The media and the 'Ground Zero mosque' story

[Al-khiyal]

[Al-khiyal]

[Cheba_Mami]

read this: http://blogimages.bloggen.be/denniss...c5bb7e232e.jpg


I don’t usually write about politics. It’s important, but something I want no part of – kind of like a raw sewage treatment facility. But frankly, I haven’t been this upset in a long time. And it's due to the logic-hating, herd-mentality rhetoric that some have been flinging in opposition to the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque.” For the uninitiated, there are plans to construct an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan. And, of course, lower Manhattan is where the World Trade Center stood before terrorists destroyed it, thereby murdering 3,000 Americans. I was working in New York City at the time. As was my father. As was my pregnant wife. I remember the day well. And the days that followed. I think most of all, I remember standing on the Staten Island Ferry, coming home with 200 other silent, reverent New Yorkers of every age, race, and religion, as we watched our city still smoldering a full week later. And it is with this backdrop that I can say to every politician spouting off and opposing the construction of this Islamic community center: “Shut up. Go away. You hate America.”

I’m talking about people like professional political tumor, Newt Gingrich, and future worst President ever, Sarah Palin, who have both slammed supporters of the Islamic community center with rhetoric so flawed, I’m afraid even linking to it might impair your computer’s higher functioning circuits. But it's not just them. Due to the wave of misinformation being spread, apparently 68% of Americans also oppose the mosque.


How did this happen? Well, basically a complacent or a complicit media helped perpetuate three ideas that are either outright lies or intellectually dishonest arguments designed to bring out the very worst in all of us. And as you continue to hear them--and you will--take out this column which you will have already printed and laminated, and recite thusly:



Read more: 3 Reasons the "Ground Zero Mosque" Debate Makes No Sense | Cracked.com



1. It’s Not at Ground Zero

The proposed structure is not on the hallowed ground of the former World Trade Center. It’s at an abandoned and private building blocks away that used to be the Burlington Coat Factory. That means that if every one of the “g’s” that Sarah Palin drops when she’s talkin’ folksy were 10 by10 feet large, you could still stack over 120 of them from Ground Zero to this community center. Easy.


That sort of makes all the difference, doesn’t it? I know, when I first heard they were building a mosque at Ground Zero, I literally said, “What the ****.” Like out loud and everything. I didn’t even pull a “WTF” despite years of writing for the Internet. That’s because for the last nine years, we New Yorkers have listened to countless proposals and plans and ideas of how to best rebuild the area while honoring the memories of those who died. And suddenly it seemed we were being told, “Yep, it’s all decided. Mosque. We want a mosque here. Just feels right.”

So yeah, of course, no one was on board. That just made no sense. What happened to that proposed waterfall and wall of names? Nothing happened. Because no one was ever building a mosque on that site. It’s just a lie that was told to you by people who wanted you to be afraid, upset, and hurt. People who wanted to manipulate your tender emotions to inspire contempt for the government. It’s about as intellectually dishonest as manipulating debate footage to make it appear that “Drill, baby, drill” is Sarah Palin’s stance on partial birth abortions. It's just wrong.


And to those who say that any location in lower Manhattan is too close for a Muslim structure, let me remind you that right now, in the shadow of what would be the former World Trade Center, there’s a Halal Meat Hot Truck with a multi-denominational line that wraps around my building every day at lunch time. And I’m positive that’s owned by a Muslim. And I’ve even suffered at his hands. (Spoiler alert: avoid the goat rhoti). Should he move a few more blocks away too? Of course, not. That would just be silly, right? Is it different? Why? Because mosques are religious and the 911 terrorists perverted Islam into something violent and hateful? Guess what? Those knights did the same thing to Christianity for the 300 years of the Crusades, and no one’s saying that churches shouldn’t be built anywhere in … Europe.

