Why building a mosque near "ground zero" is bad

Gibbs wrote: Palestine will never get their land back that discussion should be over.

Larry wrote: abuayisha,    I agree there are other allies and vital partners. Bahrain is the home of the U.S. Fifth Fleet. We have close relations with Oman, Kuwait and the UAE. We also have strategic partners like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, etc.    As far as the Palestinian problem goes, who does the U.S. deal with in the West Bank and Gaza? Hamas and Hezbollah are major problems in Lebanon and Gaza as they don't even recognize Israel as a country. The hatreds there have gone on for thousands of years back to the Israelite and Philistines.    How do you broker relations between two sides who have much reason NOT to come to a solution? Palestinian rocket attacks followed by Israeli counter raids, over and over again. There seems to be little desire on the part of the Palestinians to come to a mutual agreement with Israel, and the same for Israel to do the same thing. I'm not saying that Israel is always right and the same for the Palestinians. The hate needs to stop and the spiral of violence has to end somewhere, but no one wants to be the first to give in, that's the problem.    To be fair, the Palestinians aren't exactly loved by all the countries in the region by far. They're hostility to Israel is understandable in a way, but they need to recognize that Israel isn't going to go away and they need to deal with the reality. I have always believed that a non-violent protest on the part of the Palestinians would do more good than anything, how can you attack someone who is being peaceful and non-violent? There can be no Israeli attacks without provocations and world sympathy would rapidly build up for the Palestinian cause.    But I think the hatreds run too deep for any real solution anytime soon.    Israel has nuclear weapons, lots of them, this reality is not going away. Pakistan has nuclear weapons too. Hopefully Iran won't start making nuclear weapons anytime soon as that government is unstable and widely hated by the Iranians.    The Middle East has been an untractable problem for many American Presidents. Jimmy Carter got Egypt and Israel to open diplomatic relations, which was a good thing, but Anwar Sadat was assassinated partly in response to this action.    There is a lot of support in Israel in the United States, because of longtime historical and religious reasons by Jews and Christians. and the same holds for the Palestinians in the Middle East with the Muslims. Trying to get the two together has proven unsucessful so many times. There will probably not be two states, Israel and Palestine, living together peacefully in my lifetime, I'm 58. It's a shame too. There are good people on both sides of this issue, but it seems the focus is always on the extremists on both sides.    I really don't know what will happen, but unfortunately, for the above reasons, I don't expect any breakthroughs any time soon. America is not going to desert Israel but I believe that there is a lot of pressure from Washington on Israel to stop the settlement building and property takeovers in East Jerusalem. But the Palestinians do not have clean hands rither and they need to reject violence as a negotiating tactic and seriously think about what is best for the Palestinian people.    I know that I don't know what the answer is. I don't think anyone really does. Larry

SignReader

I am not concerned with changing the name. SignReader I personally like you because you are opinionated like Mr. Ron Webb and I too like Ron Webb and even Larry.

However my position hasn't changed (Ron). However I agree with Ron in that this mosque issue is bigger than the actual physical foundations. And no Sign I am not blind to the unfairness and mistreatment of Muslims, I just dislike unjust ones like I hate and dislike unjust racist jews. I believe Ron Webb is on to something however.

Ron Webb,

   You say, "This is not about the community centre anymore."

   You're right, it has now become the great litmus test of the American people in regard to their being either anti-Islam/anti Muslim or not.

   Remember, we're talking about a COMMUNITY CENTER.

   This issue is about Imam Rauf and the planners completely misreading the community that they want to build their mosque/community center to serve and outreach to. The local community clearly has no problem with building a mosque/community center in Manhattan, they just don't want it built 600 feet from Ground Zero.

   The residents of Manhattan have every right to support or not support this issue. They feel that it is insensitive and unsympathetic of their feelings for the Imam and the planners to INSIST on building a 13 story mosque/community center at 51 Park when the community clearly does not want them to.

   For the Imam and planners to simply turn a deaf ear to and disregard the feelings and deeply held emotions of those people that this mosque/community center is supposed to serve, is, in fact, incredibly insensitive and provocative.

   And the more that Imam Rauf and the planners INSIST on not moving the site under ANY circumstances, the more the community feels that there is another agenda at work here.

   The Governor of New York went out of his way to help the situation by making prime state-owned property in Manhattan available to the Imam and planners. But Imam Rauf and the planners are not interested in compromise, there is no middle ground, NO INTEREST IN WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY OR LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

   There is an agenda here and only Imam Rauf and the planners seem to know what that agenda is. But clearly, the Imam and planners aren't concerned about the feelings of the local COMMUNITY in regard to their COMMUNITY CENTER.

   No, the Imam and planners will just allow the community to be accused of being anti-Islam and anti-Muslim if they don't get their way in this matter.

   That should really make the local community feel better about their NEW COMMUNITY CENTER, shouldn't it?

Larry

    

   



Edited by Larry - 31 October 2010 at 9:24pm