Good Place for a Mosque

[Guest]

[Guest]

Thank you dgrimm.

[SivartM]

Wouldn't this cartoon be kind of offensive to those who were affected by 9/11?

Oh, right... offensive is just another word for "politically incorrect".

[Dr. Shane]

I don't like the idea of a mosque in the shadow of the WTC but I think it does show how Christianity has shaped tolerance in America. It is like turning the other cheek. The blow up the WTC and we let them build a mosque next door. We are taking the high road. Few countries are that tolerant. As I realized this, the behavior of the religious right in opposing this is a bit embarrassing.

[John317]

I don't like the idea of a mosque in the shadow of the WTC but I think it does show how Christianity has shaped tolerance in America. It is like turning the other cheek. The blow up the WTC and we let them build a mosque next door. We are taking the high road. Few countries are that tolerant. As I realized this, the behavior of the religious right in opposing this is a bit embarrassing.

I agree with you to a certain extent, but this action could also send the wrong message to the terrorists and actually encourage more of the same. In the past, Islamists have had a pattern of building Mosques in places which they believe they've conquered. I see it as something like "tagging." It is like announcing to other Muslims, "We won" and "this belongs to us." From the point of view of the extremists, it is proof that they're way is right. It also encourages their view that the West is morally weak and won't defend its terrority when push comes to shove. They don't interpret it to mean we're nice and kind but rather that they can beat the West and the US if they just keep up the fight.

I don't think we've quite gotten the message yet that whether we like it or not--whether we realize it or not-- we're involved in a war between extremist Muslims and the West. They particularly want to destroy the US because they see America and Americans as standing between them and their goal of making the whole world Muslim.

[Dr. Shane]

Turning the other cheek has been known to encourage one's enemy to slap it. That is a risk we take.

[John317]

As Christians, I'm not saying we individually shouldn't turn the other cheek, but as a nation and a civilization, we must realize how it will be interpreted if the West as a whole does it. The terrorists are almost certain to understand it to mean they are on the right road and that they have the West on the run.

[Guest]

I don't like the idea of a mosque in the shadow of the WTC but I think it does show how Christianity has shaped tolerance in America. It is like turning the other cheek. The blow up the WTC and we let them build a mosque next door. We are taking the high road. Few countries are that tolerant. As I realized this, the behavior of the religious right in opposing this is a bit embarrassing.

[Dr. Shane]

I supported the War on Terror. I support both the action in Afghanistan and Iraq. I don't think we executed the wars as good as we could have but our reasons for going in were noble and justified. If any Muslim terrorists think they somehow conquered the US after what we did to the regimes in those nations, I say, 'let them have their delusions'.

At this point I have no issues with the mosque. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

[Guest]

That would be true in a lot of cases. But to say it here just tells me that you've got your head stuck in a cloud somewhere. Maybe in platitude land or somewhere. Instead of looking at the real picture, you're thinking this has something to do with turning the other cheek somehow.

[Dr. Shane]

I am thinking it has to do with our protection of private property. In the US, if you buy property, to a great degree, you can do with that property what you want to. In order to stop the mosque, we would have to find a reason to violate the private property rights of the owners of that property. Those that tried to stop the mosque by making the land a historical property were doing thus that.

[Guest]

Sorry about that. That may have been a little harsh for Sabbath. That's why, as a rule, I don't talk politics on the Sabbath. I must have gotten carried away.

[phkrause]

Yes shame on you Richard. :)

[phkrause]

I agree Shane up to a certain extent. As has been mentioned here and on the tube, it could've and should've been being built elsewhere in NY. Didn't have to be right there.

[phkrause]

And John I also agree with you, because I think eventually we will see what will really be the intent here, and I don't think it will be pretty.