2. It’s Not Strictly A Mosque

A mosque by definition is a purely religious structure. This is a large proposed community center, open to the public and set to house, among other things, a basketball court. Yes there will be a prayer space inside it as well, but you don’t call St. Mary’s Hospital a church because it happens to have a chapel inside it, do you? Well, maybe you do. You read about politics on the Internet from a guy who claims not to write about politics, so maybe you’re functionally illiterate. But the point is, you shouldn’t.


But “Islamic Community Center open to the public” doesn’t have the same ability to scare people the way "mosque" does. I mean, you hear "mosque" you think mosquito, you think STING! You hear "mosque" you think “mask,” you think DECEPTION! You hear “community center” you think “OK. One more place I’ll never go.” So, yeah, clearly the decision was made by those who hate you to call this the “Ground Zero Mosque” even though it’s not at Ground Zero and not technically a mosque. Why are we still discussing this? Why haven’t you already asked Sarah Palin if she’s the devil on her Twitter account? Oh, that’s right. Because the devil is supposed to be good at lying.


3. You Can’t Simultaneously Acknowledge A Right And Insist That Your Government Suppress It

But the real reason I’m writing is not just because of people like Sarah Palin, but because of shameful, spineless panderers like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Here’s a statement from each of them designed to give the appearance of being tolerant while adhering to good old-fashioned common sense values:

From Sarah Palin’s Twitter Feed:

“We all know that they have the right to do it, but should they?”

And from Harry Reid’s spokesperson:

While respecting that Muslims have a First Amendment right to religious freedom, Reid "thinks this mosque should be built some place else," his spokesman Jim Manley said Monday.


Let me make something clear. In order to make these statements you must hate two things: logic and America. There is NO way to say that an individual has a protected right to do something and simultaneously criticize your government for not suppressing the execution of that right. There is no way for President Obama or any other president to put a stumbling block in the way of the free exercise of religion without violating the sanctity of that freedom. Should I say it more simply? OK.

You can’t legally stop people from obeying the law.


The Burlington Coat factory is private property. Those who want to build on it are private citizens. They are violating no law in wanting to build a community center. Under what authority do you propose we stop them? There is no “unless you’re a Muslim within X yards of a national tragedy exception” to the free exercise of religion. Do the Gingrichs and Palins and Reids want to start a precedent where you can compel people not to exercise the freedoms guaranteed under our Constitution provided enough people don’t like you?

And what are we saying to Muslims? That if they were good Americans they would willingly give up their rights? I can’t think of anything less American than that? This is America. We do what we want. And all you have to do to have that right is be a citizen here. And if you’re a traitor, well then we will prosecute you for treason and penalize you for taking up arms against the greatest country in the world, but we will NOT start curtailing your freedoms based on mere speculation fueled by lies about what you’re building and where you’re building it.


In the days following 911 it was very popular to say that we couldn’t do anything differently in America or “the terrorists would win.” We can’t stop driving gas guzzling cars. We can’t stop supporting dictators in other parts of the world for financial or political gain. We can’t vote for a Democrat. Most of that was rhetoric. Some of it was probably true. But one thing is definitely true: if we ask our leaders to start dishonoring the freedoms that make this country great, the terrorists surely will have won. And I don’t want to see that. Because unlike those with power and influence who would lie to you, I love America.



Read more: 3 Reasons the "Ground Zero Mosque" Debate Makes No Sense | Cracked.com



Read more: 3 Reasons the "Ground Zero Mosque" Debate Makes No Sense | Cracked.com

[Al-khiyal]

[Al-khiyal]

[Al-khiyal]

Washington :
Des pages du Coran déchirées devant la Maison-Blanche

Lundi 13 Septembre 2010 -- Malgré les mises en garde du président américain Barack Obama, des pages d'exemplaires du Saint Coran ont été déchirées samedi devant la Maison-Blanche à Washington, le jour du 9e anniversaire des attentats terroristes de New York, provoquant la colère dans nombre de pays musulmans. Un groupuscule extrémiste a déchiré des pages d'un exemplaire du Coran devant la Maison-Blanche. «L'une des raisons pour lesquelles nous faisons cela : le mensonge selon lequel l'islam est une religion pacifique doit cesser», a affirmé aux journalistes un membre de ce groupe d'extrémistes de six personnes proche de la mouvance ultraconservatrice du «Tea Party».

