Of course, you are all missing the point of this -
Fascism is on the march, and it seems society is willing to ignore the crunch of the jackboots on the ground until they are crushing its throat.
Does this guy have the right to free speech? Of course, I defend his right to burn as many Korans as he sees fit. But you ignore the context of which this is taking place in - we are living in a world where 61% of the populace, and a majority of the so-called "progressive and secular" political party believe that a building pertaining to a certain religion should not be built on private property,
solely because it is associated with a certain religion.
I'm going to highlight this so you understand the
extreme danger we as a society are in.
61% of the population opposes religious expression when it is performed by a particular religion.
When "nations" and the people that claim to be a part of said "nation" feel threatened, vulnerable, and insecure, inevitably, instead of looking within to constructively figure out the causes of the problems, they look without, and usually at people who don't look, talk, or act like them. Hence, the "border security" movement that is thinly disguised hatred of Mexicans who do low-level jobs both more effectively and more cheaply, exemplified by Jan Brewer's rants about bodies in the Arizona deserts, and the idiotic fears about "cheap Chinese goods destroying American jobs" despite said goods have raised the standards of living for everyone (but the upper/ruling classes) by making goods less expensive, and now, the irrational hatred of Muslims that has been intensifying after September 11, culimating in the wish to deny constitutional rights to them.
Now, one can claim that it is solely due to Cordoba House's proximity to the ruins of the World Trade Center...but why is this relevant in the first place? Because this is a narrative that presents the 9/11 attacks not as an attack by a terrorist organization on American civilians, but as an attack by Islam against Christian America. Deck Knight's reference to the name "Cordoba" being a symbol of conquest over Christian Europe is particularly instructive, as it is the mindset that evokes
Islam as a faith being at war with Christendom, except this the 21st century, not the 11th.
Same thing as Germany being under attack by Jews, Marxists being under attack by Capitalists, whites being under attack by blacks, Catholics being under attack by Protestants, Puritans being under attack by eccentric women, etc, etc.
We've seen this before, and we've seen these societal forces before. The people in a country are weak and vulnerable, or feel that way, and they wish to "purify" the nation in some way. We're seeing the signs of this on the horizon - more wars, discussions of trade wars and protectionism (
protip: trade wars almost ALWAYS become real wars), hatred of cheaper (foreign) workers, and so forth.
And all the while, the national security apparatus keeps getting bigger and more powerful, without an end in sight.
The intellectual and emotional groundwork is being laid (
that is, still being laid - it's been in the works since the beginning of this century) for a state where it is okay to persecute certain unfavored groups, whether by denying them religious expression, trade opportunities, or even freedom, because the rulers have deemed them threats to society, and the people are duped into believing it. This mosque thing is only the beginning.
Do I sound like I'm exaggerating? Maybe so. But again, we've seen this movie before. This looks like every other nationalistic uprising in history,
and nationalistic uprisings have a tendency of ending really badly.
Deck Knight said:
As for the "Community Center," Imam Rauf is a shady character who has stated that America has more Muslim blood on it's hands than al-Queda has non-Muslim blood
If you knew the slightest thing about American foreign policy (as opposed to what our "rulers" and our state punditocracy tells you), then you'd know this is not only a truth, it is an understatement.