It was proposed there because the two mosques that are already in the neighbourhood are full to overflowing for Friday prayers, and the worship space in the non-ground-zero non-mosque will help carry the load. (If this is a mosque, then the YMCA up the street that allows Jews to worship in its space is a synagogue. That way madness lies.)

Making an issue about this requires not being able to distinguish between terrorist Muslims and non-terrorist Muslims. It would be like not allowing a church to be built near an abortion clinic where somebody shot the doctor in the name of Christianity, or the site of a murder of a gay person whom somebody murdered in the name of Christianity. It's just prejudice, plain and simple.

This is America. We're supposed to have religious freedom here. Denying somebody the right to build an Islamic Cultural Center (or whatever the right term is here -- "mosque" is the wrong term) wherever they want (within building codes) is part of our freedoms. Taking away freedoms is making us more like the terrorists, not less. It's inane to sink to their level, it's also unamerican and Antichrist-ian.

Interestingly, after the whining of the intolerant right about the name "Cordoba House" it was changed to "Park 51." Yeah, those Muslims are so insensitive to the culture around them. More on that later.

"Ground Zero" is not some kind of holy, take-off-your-shoes ground. And it doesn't sanctify the blocks around it into some kind of hallowed ground, either. Within the same distance from "Ground Zero" there are gay bars, strip clubs, fast food restaurants, boarded-up storefronts, hustlers selling probably-stolen goods on folding tables, and so on. It's a living, working Manhattan neighbourhood. There are churches in the area (further out from the 2 blocks, as I understand it), as well as two mosques.

How much longer must minorities in this country bow to the "sensitivities" of the majority? They just don't know their place, do they? Those uppity Muslims. When the white Christian majority says "this offends our sensitivity" they should go running with their tail between their legs. And if they don't that PROVES they're not moderates, doesn't it? Because only terrorists stand up for their rights in the United States. Everybody else who is faced with inexorable prejudice and hate backs down. Sort of like the Democratic congress. Cowards.

And the president is really in a bind, isn't he? Half the country already thinks he's a Muslim. If he says anything good about Park 51, this confirms it in their eyes. And if he says anything bad, this plays into their hands. He can't win for losing. No wonder he's not coming across as bold and decisive. Although if he were taking advice from me, I'd say stand up for what's right, and fuck the haters. They're going to hate you anyway and NOTHING you do is going to bring them around. So just do what's right and let History judge.

And "sensitivities"? "Bad taste"? Yeah, if you can't get 'em to back down legally, try the guilt-and-shame routine. Dis-fucking-gusting. What's next, violence? A "second amendment" solution?

I'm reminded of the Freedom Riders, who had a right to eat at the lunch counter at the Greyhound bus station, but offended the "sensitivities" of the white racists by so doing. Shall we get truncheons and beat up Muslims who walk past the Burlington Coat Factory? It's the same fucking mindset, except now instead of n*****s, it's Muslims. Dirty uppity Muslims. Don't know their place. I thought we got over that kind of shit in 1964, or at least started moving in the direction of getting over it. The horrible knee-jerk anti-Muslim reaction to this nontroversy is a huge step backwards for this country. It's like the KKK only with G's. The GOP Glux Glenn.

This country is becoming more and more like a prison every day.

Sermon ends.

For those with the ability to laugh.