re: #675 Escaped Hillbilly

I don’t know what is right. God, I wish I did. I said having the right to do something uner the law does not necessarily make it right. So, if I think they ought not do something, I am not advocating they be denied their rights but rather hoping they will choose not to do it. A lot of folks seem to think that if they throw that (legal right) out, they win the argument by default.

Here’s what happens if Park51 packs up and moves somewhere else:

First of all, for most of the vaguely uninformed people who never heard anything more than “muslims tried to build a mosque on ground zero,” that’s all they’ll ever hear. It drops out of the news cycle, leaving the lies standing as the presumed truth. That means that for years going forward, a lot of people across the country are just going to vaguely remember that the right wing put a stop to an attempt by Al Qaeda to plant a big “FUCK YOU” flag on the WTC site.

Secondly, it will embolden the bigots. They will (as they have been) start pushing Muslims across the United States to move their communities “elsewhere.” In the spirit of concern and cooperation that you’ve been explaining to us, they’ll have to do that. I don’t know where they’ll end up going. Perhaps we can create some special camps so that Muslims can practice their faith without offending anybody.

Thirdly, the Muslim world in the Middle East will be put on notice that America doesn’t want to allow even the most tolerant and cooperative Muslims to practice tolerance and cooperation; they’re just not wanted. Yet again, we will have proven to them that all our talk of rights and equality are a big fat lie, and terrorist recruitment will swell.

Here’s what happens if Park51 continues to build and ignores the bigots:

First of all, as the bigots keep pushing the story, journalists facing deadlines to submit new angles on the same old story will end up submitting more and more relevant information. How far away is two Manhattan blocks, anyway? Let’s walk it with a camera and look around. What are the mission and vision statements of the Park51 project and the Cordoba Initiative? What’s the background and views of this scary “Imam” behind the whole thing? How is he viewed in the Islamic world? What is involved in Sufism, as opposed to other strains of Islam? Once all that hits the MSM, the bigots will be completely exposed as nothing more than bigots. We’ve got two months left, which is practically “forever” in news-cycle world.

Later on, once it’s built, the Park51 project can get about the business laid out in its mission and vision statement. Folks in New York can learn more about Islam, and Muslims in New York can learn more about both an appropriate interpretation of their own religion, as well as the history and thought of the Western World. In addition, the many interfaith activities planned can help bring them together, promoting face-to-face understanding.

This is a slam dunk. There is zero right on the side of the critics. It’s absolutely the right thing to do across the board.

If you want to sit on the fence, go ahead. But it’s always worth noting which side the self-proclaimed fence-sitters are engaging with and who’s mind they’re trying to change. If you want to go to freepers or redstate and wring your hands about how you’re not sure either way, that would be a completely different thing than doing it here.