Local (Houston) Talk Radio Host Calls for Blowing Up of Mosque

Okay that's great for you, we all know that you have been trying hard to portray yourself as a very tolerant person.

My question is to the muslim posters: Would you be in favor of the mosque containing what the Rabbi suggests? Yes or no?

So far, the silence is deafening.

 

Dood, it was a 3-day weekend lol.

As for the rabbi's suggestion, I think the idea of making a museum memorial dedicated to 9/11 is good. If the leads of the Mosque project can't afford it or don't have the time to run it, maybe the rabbi should take the initiative. But, just as the Mosque isn't required, the rabbi shouldn't be required to do so either.

 

Sorry, I forgot.

If the initiator of the mosque/cultural center would commit to this being included like the Rabbi suggests, I would fully be in favor of the initiative, without reservations. Heck, I'd donate.

 

Lol seriously it was a 3-day weekend.

Yes, I'd be in favor of that. If it didn't have the museum, I would still be unopposed to the construction of the mosque.

 

I listened to this guy for about 10 minutes yesterday ( I don't know why I put myself through it),

he's going into commercial break talking about how obama is going to take advantage of the BP disaster to "take over the oil industry"

then he comes back talking about the flotilla situation off the Gaza coast, talking about how obama would react.

so what does he do, play a bunch of reverand wright exerpts (fine Obama did go to his church), but then he makes the leap to farrakhan exerpts. unbelievable

 

I'm coming late to this thread and have only skimmed it but I am disturbed by the Us vs. Them attitude that underlies this issues. WHat is lost in this is that many Muslims also died on 9/11 and were victims too. For example one of those who dies was a 23 year old police cadet and ambulance driver. For several months it was thought that he was involved in the attack but was actually there doing his duty. http://islam.about.com/blvictims.htm

If there is a "Them" it isn't Muslims but the violent extremists who didn't care who they killed. The "Us" is people of all faiths, and no faith, who had their life violently ended that day.

As far as this Mosque being a Muslim symbol displacing an American symbol, last time I checked the Constitution it forbid a state religion. A mosque is as American as a church or a synogogue according to the ideals that created this country. I would say to argue against this mosque as being un-American is a betrayal of the value of religious freedom that underpins this country.

 

That's part of what I was alluding to in my post. A Muslim symbol is not mutually exclusive with an American symbol.

more accurately, a Muslim symbol is not an Un-American symbol.

It is absolutely ridiculous and that in this day and age people are claiming and acting like after an attack on America Muslim places of worship are offensive.

That idea is what is offensive to me as an American, and every American should be offended by it.

 

I am not a Muslim but just to throw my two cents in I am not in favor of it. I think it would be a nice gesture but one that I think is unnecessary and shouldn't affect whether the mosque be built or not.

The first problem I have is that such a requirement goes against freedom of religion. It is for the practitioners of the mosque to decide what should and shouldn't be in it rather than for those who will not be praying there to. I doubt any other religion would accept such a demand being placed on their place of worship.

The other problem that I have with this suggestion is that it places a collective guilt upon Muslims as a whole to atone for the actions of a handful of individuals. For example no one is suggesting that Christians should atone for the actions of Tim McVeigh and a church near the Murrah Federal building also contain a museum about white Christian extremists.

 

Repped.

I don't know why some people are so prone to the "guilt by association" mentality.

 

As the reactions of some victim families show, it is anything but unnecessary.

It might be if the government mandated it as a requirement for the mosque to be built. For a private citizen to ask the guy who champions the project to comment and possibly to commit to a suggestion certainly does not go against freedom of religion. I did not ask if the government should mandate it. I asked for comments on the Rabbi's suggestion.

Completely wrong on so many levels. First of all, your comparison to McVeigh is way off. Secondly, the suggestion by the Rabbi is not about collective guilt. The people behind the project claim that the project is about distancing themselves from Bin Laden, and showing that, as Mathloom put it, the mosque/cultural center is supposed to be a big "F you" to Bin Laden and other extremists. So why not make that clear by including an exhibition as the Rabbi suggested it?

In light of the history of the guy who champions the project, there are doubts even among muslims regarding the true motive behind the initiative ("planting a flag on conquered land" vs. truly "bridging the great divide between Muslims and the rest of America", as Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf put it), as well as the sources of funds (Saudi islamists (whom even Mathloom criticizes as too fundamentalist)?.

What better way to find out what the real goal is than presenting Mr. Rauf with the Rabbi's suggestion? If his motives are really what he says they are, he should not have a problem with the suggestion, on the contrary, this should already be in his plans. If he rejects the suggestion, I would like to hear his reasons for that.

 

Very interesting that you would be against the Rabbi's suggestion. This indicates to me that for you, the project is more about building a flag on conquered land than anything else. Not that this surprises me - your silence on the Rabbi's suggestion was quite indicative.

 

Looks like some of our islamist-leaning friends are getting angry...nothing new there. Give me more of that!

 

When I used to live in town, I saw Michael Berry at Blue Nile Ethiopian restaurant quite often. I believe he has an Indian/(Pakistani?) wife.

 

and an adopted son from Ethiopia if I recall correctly.

 

What about the families of the Muslim victims?

You have also decried censorship done by private organizations as being censorship. In the same vein I see this as an imposition made by someone not of this faith. The Rabbi is free to suggest it but I do see this as going against the ideal just the same as if Muslims suggested that a synogogue should have a museum dedicated towards showing the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

How is it different? Why should Muslims being compelled to portray the horrors committed by a handful of Muslims anymore than white Christians should the actions of a white Christian? Why do these Muslims need to do more than say that they do not agree with Bin Ladin, why do they need to make a museum to prove it?

You are asking them to atone collectively as in your mind you don't think it is enough for them just to say they don't agree. You are asking them to prove it because you don't feel that they are doing enough. First off why should they do anything? Unless there is any proof otherwise these Muslims had nothing to do with 9/11 anymore than a white Christian like Mad Max had to do with Tim McVeigh.

So anything that takes Saudi money is automatically tainted? Saudi money has gone to the Mayo Clinic should we now consider that as planting a flag on conquered land?

And again with the divide between Muslims and the rest of the America. Show me where it says that Muslims cannot be good Americans.

So if he rejects the suggestion then he is under suspicion? Do you not see how that sounds paranoid? This is just saying "well if they have nothing to hide then they will comply." That may not be government pressure but that certainly sounds like using culture to trample on their freedom. That's something that you have criticized before in regard to things like the outcry against South Park and the Danish Cartoons.

 

That was totally uncalled for and for what its worth I can assure you that it wasn't me.

 

rocketsjudoka, your desperate attempts to portray yourself as this oh-so-tolerant guy are funny. I guess you believe in it yourself. The funniest part are your truly terrible analogies. A 5-year-old could come up with something better.

 

So in your mind the only way to prove that it isn't planting a flag on conquered land is to take up the Rabbi's suggestion. Why can't it just be a mosque?

 

tolerant? You're the one that can't stand a man praying 20 feet away from you?

you have no grounds to say anything moron.

 

I didn't think it was you. You're way too tolerant and nice for that :grin:.