Okay, Rac, now I have some time... first off, I agree with you about standards in the Koran (and the Torah, for that matter) being improvements on previous conditions. An eye for an eye sounds bad to us moderns, but it's better than killing a whole family over it.
I want to make the point that I *do* believe we should be tolerant of all faiths. I'm not really suggesting that Islam be treated here like Christianity is in Saudi Arabia. You're right, we're better than that. It's just that knowing about their total lack of tolerance makes their demands for our tolerance seem extremely irritating.
But I support everyone's right to be irritating; I may need it myself one day.
I appreciate the insights into Middle Eastern culture - very interesting contradictions. They seem to have a very blinkered view of us. I expect their governments foster that.
I hadn't heard the notion that Muhammad was in the Bible. I can see that they'd like to believe that. They also, I'm told, are taught that Jesus didn't actually die on the cross, just, you know, swooned. Anyway, yeah, be careful how you argue with people, but I appreciate that you're trying.
when Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson claimed that liberals, feminists, and the ACLU (along with gays, lesbians, and pagans) helped cause 9/11 to happen, I realized there are some Christians out there who hate me, too.
Hopefully not many, but yeah. That was a really really stupid thing for them to say; the Old Testament has God smiting the unbelievers, but these days he's got other methods of dealing with them -- non-violent methods. Our pastor has preached a few sermons refuting the notion that, say, Hurricane Katrina was divine justice, not that I think that view was prevalent in the church. But apparently he'd gotten some emails... anyway, Christians are *commanded* to love everybody (hate the sin, love the sinner, etc) but human beings just keep failing that test.
I'm reminded that Ground Zero is not going to remain a graveyard forever. They're going to put a giant, gleaming glass and steel skyscraper on it. People will go to work there again. They will buy coffee at a Starbucks that I'm certain will be in the building's ground floor, along with a Cosi sandwich shop. Across the street there is, and always will be, the Century 21 Discount Department Store. A block away is a University of Phoenix office building. American Express sits opposite Ground Zero, close to the waterfront. All sorts of buildings that are profane in the oldest sense of the word (i.e., not sacred), mark the grounds in visual range of Ground Zero. The mosque and community center will be several blocks away, in the middle of a block and will therefore have no line of site to Ground Zero. You won't be standing on consecrated ground with a giant minaret staring you in the face.
That's a fair point, although I don't know what they're ever going to build on that site since it's been nine years and nothing's been done. Hopefully a memorial will be built. Still, Starbucks wasn't even remotely complicit in the act of war that killed all those people. So that's not the same thing.
The reason I came here today is to share this opinion piece I read in the
Ottowa Citizen . Written by two Muslims who say, among other things:
we Muslims know the idea behind the Ground Zero mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation to thumb our noses at the infidel. The proposal has been made in bad faith and in Islamic parlance, such an act is referred to as "Fitna," meaning "mischief-making" that is clearly forbidden in the Koran.
It's not the existence of a mosque that bothers me, it's the
spitefulness that seems to be a large factor of the whole thing that I object to. If the organizers truly want to improve community relations, they should show more compassion and respect for the community. There's a very large wound there, still, and these guys are gleefully adding salt.
PJ
