American Land
In case you haven’t read it lately, or are buying in to the various right-wing and tea party arguments about the right of a mosque to be built near the 9/11 Ground Zero, allow me to refresh your memory concerning the First Amendment to the US constitution. It’s my personal favorite, by the way.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
See, all this blathering about can they or can’t they and is Obama a traitor to America for saying that a mosque can be built on what a very vocal minority thinks is Holy Ground, that’s all bullshit and beside the point. It is really, really simple. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
It’s in the constitution. Separation of church and state. Right to assemble. Right to worship. No right to abridge the freedom of speech or religion. Done and fucking done, you pin-headed morons. If you want to make America a theocracy, you are the traitor to the basic tenets of the Founders. Simple as that.
No official state religion. Not yours, not mine, not theirs. I think a very wise judge just pointed this out a couple of weeks ago in San Francisco: You cannot legislate morality based on your ideals of religious rightness. This whole mosque debate is moot. Any religion can build a house of worship anywhere they want in this country. Within the local zoning regulations, at any rate.
Even Michael Bloomberg, who has had no problem banning smoking in NYC bars, and who turned the seamy underbelly of Times Square right side out, pressed it, cleaned it and made it into a family-friendly Disney park, knows this much: “We do not honor their lives by denying the very Constitutional rights they died protecting. We honor their lives by defending those rights — and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked.” (referring to the men and women who died in the attacks)
In sum, STFU. Mosque, temple, church, mission house, synagogue, Kingdom Hall, stupa, wat, Gurudwara, atashkada, or shrine, any of these can be built in America. Anywhere. Even in New York City.
RightON Girlfriend! You speak the truth. I blame the media for the perpetuation of this idiocy and the lack of perpetuation of the real stuff…like our constitution. You’d think this would be the EASIEST source to fact check. Hullo.
While I tatally concur with what you have shown the constitution to provide as a basic American right, I also must agree with many peoples’ feelings on having a mosque in such close proximity to where great damage was done in the name of Allah. Virtually every religion is based on the belief that we should treat others as we would have them treat ourselves. That being the case, while I do not deny them the right to build a mosque in NYC, I feel that it would have been considerate on their part to build it further away from where they are planning. Just my humble opinion.
Cousin Steve, I am not weighing in on the taste level of building there. That is not the way the issue is being debated. I am saying that there is no legal argument against building there. Racism, xenophobia, religious bigotry may be popular beliefs of the common citizen, but that makes them neither right nor legislatible.
Yes, the decision to build in or near that particular geographic location is very problematic on a lot of levels. And the debate is ridiculous. Just turn it around…sorry, can’t build that church here because… yep, freedom is tough. The National Socialist Movement (the Nazis) marched here Saturday. A fellow from the KKK was in the crowd with a confederate flag and the mexican flag…seems KKKers don’t like the NSMers and do like Mexicans (hard workers). NSMers are all about all illegal immigrants MUST leave…and most non-whites, gay folk, and jews are in that category. I did mention to them as they marched by that they were marching on Gay Street! (As an aside, on the way the the parade, my car broke down on the corner of Church and State Streets!) Hate is hate the world around…it is learned. We are not born with hate. The question then becomes “Who is the teacher?” Who taught them to perpetrate acts to bring death in the name of Allah? Allah in most interpretations of the Quoran is all about peace and equality (a reason for the rise in Muslims). However, those muslims behind and in support of 9/11 see this act as a learned response to years of violence, pain and death committed in the name of Jesus—oops, I mean in the name of the industrial capitalism… all across the developing world and most notably throughout the mideast…you know, that moral high ground tauted (how do you spell that word?) by governments and “amoral” corporate entities. Interesting how people don’t realize how we teach others every day by how we treat one another.
So, the point here may be that the debate is intended to engender emotional reactions because people can be very distracted and even manipulated when they are in an increased state of emotional reactivity. AND then the question becomes, what are “they” trying to distract us from and WHO are THEY? Which then sounds VERY conspiracy theoristy.
Back to the debate… I suppose no one heard Obama say that just because they have the “right” to build there did not make it a right thing to do.
Now, about the so-called Dept. of Justice…Tom Delay was allowed to walk on all federal charges. We will not see justice on any of the past criminal antics perpetrated by that bunch of thugs that ran things into the ground in this country from the mid 90s to 2006. Harrumph.
Amen sister. Nuf said.
To MM; what city are you in? The corner of Church and State is quite amusing.
Knoxville, TN…and the National Socialist Movement parade marched on Gay Street! much to their shagrin.
amen tante!
one of my friends joked that we’ve been “building ground zeros” near/out of mosques since 2003
You can get a witness! I swear the media swooped down on this one, and armed with too little information, the protesters rose.
Which is more terrifying though? The fact that people feel so entitled to freedom and the bill of rights that they feel justified denying that same freedom to other citizens? Or is it the fact that they get more passionate about faith than they do about their local politics and schools?
Truer words, Tante Leah, you are as sharp-witted as ever.
It’s funny how the knee-jerk reactions come as soon as something new is mentioned in either left-wing or right-wing rhetoric, and then people really start to think about the issue later. I recently found that what is going on is an expansion of a Muslim community center which is already in place at that location. They have had huge overflow crowds for services there and they need to expand the prayer room (mosque) to accomodate everybody. There would be no problem if it was a church or a synagogue, so what is the big deal about expanding the mosque? There has been so much information withheld that it is very difficult indeed to make a rational opinion on this subject.
Steve, you are so right on…I tell ya, the media and those who control it are responsible for a LOT of the BS that flies around in such a vitriolic fashion.