To get to the Cordoba Centre from Ground Zero, you’d have to walk in the opposite direction for two blocks, before turning a corner and walking a bit more. The journey should take roughly two minutes, or possibly slightly longer if you’re heading an angry mob who can’t hear your directions over the sound of their own enraged bellowing.
Perhaps spatial reality functions differently on the other side of the Atlantic, but here in London, something that is “two minutes’ walk and round a corner” from something else isn’t actually “in” the same place at all. I once had a poo in a pub about two minutes’ walk from Buckingham Palace. I was not subsequently arrested and charged with crapping directly onto the Queen’s pillow. That’s how “distance” works in Britain. It’s also how distance works in America, of course, but some people are currently pretending it doesn’t, for daft political ends.
New York being a densely populated city, there are lots of other buildings and businesses within two blocks of Ground Zero, including a McDonald’s and a Burger King, neither of which has yet been accused of serving milkshakes and fries on hallowed ground. Regardless, for the opponents of Cordoba House, two blocks is too close, period. Frustratingly, they haven’t produced a map pinpointing precisely how close is OK.
That’s literally all I’d ask them in an interview. I’d stand there pointing at a map of the city. Would it be offensive here? What about here? Or how about way over there? And when they finally picked a suitable spot, I’d ask them to draw it on the map, sketching out roughly how big it should be, and how many windows it’s allowed to have. Then I’d hand them a colour swatch and ask them to decide on a colour for the lobby carpet. And the conversation would continue in this vein until everyone in the room was in tears. Myself included.
That hasn’t happened. Instead, 70% of Americans are opposed to the “Ground Zero mosque”, doubtless in many cases because they’ve been led to believe it literally is a mosque at Ground Zero. And if not . . . well, it must be something significant. Otherwise why would all these pundits be so angry about it? And why would anyone in the media listen to them with a straight face?
Via.
'Religious' tolerance?
ReplyDeleteThe privileges of being classed as religion should be withdrawn from Islam.
If Hitler had claimed that 'Mein Kampf' was dictated by God, would we be forced to tolerate the Nazi Party as a religion? Islam is first and foremost a mind-destroying, totalitarian political ideology that spreads through the Body Politic like a virus.
Winston Churchill gave the correct diagnosis over a century ago, when he compared Islam to a contagious virus or meme - 'as dangerous in a man as rabies in a dog' http://crombouke.blogspot.com/2010/01/islam-murder-meme-and-rabies-of.html
Consequently, Islam should be reclassified from 'RELIGION' to 'PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEM' - a virulent contagious mental illness. It could then be contained by the methods used to prevent the spread of typhoid and other lethal epidemics: enforced exclusion and quarantine of carriers, eradication of foci of infection, immunization of the susceptible population etc.
Trencherbone-
ReplyDeleteWell first, sorry I haven't answered this until now-- for some reason, Blogger assumed it was spam? Possibly because it's a wall of text with a link. But I de-spam'd it so we can all see it now.
Anyway.
As much as Islam has been mutated and manipulated by both its practitioners and its detractors, it was supposed to be a religion, and is practiced by many as one. Also, it has a God, and the Qu'ran, both of which indicate that yes, it is indeed a religion.
For every crazy freak who just uses the word "islam" to justify his or her insane actions, there's about a million people who genuinely do believe in Allah and believe that Muhammad was a prophet.
Islam is just as much of a religion as Christianity, or Judaism, or Hinduism, or Buddhism, or whatever you can think of.
Also, freakin' Scientology is recognized as a religion, and it was made up by a science-fiction writer as a joke. If Scientology can be called a religion, then Islam sure as hell can too.
That- ... XD
ReplyDeleteI love John Stewart! He is my idol. :3 He is able to make anything funny!
Trencherbone....uh...how on earth did you find this place?
ReplyDeleteSecondly,
Though you admirably attack Islam and show that it is a "public mental health problem", you fail to mention
a. Why it is this so-called, mind-destroying political totalitarian ideology. The Bible would be much the same if taken literally. I know many people who are Muslims, and they are as nice as anyone. Given some of the Christians I know, perhaps more so.
b. The fact that, for about four hundred years (and still now, in some cases) Christianity was a "mind-destroying totalitarian ideology". Inquisition murdered a few million Jews and Muslims, through government-ordained, publicly supported procedures as bad as the Holocaust and going on for much longer. The Crusades slaughtered Muslims throughout the Middle East. The Incas and Aztecs were attacked in the name of god. Even now, you should see the number of radical Christian fringe groups that are hanging out in the gray area of the law.
c. More Muslims live in Indonesia than in the Middle East. Last time I checked, nobody was urging the US Government to charge into Indonesia and drop thermobaric bombs all over it. Could it–gasp!–be possible that we're just using "Muslim" to say that all people of Middle Eastern descent, Christian, Muslim, Atheist, or anything else, are sick-minded terrorists hell-bent on destroying the entire Western World?
d. That treating Islam as a communicable disease is quite similar to Hitler's policy regarding Judaism. "Enforced exclusion and quarantine of carriers"=death camps. "Eradication of foci of infection"=Kristallnacht (sp?). "Immunization of the susceptible population"=Anti-Jewish propaganda. Do we, as the United States, want to end up like Nazi Germany–a short-lived, totalitarian, pseudo-democratic regime that wipes out an entire ethnic group due to perceived "dangers"?
Contrary to popular belief, all Muslims are not misogynistic, fanatical, anti-Western, back-to-the-14th century religious maniacs.