“Ground Zero” Mosque and Religious Tolerance

Can't we all just get along?

I guess I am jumping on the bandwagon and giving my unsolicited opinion on the so-called “ground zero mosque. What I am going to write here is going to piss off more than a few folks, and it doesn’t really parallel anything I’ve read, so I think it needs to be said.

This is about religious freedom. We aren’t the land of the free and the home of the brave Christians. We, as defined by our constitution, are a place where religious freedom is guaranteed. Read that last word again, guaranteed. The particular religion is not defined. You are not given religious freedom for the following religions only “Insert insipid list here” It’s all religions.

So here we are at the somewhat unique part of the post. Some people are upset at a ground zero mosque which is not located at ground zero at all. What is the definition? How many blocks from ground zero is still ground zero? Is religious freedom limited to certain parts of the United States or is it the entire United States? If they were building a shrine to Bin Laden at ground zero, there would be serious reason to be upset. It would never fly. (pardon the verbiage there) But we are talking about crucifying an entire religion because of a small percentage of nuts that are loose.

Do you remember David Koresh? Are you pissed off about Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church protesting gays at military funerals for veterans killed in our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? How about most of the mutant para-military militia groups that are scattered about the United States, most of which are odd-branch Christians only. Groups like those  supported the Oklahoma City Bombing by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. (Also Christians)

What I’m saying is that if you are going to judge all Muslims by the actions of fringe groups like Al Queda, shouldn’t you hold other religions to that same standard? These same groups who are protesting this mosque should be protesting any Christian churches as well. The Sufi sect of the Muslim religion is as similar to the Qutbismic beliefs of Osama Bin Laden, as Quaker beliefs are to extremist Christian sub-sects.

So why all the controversy? Fire brands in the conservative movement (way right conservatism, which is generally avoided by most GOP’ers) are trying to lump all Muslims into one large death mongering group by quoting verses from the Koran (generally out of context) and saying “See, looky here. They have to kill us all. It’s in their holy book.” Well, get a grip folks. There are plenty of violent passages you can quote out of any ‘holy book.’ All the “wackos” of any religion can find justification for the actions somewhere amidst their teachings. It’s all open to interpretation and that’s where is all turns into a sticky mess.

Take the religion out of this discussion, or better yet insert your religion into it. If you take any article regarding this whole mosque debate, and insert your religion where you see Muslim, and insert your place of worship wherever you see mosque and see how you like the shoe on the other foot.

Try to put this into perspective and think with your brain, instead of letting misguided “leaders” steer you into a position on this issue.

Tagged as: david koresh, ground zero mosque, osama bin laden