They are NOT all bigots
I know that I am beginning to sound like a broken record in the comments, so I moved it here. The community center, Park 51, is a bad idea, but if they have the money, they can build it. My only beef with the whole situation is that it seems much easier to simply toss the ‘bigot’ label at opponents rather than listen to what they are saying. Here are two Muslims from Canada, opposing the placement.
The Koran commands Muslims to, “Be considerate when you debate with the People of the Book” — i.e., Jews and Christians. Building an exclusive place of worship for Muslims at the place where Muslims killed thousands of New Yorkers is not being considerate or sensitive
Read more: ottawacitizen.com
And here, from a New York Muslim:
Traditional, moderate Islam teaches Muslims living in non-Muslim-majority societies to obey the laws and customs of the country in which they reside. They must avoid conflict with their non-Muslim neighbors whenever possible.
Yet it was no secret that a major Islamic construction project near Ground Zero would offend many New Yorkers; indeed, American Muslims themselves were uneasy about the idea from the beginning. Rauf, while he preaches peace, chose the path of controversy and provocation by originating this mosque project.
Muslim leaders dealing with non-Muslims are also supposed to practice moderation — not only in words, but also in their deeds and associations. Rauf portrays himself as a spiritual moderate. But he has maintained links with Muslim radicals, including enablers of terror, whom he declines to disavow. These include the Malaysian politician Mahathir Mohamad, who supports Hamas’ Gaza dictatorship
Read more: nypost.com
There are other reasons of a personal nature, like the one I posted in comments.
This is not in any way to say that many of the protesters are also bigots, they are, this is just a plea to stop labeling everyone who opposes the porject as bigots, it is wrong. throwing the bigot term out tells me that the tosser is ignoring any and all arguments, stuck in one level thinking where all other ideas and opinions are wrong by the very nature of being ‘other’.