Ever since 9/11, I've been receiving hateful, anti-Islamic viral emails from teabagger-type acquaintances. Recently, since the "Ground Zero Mosque" controversy started getting ginned up by the national media and their well-funded manipulators, I've been receiving more of it than usual. I've swapped my opinions with friends who disagree with me and in most cases we've agreed to disagree.
In at least one case, I fear I have lost a dear friend and neighbor who hasn't spoken to me in a couple of weeks.
But this morning I received 4 of these viral anti-GZM, anti-Islamic emails from one friend along with a request for my opinion of them. My response to him is below the fold. I know I covered most of the points I wanted to but there are more that I could have made. I hope you will help me, through your comments, to fortify my positions and correct anything I've gotten wrong!
Friend,
I’m no more concerned about Muslims than I am about crazy Christians. In fact, I’d say the Christians scare me a helluva lot more because our government is infested with them. I don’t mind the ones that keep their religion to themselves. The ones that scare me are the in-your-face, this-is-a-Christian-nation, my-kind-of-Christianity-is-better-than-your-kind-of-Christianity, and everything-we-do-needs-to-be-started-and-ended-with-prayer types.
I refuse to be bullied by religious types of any stripe. When I was in the service, I ran into a lot of Christian fundamentalists and more than once I’ve attended public events where Christians call on everyone in attendance to pray. It pisses me off and makes me extremely uncomfortable. It’s getting really bad in the armed forces as more and more officers in leadership positions try to push their religion onto their underlings. Don’t know if you heard about this one that happened just recently: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Right here, just south of me, is the Air Force Academy. They have a lot of fundamentalists (fundies) in Colorado Springs and that’s being reflected at the AFA. Lots of stories there about cadets being forced to join prayers and services of the fundies, in spite of their personal religious (or non-religious) beliefs. This pisses me off to such a degree that I donate to these guys whenever possible: http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/
Muslims, like Christians and those who claim to be Christians but aren’t really, come in many different flavors. The predominant Christian sect is Catholic, worldwide as well as in the U.S.. Even among people in the same sect – Catholics in the U.S., for instance, you have everything from William A. Donohue of the Catholic League who want to turn our military mission in the Middle East into the 2nd Crusades, to the famous anti-war activist priests, the Berrigan Brothers. Christians run the gamut from Catholics to smaller sects that talk in tongues and handle poisonous snakes in their services.
Christians also have their violent sects. The KKK are the most famous, but then there is the sect that Timothy McVeigh flirted with – the Christian Identity Movement who believe that non-Caucasian people have no souls. A book could be written about all the various so-called "Christians" who have killed others who they felt were sinners, right here in the U.S. in the past decade. From guys who shoot up churches because they’re "too liberal" to abortion doctor murderers like Scott Roeder, Christians have their violent fundie assholes. You can’t condemn all Christians for the acts of a distinct few. Well, you can if you want, but would that be right? If you go back to the Europeans who first came to North America, you have them burning people to death for being "witches" and people being held in stocks while being stoned to death for various crimes.
But getting back to Muslims... I’m no more scared of them than I am of Christians. Muslims have been in our country for decades. We have a constitution that guarantees freedom of religion and in the same sentence, prevents our government from favoring one religion over another. I believe in our constitution and I’m not ready to start excluding one religion over another or abandoning our constitution because of some perceived threat. To do that would concede that the terrorists have won. To do that is also to say that one religion has more validity than another. OK, maybe I’d question whether or not Scientology and Mormonism are really religions or not, but seriously, to me, they’re all hocus pocus. I think their tax exempt status should be taken away from them. Pat Robertson is a billionaire because his income is tax exempt and he bilks little old ladies out of their social security by preying on their prejudices. By giving him tax exempt status, we just encourage thousands of others like him and we legitimize them. They’re no more Christians and no less dangerous than Al Qaeda is Muslim.
Sorry, back to Muslims... there are different sects. The fundies among them want to wage war against Christians and kill Infidels. As with all fundies, they gin up emotions and gain followers by claiming persecution. Bin Laden is a perfect example of this. He used the American military presence in Saudi Arabia to grow Al Qaeda and recruit operatives and martyrs. That resulted in the 9/11 attacks. Now they use our expanded military presence in the Middle East since 9/11 to recruit even more into their fundamentalist ideology. So the Muslim fundies use any semblance of anti-Islam-ism, including "Christian foreigners", as recruiting tools to bolster their ranks and fight against whoever they declare is trying to take down Islam. So this whole "Ground Zero Mosque" controversy plays right into Bin Laden’s plan and shows the Muslim world that the U.S. hates Islam and wants to crush it. Again, the terrorists have won. They’re getting exactly the desired result from their attacks on 9/11.
The most dangerous part of that is that we have hundreds of thousands of troops on their soil trying to convince them that we’re their friends and we’re just trying to root out the bad guys (and sorry about the collateral deaths, but shit, we’re doing it for the better good!), and this very public anti-Islam sentiment here at home undermines their mission over there. The outrage against the "Ground Zero Mosque" wouldn’t bother me nearly as much as it does if it weren’t for how it endangers our troops in the Middle East. If it were up to me, I’d pull all of our troops out of the Middle East as fast as possible and then my only concern about the GZM brouhaha would be from a religious freedom, constitutional guarantee standpoint. But keep in mind that the recruits that it inspires to join Bin Laden will still be trying to kill their perceived "oppressors", and trying to pull off another 9/11 or bigger attack on us. And whether we have troops in the Middle East or not, we will still have a whole bunch of fundie Christians and fundie Jews in this country and others who want to foment war with Islam to play out their own bible (pronounced buy-bull) "prophecies".
