To see the video, click the link below.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Mosque near Ground Zero
Although the subject has somewhat died down, there are stil many people who are beginning to speak out against Islam and their plans to build a mosque only 600 feet away from tower one. After browsing a few articles and videos on the subject, i stumbled on the one below and felt that it was a fair explanation of what is going on. Andy McCarthy makes the argument that there is religious freedom and that the United States should uphold the constitution. However, he does say that this is not an appropriate decision for Islam to make. There have been arguments that in fact, it is not a mosque that will be built, but a community center. Either way, I do not agree at all that any such structure should be built within a fair radius of the towers. In the video, a commenter makes the point that we don't know where the money is coming from to fund this project, nor can we hope to know who is actually in charge of the idea behind it. To be fair, I understand that religious freedom is just as important to me as it is to Islam. However, if ever my religion was the cause to such an atrocity, I would hope that we would be respectful enough to stray away from disturbing that area anymore.
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This is a very interesting topic, and a very sensitive one. I feel that this is a lose-lose situation for the US; either we allow the mosque (or whatever it is) to be built under the title of religious freedom and be insensitive to the thousands of people who's life was affected by this tragic event, or we don't allow the mosque to be built and appear intolerant. Either way, America loses. What DO we do? Or do we even need to do anything?
ReplyDeleteAs Americans, we enjoy a constitution that most respect and that we must uphold. Religious freedom was very important to the founding fathers, and it is still something that nearly everyone respects today. However, as the constitution states, there are certain inalienable rights that the document is centered around. I personally feel that building a mosque in such a close proximity to where the 9/11 tragedy took place is detrimental to the pursuit of happiness of many, many people affected by the tragedy. If you HAVE to build a mosque, it could easily be built a few blocks away.
I do have a couple of questions though...
1)In the original post it is stated that a mosque should not be built "within a fair radius of the towers." How far away is a "fair radius"? One could easily argue that there should not be a mosque in the city, but is that fair? Many have argued that 600 feet IS a far radius. How do we make that decision?
2)Again, the original post stated that "if ever my religion was the cause to such an atrocity, I would hope that we would be respectful enough to stray away from disturbing that area anymore." An admirable declaration. However, I will assume that the original poster is LDS, since this is a BYU class blog. Does anyone remember the Mountain Meadows Massacre? That was an atrocity. Yes, the circumstances are different, yes the LDS church had undergone a huge amount of persecution and felt unsafe, but this act was still an atrocity. I wonder how close the nearest Latter-Day Saint chapel is to the location of the massacre?