Sarah Palin Opposes Mosque at Ground Zero
Finally, after months of effort to bring their message to the general public, NYC opponents of the ‘Mosque at Ground Zero’ now have their voice being represented on the national stage. Sarah Palin, former Alaska Governor, the GOP Vice Presidental candidate in 2008, and well-known spokesperson for conservatives, has taken a side on the mosque issue.
‘The Hill,’ a daily Congressional newspaper, was the first to report that Palin used her Twitter account to write: “Peaceful New Yorkers, please refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @ Twin Towers site is too raw, too real.” She then followed an hour later with this plea: “Peace-seeking Muslims, please understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Please reject it in interest of healing.”
Sarah Palin is clearly pleading to both New Yorkers and Muslims to recognize the insensitivity of the planned mosque just 2 blocks from Ground Zero and publicly renounce its construction. She joins in with other conservative politicians while opposing more liberal thinkers. This will become a national issue that will surely add to the polarizing of our society. However, by having this on the national stage, we may truly get a clearer picture of how the rest of America feels about this NYC battle. It is certainly important enough for national discussion, just as the terror trial in NYC’s Federal Court was to people outside of the city.
As word of this proposed mosque spreads nationally and globally, it will continue to gather more and more political spokespersons on both sides of the issue. It appears to be pitting ‘politically correct’ officials who believe that our nation is about religious freedom with opponents who see insult to the 9/11 victims and family, not to mention the symbolism at Ground Zero of radical Muslim conquest, along with the actual fear that the mosque will open the door for Muslim ‘Sharia Law.’
With this issue becoming a national debate, commentators can comment, pollsters can take polls, and a majority voice can be heard. Then the question that has been raised by opponents will need to be answered publicly: ‘Who should really be ‘politically correct,’ Americans or the Muslim sponsors of this project?”
Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.
"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.
Please Help Support BeforeitsNews by trying our Natural Health Products below!
Order by Phone at 888-809-8385 or online at https://mitocopper.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomic.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomics.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Humic & Fulvic Trace Minerals Complex - Nature's most important supplement! Vivid Dreams again!
HNEX HydroNano EXtracellular Water - Improve immune system health and reduce inflammation.
Ultimate Clinical Potency Curcumin - Natural pain relief, reduce inflammation and so much more.
MitoCopper - Bioavailable Copper destroys pathogens and gives you more energy. (See Blood Video)
Oxy Powder - Natural Colon Cleanser! Cleans out toxic buildup with oxygen!
Nascent Iodine - Promotes detoxification, mental focus and thyroid health.
Smart Meter Cover - Reduces Smart Meter radiation by 96%! (See Video).
| Online: | |
| Visits: | 1,601,519,479 |
| Stories: | 8,144,599 |
Whistler Blowers, Insiders
Mosque Controversy Tests Our Convictions, Civility
By: Mitch Carnell
http://ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=16549
With the dialogue concerning the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero heating up, I am reminded of a quote from Jonathan Swift: “We have enough religion to make us hate one another, but not enough to make us love one another.”
The idea to construct a mosque in that location is insensitive to the feelings of the vast majority of Americans, and there is no doubt that a more suitable location could be found.
As an American, I am about as patriotic as one can get. I get excited by the sight of our flag floating in the breeze, the playing of our national anthem, even the singing of “America the Beautiful.” As a Baptist, I am very deeply troubled by the implications of a denial to build the mosque near Ground Zero.
It has not been very long in the march of history since Baptists were the ones denied a seat at the table. Our forebears were beaten, fined, jailed and driven out of Massachusetts because of their beliefs. We were and are ridiculed for our theology. We were the ones who fought hard for religious freedom both for those who believed and for those who didn’t. The fact that we struggled for the rights of those who do not believe is often forgotten.
In the current political scene, candidates are forced to claim some kind of acceptable religious persuasion. Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith brought harsh criticism from other religious groups. In South Carolina, the Republican candidate for governor, Nikki Haley, was targeted because of her Indian parents’ Sikh faith. Even former president Jimmy Carter has had to defend himself against charges of anti-Semitism. The religious wars are never far beneath the surface.
Both as Americans and as Baptists, we should know that an infringement on religious freedom – no matter how “justified” at the time, no matter how slight such an infringement appears to be – sets off an alarm that should not go unheeded. Today the issue is a mosque. Tomorrow it could be a synagogue, a Mormon temple or a Baptist church.
We must never sacrifice our hard-won religious freedoms for the expediency of the moment, nor should we find devious means to deny others those same freedoms. The separation of church and state is a tremendous safeguard for both the church and the state. Each has benefited from the separation, and we should not use the state to disallow a religious institution.
In the long term, if we allow the mosque to go forward, we will preserve those freedoms, and the world will come to see that we truly do believe what we claim to believe.
Religious freedom requires hard choices and eternal vigilance. As the sides divide for and against the proposal, let’s make a real effort to remember who we are. Those of us who call ourselves Christians need to remember that our actions, including our language, must be Christ-like.