Well, so much for brevity. But anyone who asks for my opinion on something I’ve given thought to can certainly expect to get what they ask for!
Some facts about the "Ground Zero Mosque":
It is not a Mosque. It is a community center, like a YMCA, with a gym and swimming pool, etc. whose mission is to get young people off the street and participating in wholesome activities. It includes an "inter-faith" prayer room where all faiths are welcome to pray as they wish. The "interfaith prayer room" is why it has been dubbed a Mosque by detractors, because (gasp!) Muslims will undoubtedly pray there too! No reports as to whether or not Christian snake handlers will be welcome.
It is not at ground zero and will not be visible from the planned memorial at ground zero because it is two blocks away and since it is a 13 story building nestled among much taller buildings, it will not have much of a presence at all unless you’re standing across the street from it.
The premise that it is somehow an insult to the victims of 9/11, living and dead, is to equate all Islamic sects with the Al Qaeda fundies and has no more validity than equating the KKK with all Christian sects. If that way of thinking is valid (blaming all sects of a large religion on the actions of one), then I suppose we should not allow any Christian churches to be built near any crimes committed in the name of Christianity – such as George Tiller’s murder at the hands of Scott Roeder. Of course, the counter argument to that is that Christian crimes are not as bad because, after all, this is a Christian nation, and if you only kill a few people at a time, it is somehow less of a crime that if you successfully kill a whole bunch of people at once. Of course, that’s an absurd notion. Killing in the name of your peaceful religion is just fucking ridiculous and I don’t care what religion you are or what degree of success your hate has brought you or not.
The Imam that wants to build the Mosque, Feisal Abdul Rauf, is a Sufi (Practitioner of Sufism), which is a large sect that has many sub-sects. I’ve heard that the brand of Sufi that Rauf practices can be compared to the Christian Quakers, which I’m sure you know has non-violence as a basic tenet and is, as far as I know, the only religion recognized by the U.S. as being allowed to claim exemption from the draft on the basis of non-violent beliefs.
Rauf was used by Bush as a kind of ambassador to the Muslim world to try to convince Muslims that we’re not trying to wage war with them. He has also been used by the FBI and by Obama in the same capacity. So he has been America’s voice for moderate Muslims for years.
In his book "What’s Right With Islam Is What’s Right With America," Mr. Rauf writes:
"The truth is that killing innocent people is always wrong — and no argument or excuse, no matter how deeply believed, can ever make it right. No religion on earth condones the killing of innocent people, no faith tradition tolerates the random killing of our brothers and sisters on this earth. ... Islamic law is clearly against terrorism, against any kind of deliberate killing of civilians or similar ‘collateral damage.’ "
He gets some of his funding from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talalwho is the 2nd largest share owner of News Corp (FOX news) next to Rupert Murdoch. Talal owns a 7% share of News Corp (nearly $3 billion worth of stock). He has many investments in the U.S. and gives a lot to American charities.
Muslims are just the latest group to be demonized by the people who like to foment fear for political gain. The same thing was done to the Irish, the Catholics, the Italians, the Chinese, the Mormons, and most recently, Mexicans. I think it’s bullshit and my values won’t let me participate, in spite of the fact that surveys show that I’m in a distinct minority position in this case. I have far fewer friends when I speak my opinions and values, but when I stay consistent with my values, I sleep better. It’s interesting that some of the same people at FOX that are demonizing this guy and his planned community center were singing his praises on their programs just a few months ago. Even Glenn Beck praised the Imam and moderate Muslims just a few short years ago: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
But now it is drawing close to a very important mid-term election, so the spinmeisters have to come out and whip up the fear in the crowd. Since many Mexicans are now self-deporting because of lack of jobs here, we needed another, scarier villain. So let’s call this benign community center a Mosque and equate it with terrorists and bingo! Mission accomplished. After the election, the anti-Muslim sentiment that this has whipped up will remain, but it will quickly fade from view in the national news, although O’Reilly and Hannity and their ilk will keep pounding on it, just as they continue to claim that there is a scary war on Christmas and that Mexicans are synonymous with drug crime. That’s their business. They make multi-million dollar salaries by scaring people and dividing our nation, and facts be damned.
In conclusion, I’m not scared of Muslims. I have a great deal of faith in our constitution and our entire system of laws. You can practice any religion you want to in our country or you can practice none at all – your choice, as long as you do it within the other laws of our land. The Supreme Court has held that you cannot make a martyr of your child and justify the crime as your religious belief. If there will be any good come of this anti-Muslim fervor, I expect that it will be to make specific laws that say no harm can be done to another person in the name of religion. I have faith in the people of our country that they will not allow such things. But who knows? Christian sects that refuse medical care in deference to prayer, are growing. In spite of that, these fears about Sharia law don’t concern me. Like I said before, I have faith in our constitution and our laws.
You’ve told me about your friends from Europe and their concern over what is happening in Europe. Is it affecting them personally or are they caught up in a similar anti-Islamic movement?
I’m glad we can talk and I appreciate your friendship. I know we agree on many things and I’m glad we can remain friends and disagree on other things. Although I wish you’d have not asked me this because I just blew my whole morning writing this response to you! Oh well, it has been a good exercise for me and has helped me to get some thoughts to coagulate.