Pourtant, le pasteur de Gainsville, Terry Jones, avait abandonné sous la pression son projet de brûler 200 exemplaires du Coran pour marquer, le jour de la célébration du 9e anniversaire des attentats du World Trade Center de New York, son opposition au projet de construction d'un centre islamique, doté d'une mosquée, à Ground Zero, là où se dressaient les tours jumelles percutées par deux avions de ligne détournés par des membres d'Al-Qaïda le 11 septembre 2001. La destruction de pages du Coran a provoqué la colère dans le monde musulman, notamment en Afghanistan, où des manifestations de protestation avaient été organisées. À Moscou, des manifestants se sont opposés à un projet de construction d'une mosquée dans leur quartier, dans le sillage d'une vague d'islamophobie levée par les déclarations incendiaires de groupuscules extrémistes aux Etats-Unis et en Europe. Des membres de l'église orthodoxe se sont interrogés sur la nécessité de la construction d'une mosquée, en dépit du «nombre limité de musulmans à Moscou». Pour eux, échaudés par les événements aux Etats-Unis, il «n'y a pas lieu de construire des mosquées au milieu de quartiers où se dressent des églises».

Mais les conséquences de cette polémique sont catastrophiques, selon l'imam Fayçal Abdoul Raouf, qui a mis en œuvre le projet de construction d'un centre islamique à Ground Zero, à New-York. Dans des déclarations à la chaîne américaine ABC, il a affirmé que «l'autodafé du Coran, un temps planifié par le pasteur intégriste Terry Jones, aurait constitué un mauvais message et causé un désastre dans le monde musulman». Pour l'imam Fayçal, «cela aurait renforcé les extrémistes». Renoncer à l'emplacement prévu de la mosquée de New York sera interprété dans le monde musulman comme la nouvelle que «l'islam est attaqué en Amérique», a-t-il estimé, précisant que «l'idée selon laquelle les musulmans vivent mal aux Etats-Unis, répandue dans le monde musulman, était une idée fausse. Le fait est que les musulmans sont très heureux et prospèrent dans ce pays». «La loi et notre système politique nous protègent. (...) Et le monde musulman doit le reconnaître», a encore relevé l'imam. La construction d'une mosquée à l'emplacement des deux tours jumelles détruites par Al-Qaïda, neuf années après les attentats de New York, suscite un grand débat aux USA, sinon une polémique qui n'est pas près de s'éteindre. La réalisation de cette mosquée est tout de même soutenue par le maire et grand magnat Michael Bloomberg, ainsi que par le président Obama, qui a affirmé samedi que les Etats-Unis ne seraient «jamais en guerre contre l'islam».

Après la polémique entourant le projet du pasteur extrémiste de Floride de détruire le livre saint de l'islam, M. Obama a répété que les instigateurs du 11septembre pouvaient «bien essayer de nous séparer, mais nous ne céderons pas à leur haine et à leurs préjugés». «Ils peuvent bien essayer de provoquer des conflits entre nos croyances, mais en tant qu'Américains, nous ne sommes pas et ne serons jamais en guerre contre l'islam», a-t-il déclaré pendant une cérémonie au Pentagone, sur lequel les pirates de l'air d'Al-Qaïda avaient dirigé l'un des quatre avions détournés il y a neuf ans. «Ce n'est pas une religion qui nous a attaqués en ce jour de septembre. C'était Al-Qaïda. Un groupe pitoyable d'hommes qui pervertissent la religion», a rappelé le président. À New York, environ 1.500 manifestants ont d'abord défilé samedi pour défendre le projet de centre culturel islamique, accusant ses détracteurs d'être des bigots. Un peu plus tard, environ 2.000 personnes se sont rassemblées non loin pour au contraire clamer leur opposition à la mosquée.

[Al-khiyal]