I am disappointed in my fellow Americans.
Although I suppose I shouldn’t be. After all, as a people we have had quite a bit of trouble living up to the lofty ideals spelled out in our founding documents. During WWII our government actually rounded up Japanese-Americans and put them in internment camps. I guess when it comes to Muslim-Americans you could say we’ve made some sort of progress since then.
But in a way those Japanese-Americans had it easier than Muslim-Americans. The perpetrator of Pearl Harbor was no secret and afterwards the Japanese Empire didn’t go into hiding. We had a tangible enemy, we fought them, and when the emperor surrendered it was over.
The 9/11 attacks are quite a bit more shadowy. While we have this vague idea of “Al Queda did it” we don’t really have a tangible enemy as they stay in hiding. Because the enemy is a shadowy organization with relatively few members, that stays in hiding, and that constantly recruits from the disaffected poor of the Muslim world, this war, unlike WWII, will never be over. And that’s bad news for loyal American Muslims because many if not most Americans have lumped all Muslims together. Because Al Queda is Muslim, you see, and all those Muslims are alike, don’t you know.
I don’t know what to say. I don’t know the way out of this conundrum. All I know is that hate isn’t going to get us where we want to be. And hating our fellow Americans who happen to share a religion with terrorist assholes only plays into the hands of those terrorist assholes.
You do realize that implying that those opposed to the mosque are doing so because they are driven by hatred, you’re doing the same thing as those people who say “All Muslims are terrorists”?
Mmm, nope, not buying it. I’ve read more than I want to about this subject and every single one of the people complaining about the mosque/community center are complaining about Muslims being too close to Ground Zero. If that’s not hate, what is it?