Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
There has been a great deal of "Islamophobia" and religious intolerance emanating from the political right over a proposed mosque and community center located several blocks from the World Trade Center in New York City. The right would have the government (local, state federal) impose a law forbidding the establishment of a mosque at the proposed site over bigoted objections to Islam, painting all Muslims (more than 1.5 billion worldwide) with the broad brush of being "terrorists" because the 9/11 hijackers subscribed to a particular extremist sect of Islam, a sect which is rejected by mainstream Islam.
They have forgotten the centuries of sectarian religious wars and persecutions in Europe that led many of the first European settlers to risk their lives to come to America where they could freely exercise their religion.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is clear and unambiguous: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…" It was meant to prevent the sectarian religious wars and persecutions in Europe still fresh in the experience of many Americans at that time.
In a speech on Wednesday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg delivered a tutorial on the historical development of religious freedom within the United States and the meaning of the First Amendment. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Please do not feed the trolls.
The radical fundamentalists who attacked us on 9/11 are no more the representatives of Islam than Timothy McVeigh was a “defender of the Constitution”.
I have spent a lot of time in the countries that you mention in your post above and find the suggestion that Muslims “have taken over” pretty laughable. Perhaps you should start looking beyond email spam for your news? Brush up on a little history as well…Islam has been a integral part of Spain for centuries.
While I certainly think that religious fundamentalists (Islamic or otherwise) pose a serious problem to global security, it is time that we set aside the wild ideological accusations and theories. It is counterproductive and attacks on specific religious groups fly in the face of our core American values.