The Mosque

The Mosque.  As in the one that THEY want to build in Manhattan. 

Now that I have you sucked in, I will tell you my real opinion.  Maybe I will even drum up some hate mail or a nasty comment or two.  Yep, I don't care.  Build a mosque wherever you want.  If you can afford the property and you can maintain it, go for it.  As long as the land is zoned apporpriately, why not?  We wouldn't have a problem if it was a Jewish temple, a Hindu Temple, a Mormon Temple, a Mega Church, or a Catholic cathedral.  We wouldn't have a problem if it is was another Starbucks, Walmart or McDonald's.  Why do we have a problem with Muslims wanting to practice their faith in downtown Manhattan? 

Home of the free, land of the brave.  We call into question both of these statements when we start carrying around our crosses and pointing to the 9/11 memorial.  Seriously, we are either a free country, or we aren't.  I realize that many of our freedoms seem to slip away every year and every decade.  Is religious freedom really one that we are willing to throw to the wayside?  You are only free to practice these ten religions and after that you can pack up and move back to whereever? 

Haven't we persecuted enough people over our history?  If there is one history lesson we have yet to learn it is this one.  We must stop grouping an entire race and ethnic background into one villanious pile.  Does anyone remember what we did to the Native Americans?  No, too far back.  What about the African American's that we brought here against their will to be our slaves?  Hmm, too far back still.  What about the Japanese internment camps that we set up while trying to tear down Hitler's Jewish concentration camps?  Funny thing there, not much discussed.  What about all of us who are Irish, Polish, Black, Jewish, German, Chinese, Mexican, Italian - just to name a few of the races who have been persecuted simply because of their ethnicity or religion?  We all came here, sometimes the doors were thrown open and we were welcomed; sometimes we snuck across the border, or even shot our way in, but few of us can call ourselves original Americans.  But for some reason we can all ban together and hate whichever group is currently the lowest on the totem pole. 

Whew - glad I got that off my chest.  Now back to regular programming.

You don't even want to hear my opinion on Arizona.