After close to a year of legal drama pitting Muslims in the Bible Belt against the fundamentalist Christians who wear said belt with pride, CNN has finally taken up the story. For those of you who do not pay much attention to the affairs of Muslims (and the far right religious fanatics who fear them) in the south, just use your imagination- they are trying to build a huge mosque in middle Tennessee (a stone's throw away from where they were trying to build Bible Park USA a few years ago...no joke). Soledad O'Brien came to town, talked with some of our more intelligent residents...but also some of the regulars. See below.
So far the only web-based version I've been able to find is a preview. I've never posted a video before, so bear with me.
Edit: The full story aired this evening, I have yet to find it available online. If I have my wits about me in the morning I'll look again and update.
Let's see if CNN is as clever as they think they are.
Anyway, it's embarrassing to me to be involved with this. If you see video of a construction vehicle burned, I personally know the owner of that company, and he's just trying to make an honest living. It hurts me that so many people around here are so hateful, but that's not even the worst of it.
What's worse is that hate is a vocal majority here. If I go back to work tomorrow and take any position other than "those Muslims need to find somewhere else to spread their evil" then I'll be even more ostracized than I already am. It took a great deal of intestinal fortitude just to hang up a two-inch button that says "Oh yes we can" on my office door.
So here I am, sharing what I have to look forward to tomorrow. When my little town gets on national TV on matters of religion, you can rest assured the conversation in the lounge will have nothing to do with Japan or Butler or even the weather. They will be proud that they are taking a stand against the Muslim invasion. And that makes me want to vomit.