The purpose of this column is to make the reader aware of current events in politics and media and to explain the facts from both sides to get a real picture of the argument instead of having message skewed through mainstream media. This is one man trying to relate to college students the hot issues of the world so as to make the information for accessible. The column will present an opinion but will do the it’s best to only use opinions supported by lines of evidence.
Patrick Olds
-Opinions Editor –
There is a new controversy centered in lower Manhattan where it was proposed that a new mosque be built at Ground Zero. This site is where a group of Islamic extremists hijacked two planes and flew them like missiles into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Americans opposed to the building of this mosque are being labeled as intolerant by the mainstream media.
The United States needs to improve their tolerance of other religions. We have such a bad rap for not allowing others to worship in peace such as punishing someone for a cartoon depicting Muhammad. Oh wait, that would be one of many of the Islamic dominated countries in the Mideast that show little to no tolerance of other religions, not the United States.
Can you fault the majority of New Yorkers and Americans in general for treating this as a sensitive topic? Mainstream media have portrayed this as a tolerance issue, one where we, the ‘ignorant’ people of America, don’t have the brain processes to fully understand the situation. In reality it has nothing to do with tolerance.
Most people that are opposed to the mosque aren’t opposed to a mosque being built. They are opposed to having it built at Ground Zero. Not a few blocks away like such has been reported but at the scene of the crime where debris and body parts hit the building.
Don’t be mistaken. This is 100 percent constitutional that Muslims can worship anywhere they choose. Americans are imploring that they take advantage of many proposed alternative sights because there is a hot-as-coal sensitivity with this site.
Greg Gutfeld, talk-show host for “Red Eye,” decided to experiment with the people proposing to build the mosque. Through an online twitter back-and-forth, Greg asked, “Hey, how do you feel about my gay Muslim bar set to be built near the Mosque? Do you embrace in the name of tolerance?” The point of this was to show the Muslim intolerance of gays. Park 51 responded, “You’re free to open whatever you like. If you won’t consider the sensibilities of Muslims, you’re not going to build dialog.”
This response shows that they expect the United States to “consider the sensibilities of Muslims” yet they choose to ignore the fact that extremists in the name of their religion chose to murder 2,751 people of many different backgrounds. As was said previously, if a religion that promotes Sharia Law, which are the laws of the Koran, talks of tolerance, the irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Sharia law outlines that women are responsible if they are raped, homosexuals will get executed, and drinkers and gamblers be whipped, it allows for husbands to hit their wives, orders death for people who insult or offend Muhammad, and many other supposed “crimes” that are punished with cruelty.
The mainstream media will have you believe that this is about tolerance. This is not an issue of tolerance or constitutionality, it’s about what makes sense. Did we allow the Japanese to build a cultural center at Pearl Harbor? Of course not, this should be a no-brainer. If these people are not trying to incite then why not build this mosque someplace else? Why does it have to be at Ground Zero? These questions should wander into the minds of the suspicious because it just doesn’t smell right.
