How some people get hold of the wrong end of the stick over Islam
By John Welford
@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
September 30, 2015 5:59am CST
The plans for the "Ground Zero Mosque" have finally been abandoned after considerable protest. The idea had been for an Islamic community centre to be built not far from the site of the Twin Towers in New York, and this building would have included a prayer room for Muslims.
This has been dubbed the "Ground Zero Mosque" ever since it was proposed in 2010, and some of the language used to condemn it has been nothing short of vitriolic.
Some Americans apparently see it as an insult to those who died in the Twin Towers - it is regarded by some as a monument built to celebrate the fact that American lives were lost.
I have just read this on another website: "... this is America. If you want to change its landscape, language, religion and law, you are fresh out of luck. Go back to your own country and live under the Sharia law you prize so highly, but don't try to implement it here." (As if anyone had the slightest intention of so doing).
In other words, Islam is never to be understood but only to be condemned. It sounds from this sort of talk that some Americans don't want any Muslims in America, whether close to Ground Zero or not.
I can see why the proposal to build the religious centre was a good idea - its aim was to welcome people of all faiths and seek reconciliation - but I can also see why it might have been thought to be an insensitive location.
As it is, Islamophobia seems to have won yet another victory in the United States.
12 people like this
8 responses
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
30 Sep 15
That's a very great shame. The ignorance about Islam in the USA shocks me again and again. Do you know - I didn't until reading your post prompted me to go and check - how many Muslims were killed in the twin towers? Over 30 including an unborn child of a 7 month pregnat woman. Why shouldn't Muslims have the same rights to mourn their loss and contemplate the horror of what happened?
7 people like this
@bookbar (1609)
• Sudbury, England
30 Sep 15
@boingboing As it was assumedly Muslims who committed the atrocity...the opinion obviously is ,that anyone of the same faith,deserved their fate and not entitled to any compassion, albeit they were as innocent as you or I...obviously the same rights are not a consideration...
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85146)
• Shingle Springs, California
30 Sep 15
Some people in this country are not only convinced that the President is a Muslim, that Sharia law will be implemented here, that we are in imminent danger of attack, but also that the religion itself based on actual words in the Koran is evil. I believe this Islamophobia is propaganda pushed by the right to justify war profiteering. Scary.
2 people like this
@dawnald (85146)
• Shingle Springs, California
30 Sep 15
@purplealabaster Nope. Some of these people really believe that stuff.
1 person likes this
@purplealabaster (22091)
• United States
30 Sep 15
@dawnald Unfortunately, my dad tends to teeter on those beliefs, but it is due to things that he reads on the Internet. Then he has the nerve to tell me that I cannot believe everything and everyone that I meet on the Internet.
1 person likes this
@purplealabaster (22091)
• United States
30 Sep 15
So I am not the only one that gets these idiot people telling me that the President is a Muslim and he is trying to overtake the country with his Muslim beliefs.
@topffer (42156)
• France
30 Sep 15
Another victory of stupidity. I am not surprised. Many people don't know that Islam is like Christianity and has various currents. It is really sad as Park51 was a Muslim Center to promote interfaith dialog. The center was including a prayer room for Muslims, but it was not a mosque (It is its opponents that called it "Ground Zero Mosque").
2 people like this
@purplealabaster (22091)
• United States
30 Sep 15
I really think that there needs to be more "interfaith dialog", but I suspect that it would not do any good. There are people that think that anyone who does not believe what they believe is going to Hell, and they have no tolerance for discussions that might prove them wrong.
1 person likes this
@purplealabaster (22091)
• United States
1 Oct 15
@topffer Intolerance is frustrating, but I guess that makes me intolerant of people who are intolerant.
1 person likes this
@topffer (42156)
• France
1 Oct 15
@purplealabaster I tend to stay away of intolerant people if they are not enough open minded to hear a different speech.
1 person likes this
@purplealabaster (22091)
• United States
30 Sep 15
There are extremists in any religion, organization or group of people. The majority of the people should not be judged by the few "bad apples".
1 person likes this
@purplealabaster (22091)
• United States
30 Sep 15
The thing that makes me the angriest I think is that the ones that want to limit people's rights due to their own religious beliefs tend to be the same ones that are the least understanding and supportive of other people's religious beliefs and rights.
1 person likes this
@TiarasOceanView (70022)
• United States
30 Sep 15
I am not surprised by this reaction in the USA.
1 person likes this
