This should be an interesting thread, I think.
I've even heard my liberal friends saying we shouldn't allow it because the families of the 9/11 victims don't want it.
The story:
Controversy swells as Obama supports Ground Zero mosque
quote:
US President Barack Obama's endorsement of a controversial plan to build a mosque just blocks from Ground Zero poured fuel Saturday on a raging debate over religious freedom and sensitivities over the 9/11 attacks.
Obama's main point is this:
quote:
"This is America," Obama said, "and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are."
But critics have offered this in rebuttle:
quote:
Obama "has abandoned America at the place where America's heart was broken nine years ago, and where her true values were on display for all to see," the group said.
"Now this president declares that the victims of 9/11 and their families must bear another burden. We must stand silent at the last place in America where 9/11 is still remembered with reverence or risk being called religious bigots."
Building the mosque "is a deliberately provocative act that will precipitate more bloodshed in the name of Allah," the group claimed.
Personally, I could care less if a mosque was built
on ground zero. I don't think ground zero is anything more that a piece of property where something bad happened once. This personal attatchment to this piece of land as some kind of representation of freedom and America, to me, seems rather pointless.
It's terrible what happened to those buildings, and worse what happened to the people in them. But that's it really. Why the constant reminder of what happend that day and the treatment of this property as holy ground?
Do we run the risk of turning ground zero into a quasi-Jerusalem? Seems like not allowing the mosque gives priority to the rights of Christians and Jews before the rights of the common citizen, be them from
any religious or secular background.
Thoughts?
- Oni
Edited by onifre, : No reason given.
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