9/11
You recognize it; you know what it means; the very numbers leave you with sundry thoughts and emotions.
Should a mosque be built there?
I wrestle with this question on so many levels. As an American, "Ground Zero" as we call it, is hallowed ground. It's one of my two lifetime historical events that I can tell you exactly where I was when it happened. So my gut instinct to even think of the religion behind the catastrophic attack on my country building one of its "holy sites" there seems to be a condescending bowing before the very ones who abhor the very freedoms our country hold dear.
Freedom of religion - government can't prohibit it. Neither can they censor free speech.
But Christian churches and colleges are routinely denied building permits due to zoning, fire codes, traffic issues, and other practical matters. Bars are not allowed to build or operate within so many feet of churches or schools. Hospitals are required to get government approval and studies before they can add on to their facilities, whether it is a new cancer ward or a wing for extra beds.
So if there all these "restrictions and prohibitions" on current religions and businesses, then why should the same not apply to Ground Zero?
Would the KKK be allowed to have an office building at the site of the Birmingham church bombing from the 60's? Of course not!
Is anyone allowed to build near Gettysburg, where so many of our men and boys died during the Civil War? Absolutely not! Not even a viewing tower that allows people to see more of the site at one time.
I think Muslims should be allowed to have their mosques, just as Jews should have their synagogues and Buddhist and Hindus their temples and we Christians our churches. But I do think the Muslims should be held to the same standards ever other religious group is held to...and they're not. When the mayor of a city strongly recommends that a mosque be located elsewhere and the group refuses his offer of help to find a more suitable location, do they really care about the city? No, they only care about conquering and having their own way. Do they care about the people who died, including other Muslims? Not really. They think most of them went straight to hell. They cheered when it happened, and said our policies were partly to blame.
I don't like the thought of our church being told in a few years that we are unable to build on the land we have purchased. But the reality is we faced that possibility last year when DOT (department of transportation) announced they would be taking part of our land as a right of way for a new road going through. We had to go through meetings to find out what our future options were. So I'm having a hard time feeling sympathetic to people who start harping about religious freedom and the government when it comes to the building of this mosque.
I want our freedoms to continue, but as we're taught from childhood, those freedoms are not free. And the price for this particular freedom of letting any group build wherever they jolly well please is a price tag that seems exorbitantly high to me.
You recognize it; you know what it means; the very numbers leave you with sundry thoughts and emotions.
Should a mosque be built there?
I wrestle with this question on so many levels. As an American, "Ground Zero" as we call it, is hallowed ground. It's one of my two lifetime historical events that I can tell you exactly where I was when it happened. So my gut instinct to even think of the religion behind the catastrophic attack on my country building one of its "holy sites" there seems to be a condescending bowing before the very ones who abhor the very freedoms our country hold dear.
Freedom of religion - government can't prohibit it. Neither can they censor free speech.
But Christian churches and colleges are routinely denied building permits due to zoning, fire codes, traffic issues, and other practical matters. Bars are not allowed to build or operate within so many feet of churches or schools. Hospitals are required to get government approval and studies before they can add on to their facilities, whether it is a new cancer ward or a wing for extra beds.
So if there all these "restrictions and prohibitions" on current religions and businesses, then why should the same not apply to Ground Zero?
Would the KKK be allowed to have an office building at the site of the Birmingham church bombing from the 60's? Of course not!
Is anyone allowed to build near Gettysburg, where so many of our men and boys died during the Civil War? Absolutely not! Not even a viewing tower that allows people to see more of the site at one time.
I think Muslims should be allowed to have their mosques, just as Jews should have their synagogues and Buddhist and Hindus their temples and we Christians our churches. But I do think the Muslims should be held to the same standards ever other religious group is held to...and they're not. When the mayor of a city strongly recommends that a mosque be located elsewhere and the group refuses his offer of help to find a more suitable location, do they really care about the city? No, they only care about conquering and having their own way. Do they care about the people who died, including other Muslims? Not really. They think most of them went straight to hell. They cheered when it happened, and said our policies were partly to blame.
I don't like the thought of our church being told in a few years that we are unable to build on the land we have purchased. But the reality is we faced that possibility last year when DOT (department of transportation) announced they would be taking part of our land as a right of way for a new road going through. We had to go through meetings to find out what our future options were. So I'm having a hard time feeling sympathetic to people who start harping about religious freedom and the government when it comes to the building of this mosque.
I want our freedoms to continue, but as we're taught from childhood, those freedoms are not free. And the price for this particular freedom of letting any group build wherever they jolly well please is a price tag that seems exorbitantly high to me.
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