The extremely disheartening abandonment of American principles regarding the proposed Islamic Center two blocks away from the World Trade Center site is doubly discouraging for reasons not even connected to the Constitution.The debate about "good taste" and "respect" for the families of those killed in the terrorist attack of 9/11/01 is something that can provide legitimate food for discussion, but anyone who would ban a place of worship for members of any religion is, in effect, crapping on the document our country was built on.
No, what I had in mind was the hypocrisy displayed by the mental minus quantities that (I hesitate to use the word "who") argue that since the terrorists were Muslims, all Muslims must be terrorists. This type of thing is taught in any beginning course in logical fallacies. Men get tattoos. Mary has a tattoo. Therefore, Mary is a man.
To illustrate this asininity further, let's try an example of another act of terrorism.
On April 19, 1995, a misfit named Timothy McVeigh engineered an attack on the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 innocent people and wounding almost 700 more. Nineteen children were among the victims.
Timothy McVeigh was raised by Roman Catholic parents. He was fascinated by computers and spent some time as an amateur hacker. He also was heavily involved in firearms and stated he wanted to own a gun shop.
Now let's suppose some deeply religious person wanted to build a Catholic church and accompanying school two blocks from the former site of the Federal Building. Another entrepreneur was interested in erecting a gun shop a block down the road. A third planned to open a computer store.
What would the reaction be to a petition against building the church out of respect for the families of those killed on 4/19/95? Would the argument that McVeigh was a Catholic. McVeigh was a terrorist. Therefore???? But Christians preach love and peace, right? History reveals that far more people have been killed in various religious wars, inquisitions and crusades by Christians than by Muslims. So how about the petition?
McVeigh liked guns. More people are killed by guns in the United States than in war. Should we allow a gun shop to go up despite the hundreds of mothers and fathers who have been deprived of their children in drive-by killings, firearm accidents and ever-increasing gang shootings? How about showing some respect for them?
A petition against the computer store wouldn't go anywhere, but McVeigh was a computer freak and he turned out to be crazy. Can we assume that many computer nuts are at least a little bit psychopathic? Listen: McVeigh liked computers. McVeigh was crazy. Therefore, people who like computers are crazy. Sound familiar?
I know many of you are ready to go to another diary by now, but isn't this the same kind of logic we're hearing from the logically challenged listeners of Gingrich, Palin and Limbaugh?
Look. If you don't want to like Muslims, there's no law that should try to make you change your mind. The same goes for Southern Baptists, Mormons and atheists. But for heaven's sake, have some reasons beside blind hate, congenital stupidity or terminal laziness.