To build or not to build? A Mosque at Ground Zero, that is...

[I_hate_Commies]

So my first post.... I gotta say great site - I like polls!!! haha

Well here goes a new topic...

The building of a religious centre for Muslims at 'Grounds Zero' in NYC has become a heated political debate in the US of late in particular.

I am not fully aware of the nitty gritty of it all, but from the outset, it does seem to be a very confronting issue particularly for those who experienced the disaster of 9/11 or who had relatives/loved ones who lost their lives.

Now, I was just wondering what you thought with regards to the issue and if you had the control, would you give it the go ahead or not:

US President Barack Obama isolated over plans for mosque near Ground Zero

BARACK Obama has been left isolated by his own party after the refusal of senior Democrats to back plans for a mosque near Ground Zero.
As the debate intensified into an issue for November's mid-term elections, David Paterson, the Democratic Governor of New York state, announced yesterday that he would be meeting developers to discuss alternative sites.

The declaration came after Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader and the US President's former mentor in congress, broke with Mr Obama by saying that the mosque should be built elsewhere.

Republicans stepped up attacks on Mr Obama for appearing to bow to the political currents stirred up by the idea of an Islamic cultural centre two blocks from where the World Trade Centre collapsed on September 11, 2001.

Emboldened by polls showing at least two-thirds of Americans consider the plan an insult to the memory of September 11's victims, conservatives have likened it to the idea of a swastika being erected next to the Holocaust Museum in New York or a Japanese war memorial at Pearl Harbour.

The issue has dominated a number of political battlegrounds, fuelled in part by conservatives such as former house Speaker Newt Gingrich, ex-Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. All are potential 2012 presidential contenders who oppose the mosque.

In the Florida governor's race, Republican candidate Rick Scott aired a television ad criticising Mr Obama's mosque stance. His presumptive Democratic nominee, Alex Sink, said he, too, was against the mosque.

Freedom of religion is a near-sacred tenet of the US constitution but has had little bearing on the debate, which threatens to derail a White House mid-term strategy based on talking up Mr Obama's legislative accomplishments and painting the Right as the "party of 'no'."

A growing number of Democrats say Mr Obama has only himself to blame. With a total of 43 words, half of them unscripted, he has split his base by intervening.

It started with a carefully judged line at an Iftar dinner for Muslims at the White House on Saturday (AEST). Paying tribute to a Muslim winner of the Purple Heart buried in Arlington National Cemetery, he said every American veteran shared "the values that we hold dear" and that "one of those values is the freedom to practise your religion -- a right that is enshrined in the first amendment of the constitution".

The line was seized on by conservatives as an implicit endorsement of the so-called Park 51 project, which is backed by one of the US's leading Sufi moderates and would, if built, include a swimming pool and a 500-seat auditorium as well as a mosque.

The following day, Mr Obama clarified his remarks. His intention was simply to let people know what he thought about equality under the law, he said on a family visit to the Gulf of Mexico. "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there," he said.

Mr Obama dismayed congressional Democrats in tight mid-term races who face majorities who object to an Islamic presence of any kind near what they consider hallowed ground - even though there are already two busy mosques within four blocks of Ground Zero. "How can this possibly be helpful when feelings are still so raw?" one party strategist asked in The Washington Post. By attempting to modify his message, he has let down other supporters who saw his first comments as a welcome stand on principle.

The Times, The Wall Street Journal, MCT

[Archer]

[Raze]

Iīm appauled by the idea of building an Moslim mosk on the sight where 9/11 happened! For fucks sake almost 3000 people lost their lives because of the same kinda people we want to build a religious building for! If we go ahead with this project, yeah, itīll be a slap in the face to every child who lost his or her mother or father in the attack. Weīll practically be giving in to the Moslims by building turf they can worship on.

[True Blue]

I'm with arch on this one.

Pau, is also fishing. I'm starting to see Raze as a bit of a manipulator. next thing i know he'll be giving me the shits. He used to be 29yo, with a mortgage working in a factory on the line, with a nail technician wife, and two kids, But he has quickly moved to fat overweight slob sitting on his arse, blaming everyone else for his unemployment. he is the bloke leering at you when you look up and stare in the distance.....

[AngstyIntellectual]

I'm sorry, but you're one of those misinformed Americans who claim that all Muslims are terrorists. The type of men who bombed on 9/11 were a radicalist group. That's like saying that the Westboro Baptist Church stands for all Baptists! They are a radical group who concede to have no affiliation with the orthodox groups. Muslims are just as appalled at the terrorists actions as Americans are. Would you kindly take your head out of your ass and read a little?

[Raze]

I'm with arch on this one.

Pau, is also fishing. I'm starting to see Raze as a bit of a manipulator. next thing i know he'll be giving me the shits. He used to be 29yo, with a mortgage working in a factory on the line, with a nail technician wife, and two kids, But he has quickly moved to fat overweight slob sitting on his arse, blaming everyone else for his unemployment. he is the bloke leering at you when you look up and stare in the distance.....

Yeah, Iīm unemployed but sorry, your image of me is wrong and I ainīt got no family to speak of. There are two different kinds of enemployed: the one you describe and the one whoīs been unemployed for some time because he donīt have what it takes to get a job yet or his future employers arenīt yet calling him up for a job interview. Iīm the second kind.

What you said about me is an amusing anecdote, though. Keep it up. You might actually hit the nail on the head.

I got mad at you because you laughed when Strife posted his reply stating my complaint would be ignored. Now, I freely admit that I was in the wrong because I hadnīt considered Archerīs post properly, but that was no excuse for you to laugh.

I donīt like people laughing at others. It represents a fear of voicing your own opinion. Laughing at others in this case is all too obviously a way of covering up.

[lorricall]

Part of the problem with this whole issue is that Americans like to classify people into neat little groups without separating properly when there SHOULD be a separation. There has always been talk of how many Americans were lost in 9/11 that worked in the buildings and such. But, there is hardly EVER talk about how many people of the Muslim faith were lost that ALSO worked in the buildings that had no terrorist affiliation! The Muslim faith is not a bad one, and everyone that follows it is NOT a terrorist! The terrorists are acting upon a TWISTING of the faith. Just as crazy cults take the Christian Bible or a RECORD ALBUM and TWIST it to their needs to have the people involved do their deeds. I know! I can't tell you how many people assume that just because I am Native American I still live in a teepee! And this is 2011!!!! Or think that I know some other Native American that's an actor just because he is another Native! Really people of the U.S.! Think about Jim Jones and Charles Manson - do you want to classified into the same group they are in? They are Americans. So while classifying, think also about separating the good from the bad rather than lumping everyone together.