They're gonna build you that nice mosque you wanted.

[sgreger1]

Of course we don't hear a peep. Unless you're out there scouring the internet for foreign press, where ya gonna hear it? Not from our media. That's why personal experience is second-to-none in learning about the world. So many voices don't get heard. But if you want to read a tiny fraction of it, just google "muslims for peace". There are some good (and some bad) sites and articles out there. The Taliban, Osama Bin Laden, and his organization are the world's #1 Muslim-killers, and more Muslims than you might think are well aware of that. Peace brother, not attacking you personally, just carrying the torch in support of Moderate Islam. Don't take it personally, I do it with my friends too lol.

This is a good point, moderate islam does not sell in america therefore we dont hear it. How often do you hear on the news that the budhists are condemning x,y,z. Doesnt mean they arent, its just that they aint getting no play, kinda like PP on a friday night (but less gay).

[WickedKitchen]

I got some play last night. hee hee

[tom502]

While the Church of Scientology does cater to the paying people, especially looking for the wealthy ones, they do do charity work, and go to near every disaster area and help in many ways. I do agree it's mostly a game for the rich, but they do other stuff too. Many may think them loons, but they really believe in their philosophy to help the world. I used to be a Scientologist.

[WickedKitchen]

I'm sure all of the religions think this to some degree. Well, I wouldn't consider Satanists religious people but I'm sure they "think" they're doing what is "right". Just because a group believes it's doing good doesn't make it righteous. Even if they help. We send aid to countries and then do terrible things as far as others are concerned too.

I think America just has a fear. That fear might be legitimate. The problem I have is every Muslim I know or have known with the exception of one single man was what I think to be genuinely good people. I interact with them regularly with work and my kids have several friends from that background. Each of them is good so far as I can see. What happens in the privacy of their homes and when groups of them get together is what I do not see. I think I have a fear, personally, of the herd mentality. When people of the same background, be it religious, ethnic, or whatnot, get together the mentality changes. This is a provable statement and I'm sure almost all of us have seen it in one way or another.

I will resurrect this link because I think it's pertinent...and maybe this is the fear that many of us have.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kKkY5EpVpY

Look past the dark music and just take the facts as they are presented. I have no way of knowing how accurate this is, but based on personal observation of my 35 years in the US coupled with 11 traveling to Ireland, I'd say it's not that far off. Forgive me if this is out of line.

[devilock76]

What everyone keeps missing is that there already is an existing mosque that is closer to ground zero and has been there since before the towers were even built with never any problems.

You know I understand how someone can perceive this as insulting, but that tolerance for all religions is what makes us different from a group of radicals who believed we should all be enslaved under a yoke of hard line Islamic fear.

You don't have to like it, in fact maybe that is the point, as we don't need the first amendment to protect popular speech. It is the unpopular speech it was designed to protect.

Ken

[Frosted]

If it's true that the mosque near Ground Zero is to promote tolerance, then I suggest that a gay nightclub be opened next door. Two names would be "The Turban Cowboy," and "You Mecca Me Hot." On the other side they should open a butcher shop that specializes in pork and across the street a store that sells and displays lingerie on live models.

(sickipedia)

[lxskllr]

If it's true that the mosque near Ground Zero is to promote tolerance, then I suggest that a gay nightclub be opened next door. Two names would be "The Turban Cowboy," and "You Mecca Me Hot." On the other side they should open a butcher shop that specializes in pork and across the street a store that sells and displays lingerie on live models.

(sickipedia)

That's pretty damned funny, and I completely agree. Lets see how far this tolerance goes :^)

[GoVegan]

If it's true that the mosque near Ground Zero is to promote tolerance, then I suggest that a gay nightclub be opened next door. Two names would be "The Turban Cowboy," and "You Mecca Me Hot." On the other side they should open a butcher shop that specializes in pork and across the street a store that sells and displays lingerie on live models.

(sickipedia)

Except for the pork chop shop, that would be hilarious! Maybe you could include a planned parenthood clinic instead.

[CoderGuy]

If it's true that the mosque near Ground Zero is to promote tolerance, then I suggest that a gay nightclub be opened next door. Two names would be "The Turban Cowboy," and "You Mecca Me Hot." On the other side they should open a butcher shop that specializes in pork and across the street a store that sells and displays lingerie on live models.

