds. So, no I don't have only one source for my information. Care to tell me your significant sources of information?
For just a second there I thought you were going to say he turned into the opposite of cute, kind, intelligent, helpful and respectful (e.g. he became physically ugly, cruel, mentally retarded, inconsiderate and arrogant, a shift of such Jekyll-Hyde proportion it would have made medical history), but you didn't say that, only that he acquired the ability to form opinions that don't align with yours (e.g. Left-leaning, socialist, nutcase.) So he's still cute, kind, intelligent, helpful and maybe not so blindly respectful. Since it's biologically unlikely he went from intelligent to literal "nutcase" without winding up in a psychiatric ward, I suspect the appellation "nutcase" is just your shorthand way of saying his opinions are strongly out of alignment with yours. Sounds to me like the only change here is that he grew up.