Should a Mosque be built near Ground Zero?

Yeah, that's one thing I don't think people understand, is that it isn't actually a "mosque" by normal terms. It's a community center with a section devoted to praying. Calling it a mosque is just about equivalent to calling a hospital with a chapel in it a church.

These are mosques:




This is the building that stands where the Cordoba House is going to go:



This is an "artistic rendition" of the proposed building:


Looks like a mosque to me.

People are so dumb. SO they're basically trying to use up that old lot and put a brand new, renovated building as a "community" center.

Here's an interesting article looking into America being islamophobic...

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archive.../08/027066.php

The way I see it, "Islam" as a religion is pretty extreme, but so is Christianity if you really read the bible and see what it is saying. People claim that Islam has no room for "infidels" because the Qu'ran essentially says all "infidels" should be slain, but the Bible says basically the same exact thing, among hundreds of other atrocious things. Then again, most Christians don't have a fucking clue what their religion is about or what their holy book tells them, so it isn't really that surprising.

But anyway, just because the Qu'ran says evil things doesn't necessarily mean that all Muslim people believe evil things. There are lots of "sane" Christians that don't necessarily believe a lot of the things the Bible says they should believe, and I assume the same is true of Muslims. The problem is, all we see of them are the extremists, which are essentially the "vocal minority." The same such vocal minority exists for Christians as well, and we've got our own brand of extremists just the same in America. The majority of Americans are being (mis)represented by their vocal minority, just like the majority of Muslims are likely being (mis)represented by their vocal minority.

Most people are just too fucking stupid to see that, which ultimately means that our "vocal minority" here has more of an effect on the opinions of the general populace and actually has a chance of becoming a vocal majority if people don't learn to fucking think for themselves and stop repeating everything Rush Limbaugh/Glenn Beck goes on about.

On a not-necessarily-unrelated note, I think Newt Gingrich should be executed for crimes against humanity. Karl Rove too.

Surah 2:256 “Let there be no compulsion in Religion.”
Sura 26:227 “Except those who believe, work righteousness, engage much in the remembrance of God, and defend themselves only after they are unjustly attacked. And soon will the unjust assailants know what vicissitudes their affairs will take!”
Mohammed said, “Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him.” (Hadith Al Buhkari vol. 9:57)

Really, a LOT of the talk of slaying infidels comes from the Hadiths, which were sayings that were attributed to Muhammed, but not written down for quite some time after his death. But there is a lot of mention of it in the Qu'ran as well. There's also talk of tolerance of non-Muslims in the Qu'ran, if I recall correctly.

As far as my Muslim friends have ever cared, they don't believe in the Hadiths for the fact that there is no clear link between Muhammed having said what's been recorded for they could have easily been forged or distorted.

Also: http://islam.about.com/od/terrorism/...rism_verse.htm

I work with a few muslims and they're some of the nicest people I've ever met. Honestly, I tend to get along better with minorities than I do with white men, and notice that it's generally the white people that are the assholes. The only minority assholes I meet are the ones that assume I'm going to be a stereotypical white asshole, but I honestly can't blame them.

On that note, I completely agree with the angry athiest, that it's about time the Christians had to deal with someone as insane as they are. I wholeheartedly support the "mosque" for that very reason alone.