aliantha wrote:It's not about multiculturalism, fer cryin' out loud -- it's about the First Amendment to the Constitution. Americans have a fundamental right to practice any religion they choose -- or no religion.
As soon as we start telling Muslims they can't build a mosque, we are opening the gates to persecution of *anyone* who practices *any* religion that's not apple-pie-American -- which is to say, anyone who's not Christian.
I think a significant proportion of American Watchers are something other than Christian. Those of us who fit that definition ought to be frightened as hell of anyone who suggests limiting *any* American's freedom of religion -- and yes, I'm looking at you, Z.
When did I suggest limiting anyone's freedom? I'm against the mosque. I suspect the imam's motivations. But I never said I'm against their right to build it. I DON'T HAVE THE POWER TO STOP ANYONE FROM BUILDING A MOSQUE. I'm just voicing my opinion. Which is MY Constitutional right.
You're looking at me, alright. But you're doing a piss-poor job of actually
seeing. Or reading, for that matter.
Damelon wrote:You are trying to paint all Muslims with the same broad brush.
No, I keep pointing out
specific examples.
Damelon wrote:You are doing Bin Laden's work for him.
Really? You're going to go there? I posted facts. You can dispute them if you want. But don't accuse me of doing Bin Laden's work. You need to get a grip on yourself. You're losing it.
Fist and Faith wrote:You're not getting one. The snide tone, even contempt, in your voice for several posts is clear.
A snide tone does not justify you claiming that I said someting I didn't.
Fist and Faith wrote: "I've got one easy question for those defending this Muslimized public school: if it was producing Islamic terrorists, would you finally admit it had a problem? Or would you continue to make excuses for it?" is insulting. Of course we oppose public schools producing terrorists. To suggest we'd "continue to make excuses" is garbage.
I didn't suggest. I asked. Your own emotions clouded your judgment to keep you from seeing the difference.
I still haven't seen anyone here admit that Dearborn and its high schools have a serious problem. No, instead people (like Aliantha suggests) are afraid of me, as if I'm the problem. Strange.
="Fist and Faith"]Especially since we haven't made any excuses when discussing what we've been discussing - the football practices.
Of course there have been excuses! Just off the top of my head:
... it's still summer, school isn't in yet.
... it's better for the kids to not practice in the heat.
... the parents invovled don't mind.
... it's none of your business, Z, because you don't live there.
... it doesn't cost you much in tax money.
Fist and Faith wrote:My values require me to let them high-five each other about 9/11.
Do your values extend to letting me post facts on this site without calling me "dispicable" and making up things I've said? Are you going to lump me in with Bin Laden, too? You all seem more upset about me than the people who are high-fiving about 9/11. Why aren't you emphatically fighting for
my right to say my opinion?
Why aren't you defending me just as fervently??? When I was attacking Christians in the Close, you were right there on board with me. But when it's Muslims I criticize, suddenly I'm "dispicable." I'm at a loss to explain this inconsistency.
I haven't said that people don't have the right to high-five. I've merely posted the evidence that they have, in order to illustrate that there is a pervasive culture of Islamic hatred for America and American values in a significant portion of the Dearborn Muslim community.
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Now, back to the mosque and this "moderate" imam. New audio has surfaced from Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Here are a couple of soundbites of "tolerance."
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf wrote: "We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al Qaida has on its hands of innocent non Muslims. You may remember that the US-led sanctions against Iraq led to the death of over half a million Iraqi children. This has been documented by the United Nations. And when Madeleine Albright, who has become a friend of mine over the last couple of years, when she was Secretary of State and was asked whether this was worth it, said it was worth it.
Collateral damage is a nice thing to put on a paper but when the collateral damage is your own uncle or cousin, what passions do these arouse? How do you negotiate? How do you tell people whose homes have been destroyed, whose lives have been destroyed, that this does not justify your actions of terrorism. It's hard. Yes, it is true that it does not justify the acts of bombing innocent civilians, that does not solve the problem, but after 50 years of, in many cases, oppression, of US support of authoritarian regimes that have violated human rights in the most heinous of ways, how else do people get attention?
atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/
So he thinks that the U.S. is worse than al Qaida (and complicit in 9/11, remember), and that terrorism is sometimes necessary to "get people's attention." He finds it
hard to tell people that terrorism is not justified.
This man has no interest in "bridge building." And it seems many of you do not, either. You're more interested in criticizing me than entertaining the possibility that this imam is not what the New York Times claims he is.