Mosque Pit

"An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes." - Cato the Elder

In case you weren't informed, an Islamic Mosque is being formed in New York City coincidentally a few blocks away from Ground Zero of the World Trade Center attacks. There has been some backlash due to this construction by a vast number of people, who apparently would like the much revered right to religious freedom to be ignored in this matter. This may actually be the one time I have heard not just someone, but droves of people come out and basically say "it is too soon for religion."

You know, people who frequently blur the lines between religion and state tend to come off as a bit hypocritical to me. Many of the right wing masses (to be fair, those goaded on by the right wing media) are typically pressing the government to get back to the ways of the Constitution. Of course, this means for white, conservative Christians and not for brown, politically ambiguous Muslims. Yes freedom is good until it applies to the people you don't like, then it's obscene. This is only another scapegoat for the conservative media and loose cannon GOP wolves. It is just something else to get their followers afraid and angry about something. Something else that threatens whatever blanket of security the rich and paranoid think they sleep under. It's simple: when the Man says something is good, it's really good; when the Man says something is bad, it's really bad. It doesn't matter if he later says something is bad that he earlier said was good or vice versa. Whatever the rich yet inexplicably relatable guy you believe is looking out for you tells you has got to be true, right?

Quickly: A highpoint of this drama has led up to a protester brutally stabbing a man in the face and verbally abusing him. The man was apparently just someone who "looked Muslim" to him (I guess the guy was bearded with tanned skin). The attacker was some insignificant film student, essentially America's text book bottle of repressed fury. I think the victim was a cab driver, who I think might not have been Muslim but just some passerby. Muslim or Middle Eastern or not, the pudgy lover of the arts has just committed what could be called a hate crime, proving this protest is one big gathering of rage to a particular group of people a la discrimination. How does one look like a religion, I've never gotten that. Too many stupid people confuse religions with race. Let me clear this up: people don't look Muslim, they look Middle Eastern; people don't look Jewish, they look Israeli; people don't look Christian, they look like Toby Keith. Let's go a step further and not categorize a certain people as having to remain of a certain faith. A white man is just as free to be Muslim as an Iraqi man, just like the Iraqi man can be just as Christian as he wants to be in America.

Obviously, I understand the mindset of the people against the mosque. The terrorists involved in the attacks were mostly, if not all Muslim. Still, the terrorists were under the command and fighting in the name of a radical organization that used religion, as many radical organizations do, to justify murder and warfare. So in a sense, the Islamic religion was a victim to the crimes of Osama Bin Laden as well. Do the actions of the few spoil the many? That's a question heard frequently in the past. The people protesting the mosque apparently think so. I might understand their side of things a bit more if The Taliban was setting up shop near Ground Zero, seeing as how they were the ones responsible for the attacks that made it. Just because the people involved were Muslim doesn't mean shit. Do people just forget all the horrifying things have come about from the actions of other religions in the past? Anyone remember the pointless bloodshed of The Crusades? Hitler was a Christian, but we aren't afraid that all Christians wanna slaughter Jews and rule the world these days, are we?... well come to think of it... nope, no I'm not getting into that.

Another thing is, the people of New York or wherever angry assholes come from are acting like this thing just hunkered down right next to the site. As if the trash from the mosque being tossed out around back is landing right down into the thick of the disaster point. It's over two blocks away! It's not like the stench of Islam is going to rise up from the air and glide over and infect the holiness that is Ground Zero. Also, I thought New York City was supposed to be one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse cities in the world. Major hypocrisy! There is just as much of a chance of a Taliban cell residing within this mosque as there is of a Christian church housing the next Jim Jones; both are just as probable as they are improbable. 9/11 is often compared to the Pearl Harbor Attacks of 1941. After the attacks many Japanese-Americans, Japanese tourists, and some just Asians in general were hualed off to internment camps for fear of being enemy operatives. Of course we didn't keep them in those camps forever and they certainly aren't looked upon with hateful eyes anymore. We as Americans should know just like anyone else that the little people do not have any say in the actions of the powerful. Many Muslims were no doubt horrified about 9/11 too, and even more terrified of retaliations once Muslim men were revealed to be the terrorists. They are just people.

The protest of the mosque goes against one of the most crucial elements of our constitution. Freedom of religion is very essential to this country. Though I am not a particularly religious man and pretty non-denominationally hinged, I think it is great that people in this country are allowed to practice a faith of their choosing. Faith is an important thing, it is not something that should be toyed with. So in my opinion, New Yorkers should be able to go into a little mosque and bow to Allah in peace if that is their choice. Anyone's got a problem with that, then they should take it up with their God, otherwise leave them alone.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that people should get over 9/11. How can someone get over a thing like that? I'm saying that we should move on. It happened, there is no changing it. But we can change and with the way things are we certainly need to change. But to change some need faith. In this country that luxury should be free for everyone.

This has been some commentary on recent controversy from Your Modest Guru. Thanks for reading.