Is the mosque and community center near Ground Zero meant to be mischief making? I don't know.
That's understandable. I don't know what's really going on inside your head any more than you know what's going on inside mine. But to make this reasonable statement and then refuse to accept Dr. Falwell's apology strikes me as a little bit uneven.
One thing I haven't seen discussed in this thread is Iman Faisal Abdul Rauf and his refusal to declare that no funds from any terrorist groups will be used to pay for the construction and/or operation of this mosque. He has also refused more than once to label Hamas as a terrorist organization.
These positions might be political in nature, i.e., he doesn't want to offend anyone in his community. But it puts up another little red flag in the line of sight and gives many people pause.
It should also be noted that this proposed mosque is not a brand-new congregation, but a larger facility for an existing group. Either there are more Muslims coming to that part of New York to live and worship or there are more converts to Islam from the surrounding neighborhoods.
Don't get me wrong, they hate capitalism and consumerism, and liberalism and tolerance and feminism. But if the reason they attacked us was any of these, why didn't they bomb the French Riviera for its topless beaches? Or Rwanda, for having the audacity not just to let women vote, but for having a majority female parliament?
The answer is that neither Sweden nor France nor Rwanda are forcibly exporting their culture to the Middle East. There aren't many French-made TV programs or movies sent to that part of the world every year, but there are scads of US video products inundating the Arab world on a daily basis. You can legitimately argue that the people there don't have to watch or listen to that media, but I know who Paris Hilton and the Kardashian sisters are even though I make no attempt to follow their adventures. I can't imagine what a straight-laced Arab man would think of his teen-aged daughter trying to act like Lady Gaga. I absolutely do NOT condone honor killings or any punishment short of death but in the spirit of honor killing (imprisonment at home or town jail, public whippings, and the like), but I do understand such a man's frustration.
