I'm sick of hearing about this "Ground Zero Mosque" which (a) isn't at Ground Zero; and (b) is a community center for the most part, although a small mosque on the top floor and a memorial to the innocent dead in the 9/11 attack are also planned.
One of the "moderate" arguments, presented as a cover for the religious bigotry lying underneath, is that the Muslims have a right to have mosques in Manhatten, anywhere but here. Otherwise, the feelings of survivors of 9/11 victims will be hurt.
The fact is, the current agitation about Cordoba House is a part of a nationwide campaign to prevent mosques from being constructed, to harass and vilify the worshippers at existing mosques, and even in one case to burn down a mosque and vandalize the remains.
Join me on the flip side for details.
Many readers are already aware of some other places where proposed mosques meet bitter local opposition. This diary is quick summary of all the incidents I could find by googling "mosque protest."
Our summary begins in New York City, not at Ground Zero, which you already know about, but in the community of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, where a proposed mosque has drawn bomb threats.
Moving over to Staten Island, in the community of Midland Beach, a protest rally in which one activist carried a sign saying, "This is not your country."
Leaving the Big Apple, we move across to the country to Temecula CA. Here, the proposed mosque has drawn vehement opposition, including a rally where protestors were invited to bring their
dogs, the dog being an unclean animal in Islam.
In Tennessee, opposition to the mosque at Murphreesboro is
well-known, but another mosque at Brentwood was defeated when the request for a rezoning was blocked.
In February 2008, a mosque at Columbia TN was burned down and the remains vandalized with swastikas.
Our itemized list ends with
a rallyagainst the opening of a mosque and community center in Boston MA last year.
The protest activity mentioned above is protected by the First Amendment unless it turns violent, and the zoning issue in Brentwood might have had a legal justification, but there can be no denying the viciousness of what the protestors are saying. They are using the free speech rights of the First Amendment to deny the religious rights of the First Amendment to others.
"This is not your country," they say.
Or, like a man active in the Murphreesboro protest, they say this:
"In Islam, a mosque means 'We have conquered this country,' " one man told a local CNN affiliate. "And where are they? They're in the center of Tennessee. They're going to say, 'We have conquered Tennessee.' "
They consider all Muslims somehow implicate in terrorism, and have said so many times. They have the strange idea that Islamic religious law, known as Shari'a, will be imposed on everybody if these mosques are allowed to operate, despite the fact that we have had mosques in the United States for decades without this politically impossible thing happening. They consider all mosques -- not just the imaginary "Victory Mosque" at the Cordoba House -- as signs of conquest. Are synagogues a sign that the Jews are taking over? It's a valid comparison.
The real issue could not be summarized more eloquently than by this statement, made in reference to Muslims in Columbia TN after their place of worship was burned:
"The local tiny Muslim community was in a state of shock because most of them were born in America and had lived very happily in the small community," he says. "People say, 'Go back home,' and they say, 'Where do we go? This is our home.' "