{"id":279,"date":"2010-07-24T04:00:10","date_gmt":"2010-07-24T10:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=279"},"modified":"2011-09-21T00:14:19","modified_gmt":"2011-09-21T06:14:19","slug":"i-love-nyc-but-hate-idea-of-mosque-at-ground-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=279","title":{"rendered":"I Love NYC, But Hate Idea of Mosque at Ground Zero!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>“I love New York, and I love the idea of a mosque at Ground Zero<\/a>,” writes Boston University religion scholar Stephen Prothero. He’s half right.\u00a0 But, for a man of his intellect,\u00a0that’s not too good.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u00a0love New York,\u00a0but I hate the idea of a mosque at Ground Zero.\u00a0 I believe most Americans, and indeed most New Yorkers<\/a>, would disagree with\u00a0Prothero\u00a0when he says\u00a0<\/p>\n

I believe a small mosque ought to be integrated into the redesign of the World Trade Center site itself \u2014 a reminder in steel and stone that the United States is not at war either with Islam or with our core values.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The proposed\u00a0construction of\u00a0the\u00a013-story, $100 million complex — complete with mosque and community center — only two blocks from the site of the worst attack in our nation’s history, has generated a firestorm of controversy.\u00a0 While big-name political figures, like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, vociferously oppose the\u00a0Cordoba Initiative (here<\/a> and here<\/a>), others like Mr. Prothero\u00a0and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg\u00a0apparently see nothing<\/strong><\/span> wrong with building\u00a0a mosque less than two blocks from where nearly 3000 of our fellow\u00a0citizens were savagely slaughtered by Islamic extremists.<\/p>\n

Mayor Bloomberg, responding to Sarah Palin’s\u00a0tweet <\/a>that building the mosque near Ground Zero is “UNNECESSARY provocation,”\u00a0uses the\u00a0worn-out\u00a0trope of “tolerance” <\/a>as\u00a0THE reason why this mosque should be built near the site of the World Trade Center towers that were destroyed by terrorists, who were anything but tolerant.\u00a0 Makes you long for the days of America’s Mayor, Rudy Giuliani.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg, who most certainly is not a blooming idiot, understands exactly what he is saying.\u00a0 Tolerance, as\u00a0defined by elites in this country,\u00a0may be one of the cultural gods that the left bows down to daily, but most Americans\u00a0simply do not worship at this warped\u00a0altar.\u00a0 Not to mention, there are\u00a0some things even leftists will\u00a0not tolerate.\u00a0 The\u00a0use of salt in cooking for one, but I digress.\u00a0 Americans are a tolerant people, but we will not tolerate child abuse, rape, murder, and the like.\u00a0\u00a0When one resorts to “tolerance” as\u00a0their main defense, you understand that the overall case hangs by a bare\u00a0thread.<\/p>\n

Mr. Prothero, the Boston University religion scholar, tries to defend the mosque’s construction by turning to the First Amendment’s “freedom of religion” protections<\/a>.\u00a0 He insists that\u00a0building a\u00a0new mosque near Ground Zero\u00a0will not only be good for NYC and America, but\u00a0will enhance freedom of religion such\u00a0that Americans should support this grand religious\u00a0project.\u00a0 Would Mr. Prothero\u00a0be as enthusiastic if a Southern Baptist or Assemblies of God church\u00a0bought the same property and converted\u00a0it into a huge evangelical Christian\u00a0complex?\u00a0 Would he\u00a0desire a small Christian chapel be integrated into the redesigned World Trade Center?\u00a0 I think we all\u00a0know the answer to those questions.<\/p>\n

Moreover, would\u00a0members of the\u00a0Manhattan Community Board 1, who voted 29 to 1 (with 10 abstentions by those unwilling to take a public stand) to support the construction of the Mega-Mosque<\/a>, have given a similar endorsement to construction of an Evangelical Christian Mega-Church?\u00a0 Would Board Chairman Scott Stringer think that building a Southern Baptist church would likewise send “a clear message that our city is one that promotes diversity and tolerance<\/span><\/em>“?\u00a0 I think we know the answer to those questions as well.<\/p>\n

Because of my\u00a0legal and faith experiences, I have a deep and abiding love for the First Amendment, particularly the freedom\u00a0of religion that we enjoy in this country.\u00a0 But, freedom of religion and tolerance should\u00a0never\u00a0be used as a convenient cover for spineless politicians, pundits, and scholars to hide behind when trying to defend something so blatantly offensive as the Ground Zero mosque — Grand\u00a0Opening on September 11, 2011<\/a>.\u00a0 I love New York, but I hate the idea of a mosque at Ground Zero!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I love New York, and I love the idea of a mosque at Ground Zero,” writes Boston University religion scholar Stephen Prothero. He’s half right.\u00a0 But, for a man of his intellect,\u00a0that’s not too good.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u00a0love New York,\u00a0but I hate the idea of a mosque at Ground Zero.\u00a0 I believe most Americans, and indeed most…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[257,3379,463,717],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-freedom-of-religion","tag-cordoba-initiative","tag-freedom-of-religion","tag-ground-zero-mosque","tag-new-york-city"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-4v","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2662,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions\/2662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}