Stan Geiger

Mosque Conflict

The proposed construction of what some refer to as the "Ground Zero Mosque" has caused much tension of late. I hear there is supposed to be a joint protest in New York City today, with the antis on one side and the pros on the other. It will be interesting to see how that turns out.

I am opposed to the building of the proposed mosque. I'll take it further and say I'm not a big fan of Islam. It's not just about 9/11; that was the apex event in a long line of history. Muslims have been stirring up crap and killing people under the flag of Islam for as long as I can remember. I'm sick of it.

I guess the first instance in my memory was the Palestinian attack on the Olympics in the '60s. They attacked the freakin' "peace games" for Christ's sake. Since then, it's been one hijacking, attack, bombing or hostage-taking after another, spanning the '70s, the '80s, the '90s and whatever one calls the past the past decade.

The most recent atrocity of which I'm aware would be the Taliban's execution of 10 people that were doing nothing but roaming Afghanistan giving aid to those in need. The accusation was that the 10 were spreading Christianity. If those people were doing nothing but good for the locals, and that showed Christians weren't actually the demons Muslims claim they are, then maybe the accusation was correct.

I keep hearing of "moderate Muslims" and how Islam is a peaceful religion. It's just that I see no evidence that would back up those claims.

Yes, I'm aware of Christian history. It isn't pleasant. But we are living in the now. Christians aren't running around looking to kill people. Not as a rule, at least. There is the odd nut bag, such as the one that gunned down an abortion doctor of late. Acts like that get condemned in the Christian community. There are over a billion Muslims in the world. How many come out and condemn acts of violence committed by Muslims?

Let's flip this story. Let's imagine King Bloomberger there in New York City---a man that has the money to buy anything---went to Saudi Arabia, bought a piece of land across from that fancy mosque in Mecca and announced that he was going to build a Jewish cultural center and synagogue.

We'll forget about the world's response---especially the Muslim world's response. I think we can all see the protests, burnings of the American flag, calls for jihad that would arise. I'm talking about the response in this country.

Muslims in this country would be marching in the streets. Our fabulous academics would be denouncing the move. Our fabulous president would be denouncing the move. Hollywood super-geniuses would be throwing a fit.

If the Muslims really want to build a bridge, let them denounce the building of a mosque in this particular location.

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