(sickipedia)

Definitely funny. Usually tolerance is a one way street; "you accept me, I don't accept you". Unfortunately no one has enough balls to actually do that, but it would be the ultimate test.

[lxskllr]

Definitely funny. Usually tolerance is a one way street; "you accept me, I don't accept you". Unfortunately no one has enough balls to actually do that, but it would be the ultimate test.

It's a good thing I'm not rich, otherwise I'd be the worlds greatest troll. If I had the money, I'd do whatever it took to bring Frosted's vision to reality :^D

[f. bandersnatch]

Don't worry buddy, I hate different stuff too. Just the other day this guy I work with fixed a air hose at our workstation. I punched him in the face, cause **** that, its different.

[shikitohno]

Oh, but everybody keeps saying, it's not a mosque. It's a "community center".

They can stop saying that now, I guess.

WHy? Because they're a religious non-profit? That has nothing to do with the type of the building, and everything to do with the kind of organization that runs it.

May as well be hunting unicorns and leprechauns.

This "moderate" Muslim that wants to build the Ground Zero mosque refuses to acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist organization and blames US foreign policy for 9-11.

They should send this radical packing.

And? He's well within his right to say such things and hold such opinions. I am legally within my rights to go around New York City expressing my support for any terrorist group I chose, saying that all non-White, non-Protestant Christians should be sent to the gas chambers. Aside from possibly geting my ass kicked or being picked up for being disorderly, there's nothing illegal with the speech, as tasteless as it may be. Also, as the saying goes, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. The difference between the lines drawn during the Soviet attempts to put down the Taliban and the current war in Afghanistan should demonstrate that clearly enough for you. The only issue with such speech is if that speech leads to action. Up to that point, there's nothing you can do to stop him. That's the bitch about that Constitution thing that people only like to demand be upheld when convenient. You don't get to choose who gets equal rights, or else they aren't equal rights. And in the event that, as so many of you seem to fear in your hysteria, the world is going to be taken over by Muslims sheerly through an explosive birth rate, I'd be treating them a little better if I were you.

And by the way, fun little question for you to consider: how many of these giant Muslim families can you find with 7 or 8 kids that you fear so much, who aren't first or second generation immigrants? Every religion encourages its followers to procreate as rapidly as possible. If every Christian or Jew followed their scriptures literally, everyone on this site who calls themselves one and is above the age of 30 should already have just as many children as that, if not more. People in poor societies tend to be more religious and have much larger families. People in industrial nations tend to be less religious and have fewer children.

Islam would be fine if it was a personal faith, with Quran only. But the "need" for hadith and sharia, which Muslims say they must have, makes Islam not just a personal faith but a psuedo-political cult that is extremist. There is a small group of Muslims that believe in Quran Only, but they are hated and killed by "tradional" Muslims, because they have shown how the Hadith contradicts the Quran, and Sharia was later invented to be laws of islam. These are innovations. The Quran Only group I have read most from, I have their Quran also, is www.submission.org and it shows all the areas were mainstream Islam is wrong and fanatical. It's interesting, but I don't think they have had much success in removing the Muhammed worship, and later non-quranic innovations from the mainstream acceptance.

Again, tom, you ignore facts not convenient to your own version of reality. Different sects of Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism all have some texts they regard as essential, while others from the same faiths contend that they've totally screwed up the faith and that another set of books are popular. Terrorism is not, as sgreger said, about Islam, or any issue for that matter. It's about poverty. Islamist terrorist groups are no different from Anarchists bombing places or Communists/Socialist of bygone revolutions attacking institutions. They've identified something they feel needs correcting (unfair distribution of wealth, either between the Muslim world and the West, or within their own country/region) and they have crafted an ideology based on attaining this goal in the form of fundamentalist Islam. I certainly feel they're misguided in their methods of going about this, but that is how things are. You see plenty of terrorism in poor, predominately Buddhist or Hindu nations as well, such as India and Thailand. However, in more prosperous nations following Buddhism, like Japan or South Korea, you see relatively little.