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

[myuserid]

Same logic.

Not the same logic at all.

McVeigh bombing those buildings didn't have anything to do with religion. Period.

The 9-11 terrorists were acting out their religion.

[Roo]

If you honestly don't believe that the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful, non-violent people, or better yet, if you think finding moderate Muslims is like finding unicorns and leprechauns, I have a very simple solution for you: Travel to an Islamic country and see for yourself. Make friends with locals. Talk about what's bothering you. Ask actual Muslims for their own personal points of view on the subject.

"But I don't want to go to Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, or Uzbekistan (etc etc)" you might say. Well? They are lovely places, at least the ones I've been to, and you gotta see it to believe it, I suppose. Try Egypt first, there's plenty of rather significant shit there to see. I send 80 year-olds to Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Western China, Turkey, and other Islamic countries (and many non-Islamic countries) on a daily basis for a living. You know what they all say, especially about Iran? "Oh all of the people we met were just wonderful, we'd like to take a trip with your company again next year".

80 year-olds. You can do it. Fear is the enemy, and fear is easily overcome by exposure and critical thinking. People who overcome their fear or misunderstanding of other cultures through actual experience are doing this world a great service, one at a time.

[myuserid]

Moderate Muslims should be all over the place condemning the hijacking of their religion.

Yet we hardly hear a peep.

[Darwin]

A couple of decades ago when P.J O'Rourke was still writing for Rolling Stone he made a trip to the middle-east and observed as so many do that Muslims are a generous and hospitable people without fail, but, and this is a line that's stuck with me all this time, "Stuff a Koran down their pants and they start acting like a footlocker full of glue sniffing civet cats."

Not the sort to pull punches even way back when he was a card carrying lefty. He always was, and is, one of the few writers that can routinely make my drink spurt out my nose in strangled laughter.

[RobsanX]

Not the same logic at all.

McVeigh bombing those buildings didn't have anything to do with religion. Period.

The 9-11 terrorists were acting out their religion.

Actually the 9-11 terrorists spent their free time drinking, and hanging out in strip clubs. Not very religious at all...

[Roo]

Moderate Muslims should be all over the place condemning the hijacking of their religion.

Yet we hardly hear a peep.

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.

[myuserid]

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.

I don't take it personally.

We have a difference of opinion is all.

[tom502]

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.

[RobsanX]

Muslims were given a spot to pray at the exact spot that the plane hit the Pentagon on 9-11. This was not even two blocks away!

Mosque Controversy Skips Pentagon: Muslims Gather in Daily Prayer at 9/11 Crash Site

100-Seat Chapel Schedules Services for Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Episcopalian, Catholic and Protestant Employees

By LUIS MARTINEZ

Aug. 17, 2010

Amid flaring political debate about a proposed New York City mosque near Ground Zero, there has been little commotion about the Pentagon's chapel where Muslims can gather in daily prayer near where a hijacked jetliner struck the building Sept. 11, 2001.
Sometimes misidentified as the "Pentagon Mosque," the non-denominational Pentagon Memorial Chapel maintained by the Pentagon Chaplain's Office is where department employees who practice Islam can meet to pray.
Located at the site where the hijacked American Airlines flight 77 struck the Defense Department headquarters, the chapel honors the memory of the 184 victims of the 9/11 attack.
The 100-seat chapel is available to Pentagon employees of all faiths to come in prayer as they wish throughout the day. The Pentagon Chaplain's Office schedules weekly religious services in the chapel for Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Protestants and Episcopalians, as well as a daily Catholic Mass. Muslim worshippers can gather daily to offer prayers and can attend a Friday Prayer Service led by an Imam.
Army spokesman George Wright said he is unaware of any complaints about the Muslim services from either 9/11 families or anyone in the building. The Army serves as the executive agent for the Pentagon Chaplain's Office.
The Pentagon Chaplain's Office schedules the religious services because "the armed forces are dedicated to looking after all the needs of our servicemen and women, including their spiritual needs," Wright said.
The office is "very open and very accommodating to the religious needs of the employees here in the building," he added.
The Muslim services at the Pentagon chapel have led some politicians to label it, incorrectly, as a mosque.
Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., defended the right of the Islamic group seeking to build near Ground Zero by saying, "there is a mosque in the Pentagon, which is also hallowed ground. No one objects to that."
Nadler represents the congressional district where Ground Zero is located.
Pentagon Chapel Recognizes All

Dedicated in November 2002, after the reconstruction of the section of the building struck in the Sept. 11 attack, the Pentagon chapel honors the memory of the 184 victims who were killed there or were passengers aboard the hijacked jetliner.
Behind the chapel's altar is a lit stained-glass window, in the shape of the Pentagon, that bears the inscription, "United in Memory, September 11, 2001."
No religious icons or pictures are on display at the chapel. Religious symbols are brought in for religious services. A Torah, for example, housed in an ornate ark, is brought from behind curtains for use in the weekly Jewish service.
Because of the chapel's location at the impact point where the Pentagon was struck, there are various reminders nearby honoring the victims of 9/11.
Outside the chapel's double door is a small display honoring victims of the 9/11 attack.
Along the building's exterior below one of the chapel's stained glass windows is a dark charred block of limestone set against the lighter colored limestone used in the reconstruction of the façade. Inscribed "September 11, 2001," it is a reminder of the extensive fiery damage the building sustained in the attack.
Just beyond the chapel's stained glass windows lies the two-acre Pentagon 9/11 Memorial that individually honors each of the 184 victims of the attack on the Pentagon.

Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/mosqu...ry?id=11417673

[truthwolf1]

Actually the 9-11 terrorists spent their free time drinking, and hanging out in strip clubs. Not very religious at all...

EXACTLY!

GEE, BY GOLLY that is really odd? Let's look into it further, NOPE!

You are only allowed to look into this issue with BLIND EMOTION!

[sgreger1]

Moderate Muslims should be all over the place condemning the hijacking of their religion.

Yet we hardly hear a peep.

They do, it's just that it doesn't get much news coverage. Christians should all be out condemning the bombing of abortion clinics and liberals should all be out opposing the bombing of animal testing facilities, yet they are not. Most of them assume that everyone knows rational people don't support such things and there is no reason to constantly speak out against it.


I'm just saying that while I still feel Islam is a terrible blight on humanity and the biggest factor in world tensions today, we must realize that with several billion people practicing it we can't paint with such broad brushstrokes when a few hundred go out and act stupid. Terrorism and Jihad is more about poverty than it is religion. Religion is just the medium that captures them. It's the same when gangs recruit kids from urban neighborhoods, they offer them some money and the chance to be a part of something. That's pretty much what AlQuaida does.

[WickedKitchen]

WTF is THIS!?!?!?!!!?!?!!!?!?!?!!?!?!!!?!!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!????? ?????????????????????????????

(Reuters) - The Muslim center planned near the site of the World Trade Center attack could qualify for tax-free financing, a spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu said on Friday, and Liu is willing to consider approving the public subsidy.
The Democratic comptroller's spokesman, Scott Sieber, said Liu supported the project. The center has sparked an intense debate over U.S. religious freedoms and the sanctity of the Trade Center site, where nearly 3,000 perished in the September 11, 2001 attack.
"If it turns out to be financially feasible and if they can demonstrate an ability to pay off the bonds and comply with the laws concerning tax-exempt financing, we'd certainly consider it," Sieber told Reuters.
Spokesmen for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor David Paterson and the Islamic center and were not immediately available.
The proposed center, two blocks from the Trade Center site in lower Manhattan, has caused a split between people who lost relatives and friends in the attack, as well as conservative politicians, and those who support the project. Among those who support it are the mayor, civic and religious groups, and some families of victims.
The mosque's backers hope to raise a total of $70 million in tax-exempt debt to build the center, according to the New York Times. Tax laws allow such funding for religiously affiliated non-profits if they can prove the facility will benefit the general public and their religious activities are funded separately.
The bonds could be issued through a local development corporation created for this purpose, experts said.
The Islamic center would have to repay the bonds, which likely would be less expensive than taxable debt.
New York City's Industrial Development Authority could not issue debt for the center because the state civic facilities law, which governed this type of financing for non-profits, was allowed to expire about two years ago.

[lxskllr]

I'm not completely happy about tax exempt status for religious organizations. I like the idea in principle, but they're all working the system, enriching themselves, and not putting all the money back into the community. I think if I were fuhrer, I'd continue their tax exempt status, but force them to publicly disclose where every penny of their money went. When I say every penny, I mean every penny. How much goes to utilities, how much goes to pay, how much goes to feeding the homeless... If they had an excess of money at year's end, and couldn't justify why, not only would their tax exempt status be yanked, they'd be thrown in jail, and put on work crews to give back to the community that which they stole.

[myuserid]

WTF is THIS!?!?!?!!!?!?!!!?!?!?!!?!?!!!?!!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!????? ?????????????????????????????

(Reuters) - The Muslim center planned near the site of the World Trade Center attack could qualify for tax-free financing, a spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu said on Friday, and Liu is willing to consider approving the public subsidy.
The Democratic comptroller's spokesman, Scott Sieber, said Liu supported the project. The center has sparked an intense debate over U.S. religious freedoms and the sanctity of the Trade Center site, where nearly 3,000 perished in the September 11, 2001 attack.
"If it turns out to be financially feasible and if they can demonstrate an ability to pay off the bonds and comply with the laws concerning tax-exempt financing, we'd certainly consider it," Sieber told Reuters.
Spokesmen for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor David Paterson and the Islamic center and were not immediately available.
The proposed center, two blocks from the Trade Center site in lower Manhattan, has caused a split between people who lost relatives and friends in the attack, as well as conservative politicians, and those who support the project. Among those who support it are the mayor, civic and religious groups, and some families of victims.
The mosque's backers hope to raise a total of $70 million in tax-exempt debt to build the center, according to the New York Times. Tax laws allow such funding for religiously affiliated non-profits if they can prove the facility will benefit the general public and their religious activities are funded separately.
The bonds could be issued through a local development corporation created for this purpose, experts said.
The Islamic center would have to repay the bonds, which likely would be less expensive than taxable debt.
New York City's Industrial Development Authority could not issue debt for the center because the state civic facilities law, which governed this type of financing for non-profits, was allowed to expire about two years ago.

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

They can stop saying that now, I guess.

[sgreger1]

I'm not completely happy about tax exempt status for religious organizations. I like the idea in principle, but they're all working the system, enriching themselves, and not putting all the money back into the community. I think if I were fuhrer, I'd continue their tax exempt status, but force them to publicly disclose where every penny of their money went. When I say every penny, I mean every penny. How much goes to utilities, how much goes to pay, how much goes to feeding the homeless... If they had an excess of money at year's end, and couldn't justify why, not only would their tax exempt status be yanked, they'd be thrown in jail, and put on work crews to give back to the community that which they stole.

I agree, they have tax exempt status because in theory they are providing a public service for the needy. Make them prove it on paper. No tax exempt status untill 50% of your profits goes to charity. This will also help stop the scientologists of the world.