We should expect to find disagreement within our circle of friends and in our congregations, but we must resist the temptation to demonize those with whom we disagree. Because the potential for disharmony is so great, we need to think through how we will respond to those with whom we disagree so that our witness for Christianity and our relationships are not compromised.
Mitch Carnell is a consultant in organizational and interpersonal communication. He is the editor of “Christian Civility in an Uncivil World” and an active lay member of First Baptist Church of Charleston, S.C.
Politicians Employ Hate and Fear to Oppose Mosque
by Miguel A. De La Torre
By denying others the inherent right to worship, as the Liberty of Worship monument reminds us, I devalue and debase my own faith and beliefs, de la Torre writes. (Photo: David Ball)
I was recently walking down 14th Street in Washington, D.C., when I was stopped in my tracks by an inscription I read under a monument.
At the Reagan Building, in the entrance to the U.S. Agency for International Development, is a massive statue of a woman reclining on what appears to be a Victorian couch. Engraved on the pedestal beneath the statue were the following words: “Our liberty of worship is not a concession nor a privilege but an inherent right.”
As I stood there, staring at these words, I couldn’t help but think of the politically inspired controversy raging throughout the nation about building a mosque close to – not at – Ground Zero. It is obvious that the debate is designed to rally the xenophobic base to vote against a people who, according to the D.C. monument known as “Liberty of Worship,” have an inherent right – not a concession nor a privilege – to worship as their conscience leads them.
Hate and fear, two powerful political motivators, are unabashedly and unapologetically being employed to rally the worst in Americans. To equate a mosque with terrorists is either the height of ignorance or depth of callous manipulation.
Equating Al-Qaeda to Islam is like equating the Ku Klux Klan to Christianity. Both organizations may draw their inspiration from their respective faiths, but believers in each tradition would be among the first to disavow any connection between their faith and terrorists who claim to act in the name of that same faith.
When we consider the past 2,000 years of blood-soaked Christian history, the millions upon millions who were slaughtered in the name of Jesus because they refused to accept our imposed faith (think of religious wars in Europe or the genocide of indigenous people here), we can conclude that those of us who follow the Prince of Peace as Messiah have much more from which to repent.
Maybe that great modern-day theologian, Woody Allen, said it best: If Jesus were to return to earth, it would take him months to recover from throwing up over everything that has been done in his name.
To deny people the inherent right to worship because extreme elements of their tradition misused their sacred texts and teachings to advocate mayhem and death would mean that neither Muslims nor Christians would ever be allowed to build any house of worship close to Ground Zero.
And yet, close to Ground Zero there is a Catholic Church, in spite of its history of Crusades against Muslims or the Inquisition against fellow Christians. Also close to Ground Zero is the Dutch Reform Church with its own history of involvement with the slave trade.
We can go down the list of every Christian denomination and find pages in our past that we wish would not exist, but they do. And it is important that Christians committed to the Gospel message of salvation and liberation continue to distinguish between the terrorists within their own faith, and believers in Jesus’ actions and words – just as true believers in Allah have made the distinction between Al-Qaeda and the teaching of the Quran.
And yet, what should be a no-brainer – that all Americans should protect with their lives the freedom to worship, even if the religion is different from their own – has instead become a political hot potato used against the incumbent party.
Politicians like Newt Gingrich make the false comparison that building a mosque next to Ground Zero is like building a Japanese shrine next to Pearl Harbor. Although the analogy may sound reasonable at first glance, it ignores the inherit biases, if not racism, of the statement.
First, Pearl Harbor was attacked by a nation; and yes, I would agree that the nation of Japan should not build a monument by Pearl Harbor. The Twin Towers were brought down by a group of individual terrorists, not a nation, people or religion. And I agree that a group of terrorists should not be allowed to build a monument next to Ground Zero.
But a mosque is not a monument; it is a house of worship. And it is not being built by foreign terrorists, but by Americans who happen to be Muslims and have an inherent right to worship the Creator as their conscience leads them.
I am a Christian. I believe in the resurrection of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My conversion to Christianity radically changed my life and continues to do so. I am a Christian and not a Muslim by choice.
Nevertheless, because of my faith, because of my belief in the Gospel message, because the very image of this God I worship resides in all humans, I will stand by my Muslim brothers and sisters and demand justice – and demand that the mosque be built.
Not for their sake, not for the sake of political correctness, nor for some idea of pluralism, but for my own sake. By denying others the inherent right to worship, as the Liberty of Worship monument reminds us, I devalue and debase my own faith and beliefs. I participate not in the physical violence unleashed by the terrorists on 9/11, but in an institutional violence that is just as deadly, for it robs fellow humans of their sacredness and dignity.
Those in power may succeed in preventing the building of the mosque. They may succeed in continuing to chip away at our freedoms due to their stringent ideologies and doctrinal beliefs.
If they do, heaven help us, for they truly would continue to create a new America far from the principles of our four freedoms: freedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom of speech and, of course, the freedom to worship.
Miguel A. De La Torre is professor of social ethics at Iliff School of Theology in Denver.