Political Football season

I recently read a book called Zeitoun by David Eggers. It was about a Muslim man who immigrated to the US. He worked his butt off and built a successful business. He married and had a family. Essentially, he was living the American dream. But he happened to live in New Orleans and after Katrina, it all became a nightmare. He stayed in the city until he was eventually arrested under martial law. Of course, they suspected him of being a terrorist. They kept him locked away for months with no contact with the outside world.

This book just comes to mind, because I'm thinking that Muslims are just another part of the fabric of this nation. Here's a guy who came and worked hard. He's a Muslim and he's built a life here. During the early days of Katrina he was involved in rescuing many of his neighbords. But for some reason there's a lot of nonsense going on right now that demonstrates that religious tolerance is still something we need to work on.

Okay to this mosque in NY thing. The arguments against the mosque seem to be. 1. This is hallowed ground and this a stick in the eye to everyone. 2. We don't know who is funding this.

1. I understand that Ground Zero has now become symbolic for anyone who is an American and really beyond that. But I'm not sure about the proximity argument. So the proposed mosque is a few blocks from ground zero. Is 10 blocks far enough? 20? Why is it being 4 blocks away an insult to anyone? And why is a center dedicated to religious devotion disrespectful. I understand that the 911 killers were radical islamists, but this is like saying we can't build a church there because David Koresh thinks he was a Christian.

2. It's not about the money. It's not like everyone's done due diligence for all the churches that suck up prime real estate around the globe. As long as it's not funded by radical islamists, that's all anyone really has the right to know.

3. So sadly enough, this really is just about religion bashing. And it's really sad to see the same people who usually proclaim to be faithful defenders of the Constitution be the first in line to do the bashing. I'm begining to think none of these folks actually know what the Consitutiton says. Palin clearly does not. Hint for her. Freedom of speech means that people are allowed to disagree with you.

I'm very sorry to have seen this whole thing become a political football.