At any given moment, acquaintances and friends can learn more about you than they may have previously cared to know. People “Check In” to restaurants, bars, airports, even restrooms; chirpy morning greetings are usually met with long “threads” of pleasant “tit-for-tats;” acerbic or ironic comments, pictures, or cartoons almost always result in a flurry of “Likes” as well as “Comments.”
Most everyone enjoys a good laugh; that’s always good.
But what happens when one crosses the FACEBOOK Rubicon attempting to discuss subjects that are topical, challenging, and emotionally charged?
As if these posts were salmonella tainted eggs, I have learned that most of the entries go untouched. It’s a curiosity to me.
I truly enjoy a good conversation with just about anyone so long as personal invective and emotions are left out of the mix. Give me a reasonable argument for most any position and I will respectfully hear you out; I am, after all, still open to expanding my views. And while I understand that engaging in serious conversation doesn’t seem like an entertaining use of valuable time for some, people today seem to genuinely loathe stepping into almost any controversial fray.
I just don’t get it.
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The debate surrounding the Park 51 development, a mere 600 feet North of Ground Zero, is consuming the thoughts, passions and energies of many. There are those who insist this is nothing more than a “ginned up” controversy manufactured so as to fill airwave and newspaper space during an otherwise boring “dog days of summer” news cycle. There are equally great numbers of vocal, partisan foes on the other side of this fence who protest the project solely on the grounds that its concept is, at once, “insensitive,” if not wholly un-American.
To my way of thinking, it doesn’t matter that opinions are often labeled “right” or “wrong;” it’s more important to me that those who are moved to embrace a subject, come to what they consider to be reasoned (if not flawed) opinions and then allow their voices be heard.
It’s how I grow as a person; I welcome such opportunities.
FREEDOM OF RELIGION
AMY FACEBOOK: “As far as I know, none of the 9/11 hijackers or their co-conspirators have applied for a building permit. And as far as I know, the zoning of lower Manhattan allows building of places of worship. And as far as I know we still have that First Amendment thingy that says Congress shall make no laws prohibiting the free exercise of religion”
Most of us don’t recall that the process of drafting and ratifying the United States Constitution by all participating states took up most of nearly five years. Soon after Vermont became the thirteenth state to affirm the Constitution in December of 1779, the state of Virginia proposed and ratified ten amendments to the same Constitution that would eventually become known as the Bill of Rights.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; …”
These sixteen words represent the first two conditions set forth in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights; they are most often referred to, respectively as the “Establishment” and “Freedom of Expression” clauses.
The Establishment clause strictly prohibits the establishment of a national religion by Congress or the preference of one religion over another, non-religion over religion, religion over non-religion, and, later, religion over irreligion.
ROB MARVIN: “Absolutely, Amy. Free exercise of religion is the cornerstone of the freedoms laid by the founding fathers; every Muslim, Hindu, Jew and Christian is allowed to (or not) practice his religion as he chooses. What I don’t understand is how this public outcry against construction of a mosque at such close proximity to Ground Zero somehow represents a forfeiture of that right? I know of no reasonable person or group who has called for such an infringement.
Lately refusing to enter the political deep end of most any shark infested pool, Speaker Pelosi(o) recently declared this issue to be “local.”
If this is true, then Imam Rauf, who is spearheading the project, might be wise to listen to the overwhelming majority of NYC citizens surveyed ~ Muslim and Non-Muslim alike ~ who have asked only that serious consideration and empathy be accorded to the feelings of the family members who lost so much on 9/11. To many, erection of the cultural center and mosque at this site would be no less abhorrent than allowing the Japanese government to erect a Shinto Shrine or tourism bureau two blocks from the rusting hull of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.
The entire debate, for me, defies logic.
If the intent is solely to construct a cultural center and prayer facility cum mosque, then by all means build it. The interested parties need only consider relocating the facility to a different site. If the intent is truly not to make either a political or religious statement, there are plenty of other properties available for his consideration; Governor Patterson has previously offered as much. To do anything less, indeed to be intransigent, only serves to inflame the fears of many as to an “actual agenda.”
I can’t help but concur with the majority opinion of New Yorkers who feel that continuing with this complex, as proposed, is little more than an exercise in ‘poor taste.’
And, at its worst, the project is disturbingly provocative”
THE NINETEEN GUYS OF 9/11
AMY FACEBOOK: “Islam is a religion of peace and love, and is practiced as such by billions of people. Not unlike Christianity. There are a few extremists and nut-jobs who claim to represent a faith. Those who exploit that religion, or falsify the beliefs of that religion, as a motivation for murder. To persecute all for the actions of a few is a mistake.”
The men who hijacked the four planes which ultimately resulted in the death of thousands of innocents were clearly, as Charles Krauthammer recently wrote, “at the edge of a worldwide movement of radical Islamists with cells that exist on every continent, with global financing as well as theological support complete with large media and propaganda arms, and an archipelago of local sympathizers, such as those in NW Pakistan who protect and guard them.”
“Why is America fighting Predator Wars over Pakistan and in Yemen, surveilling thousands of conversations and financial transactions every day, and engaged in military actions against radical Muslims from the Philippines to Somalia?”
“Is America doing that because of just 19 crazed Muslim terrorists who died nearly ten years ago?”
“No.”
The radical factions of Islam most certainly do not represent a majority sampling of Islam. “But, when you consider the financiers, clerics, propagandists, trainers, leaders, operatives and sympathizers ~ by any conservative estimate, these numbers command some 7% of all Muslims.” That amounts to some 80 million Muslims engaged in such activity.
“These numbers represent a “very powerful strain within Islam.”
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| Memorial Footprints |
ROB MARVIN: “The action of these men and umbrella organizations has altered the course of the world, and has personally affected the lives of millions, Amy. I am sure many would like to pretend the world is still a completely happy place in which to live but the reality of 9/11 changed this ideal for everyone. For myself, the numbers are staggering; I can no longer afford to look at this world through “rose-colored glasses.”
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Resistance to this project represents nothing more than “metastasized anti-Semitism.”
These were the words spoken recently by the wife of Imam Rauf.
“It’s beyond Islamophobia. It’s hate of Muslims.”
Like it or not, Mrs. Khan, Ground Zero will always be the “site of the most lethal attack of the worldwide radical Islamic movement, consisting entirely of Muslims, acting in the name of Islam, and deeply embedded within the Islamic world.”
I have great sympathy for everyone who suffered from the attacks of 9/11; my sympathy also extends to the peace loving Muslims of the world who have watched helplessly as their faith has been bastardized by so many.
Ask almost any German citizen if the stigma of Hitler’s atrocities during WWII still reverberate today; even those not alive during the War will attest to the great legacy of guilt which still hangs over the country some sixty years later.
The stigma of that day in September of 2001 will surely haunt the good Muslims of the world for generations to come; I believe the greatest gift the Imam could bestow upon the city of New York ~ and the country as a whole ~ would be to demonstrate “understanding and compassion” by moving the project to a different location.
Such consideration might truly move mountains.
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