re: #111 Summer

I have to come clean on this issue because I don’t think I’ve made my own particular view known before. And, as everyone knows here, I can be fairly contrarian at times. But in such cases, I have to explain my position.

So, here I go.

As an anti-theist, I would be really happy if there was one less house of any kind of worship in the world today. I know this doesn’t really jive with most Americans, but there you have it. So, I’m not going to be one to hugely vocalize in favor of this building anyway, as I just think it’s childish to worship things in the sky as it is.

However, a few things which put me squarely on the side of this blog’s position:

1) The guy running this place is a Sufi Muslim. Sufis are basically mystics. They’re generally about as un-fundamentalist as you can get in Islam. He’s about the ideal of a “moderate Muslim” poster child as you can get. Being an anti-theist is one thing, but being is a realist is another. I’m against any religion growing right now, but I’ll take what I can get. Sufism is by far preferable over Wahabbism any day of the week to me.

2) The leaders opposing this mosque are vermin. That point alone is enough for me to side against them.

3) Finally, this is America and I am a supporter of freedom of expression (within limits). This clearly falls within that category. It isn’t some burka-in-your-face kind of case where extremism meets every day society with some sort of overtly fascistic agenda. It’s a cultural center run by a Mystic who isn’t an enemy of the state. So why not allow him the same rights we allow everyone else?

I’ll debate them on whether or not their God, or any God, exists - that’s fine. But I won’t be party to taking away the right for that debate even take place. These are not fanatics we are talking about who want to take over the country and the world with an open agenda of hatred and, quite frankly, the fact that they are opposed as if they were just goes to show people how downright fucking ignorant the opposition is about anything to do with Islam in general.

Sufis aren’t the major problem in this world, and even were they Salafis it would be hard to justify restricting their rights over other religions.

So while not a fan of any more worship centers, I can’t really oppose it. And the opposition forces me (somewhat reluctantly) to support it.

At least I have what people can call “morals” and “ethics” - granted to me without any direct intervention from a higher power or “holy book”, might I point out.

Thank you. =)

Summer: I’m with you. I am no fan of organized religion. I belong to no church. But getting into picking favored and disfavored churches is such an obviously bad path that I remain astonished that anyone wants to go there.