On Sat, 28 Aug 2010 02:00:05 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:
The only substantive question is, why not?
I've addressed that: in respect of those who were killed at that site
9 years ago.
You dodged it completely.
What part of the preceding simple declarative sentence do you not
understand?
Neither did the Muslims. The killers were specific individuals from the
Middle East. They claimed the mantle of Islam. Was it justified? I doubt
it,
but I don't know. How do you know?
I haven't seen any widespread denial by the greater Muslem community.
If a billion Muslims were outraged by this heinous act in their name,
they sure were quiet about it.
I actually have, and it's not reassuring. Further, do you honestly
think that the survivors of those who were killed that day are going
to be diligently researching the bona fides of this guy before
deciding if they feel disrespected? Given the above, do you think
they'd feel any better about it if they did?
The witnesses and survivors are divided:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/201...sweigh-in.html
QED. Read it again, Ed. They're the ones whose opinion really
matters.
It still says the same thing, Don: Some distrust all of Islam, and some
think that it's un-American to do so.
In fact, it says just the opposite. One person interviewed said,
"You can't hold all of any one group accountable for what a minority
of that group does," says Britton, who attends St. Matthew Catholic
Church. "And is intolerance of other religions the lesson we want to
teach our children?"
Another said,
"As a Catholic, if we were building a church in a place that had any
negative emotion in the community," he says, "I would say, 'Don't
build the church.'"
For all this going around in circles, you have said *not one word* that
explains WHY you think it's disrespectful. You've said you'd consider it
disrespectful if most of the survivors think so, which is a non-answer.
You've said it's an insult, but not what is insulting about it.
Thousands were killed by terrorists in the name of Islam. Now that
some terrorist Muslims have destroyed a couple of buildings and killed
a few thousand infidels, some other Muslims want to erect a monument
to Islam on or very near the site. There is strong symbolism in that
act, whether your can see it or not.
In your extreme zeal to claim moral high ground of tolerance,
open-mindedness and be a scathing critic condemning anyone you might
brand as less liberally virtuous than yourself, you are completely
oblivious to the sensibilities of survivors who lost friends and
relatives on 9/11, possibly including accquaintances of your own.
You even read in the Charlotte article that some distrust all of Islam
when in fact there is no such content in that article and one opinion
the exact opposite.
End of the day, the first amendment makes the whole matter moot. They
will build there. A few folks won't like it, but Ed thinks it's a
swell idea. Go, Islam!
As said, I'll defer to the New Yorkers to decide how they feel about
that. Perhaps you should too.
I think you're evading the obvious, Don. And the obvious is that many people
distrust all of Islam to the degree that they believe these particular
Muslims are trying to insult and disrespect us because, of course, they're
all Muslims, and all Muslims have murder and hatred in their hearts for
non-Muslims.
As you say, res ipsa loquitur -- "the thing speaks for itself." If you take
insult, you must feel there's something insulting about the act. That fact
speaks for itself. But you have not, and apparently will not, tell us what
you think the insult IS.
I'm done with this, Don. If you want to continue to duck and dodge, enjoy
your denials. The sufis building Cordoba House have told us why they want to
build it there -- and it's certainly no insult. Either you don't believe
them, or you think there's something inherently insulting about Islam, or
you feel that the terrorists have successfully co-opted all of Islam.
Whatever, you think they should be treated differently, and it has something
to do with their being Muslims. Unless you also object to the Orthodox
Church that's being built there, too.