Wouldn't the Mosque be a huge target?

[quinnox]

My reason for thinking it is a very bad idea to put it there is that it would be very provocative to crazy white right wing nuts who would see the mosque as having a huge neon blinking sign hanging in front saying "Blow me up!"

I wouldn't want to be walking within a block of the mosque on account of fear of catching shrapnel from a bomb blast or having to dodge bullets, to be honest. It would be a big symbolic target for crazy folks.

[Stuart G]

1. Yes, you are correct..a target..What a sad reflection on this country..nt

[JuniperLea]

2. The prayer room is already there... and it was never going to be a mosque...

We really need to rope in the errors in our own thinking here.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Religious buildings, not just this mosque,

are already targets in this country. Should we just stop building all of them?

Or should we realize that with that freedom, comes risk?

I prefer the risk...

[obxhead]

6. "Should we just stop building all of them?"

I think that would be an excellent place to start. I'm tired of all the violence created by religious fanatics fighting over whose god has a bigger....

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. You may be tired

but re-read the First Amendment. The Establishment clause also prevents the government from stopping the building of temples, churches, shinto Shrines... hell for all I care, the Great Temple of the only one, the FSM.

Even if I care little for religious believes at this point in my life. I can even tell you the second when I lost my religion... and why... that does not mean I will go out of my way to stop building them. Nor will I demand that my government goes against the First Amendment, but that is just me. By the way, you think that there are fanatics ONLY among religious people and that god has been the only reason millions have died? I recommend you read on the Gulags. That was done by people who nominally believed that ... Religious is the Opium of the People.

[obxhead]

10. Yes I concede the point of the constitutional issue.

I can't in all honesty support anyone in our government voiding a 1st amendment right for anyones belief, mine included. That's a road best not traveled. In fact trying to force religion out wouldn't work anyway imo.

You also make an excellent point about violence and murder not being exclusive to religious fanatics. However they have caused a majority of it over the history of the human race. One day, long after we have both passed maybe humans will be able to escape the fanaticism over magical religious figures and focus on the betterment of humankind over the defense of a god they hold sacred.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Or political believes

I don't know if you are familiar with this. They took a few partisans... from both parties, and put them into FMR-I. The regions of the brain that activated for both... were the same as the regions that activate with very religious people.

That was scary to me. Some of this rancor might be in the genes. And religion might have, in the past, had an adaptive value, as well as seeing those outside the tribe as less than you... for long range survival that is. These days... not so much.

[obxhead]

12. Wow, that is really scary.

Might explain some of the posts I see here from time to time.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Exactly,

but good news it is true partisans. IN the US that is a small group... for all political parties. Which also drives them (for all political parties) insane. Why CAN'T they see the revealed truth?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1828689/

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/opinion/11freedman.html

What I fear is that this will also lead to micro targeting of voters, like advertisers do.

[obxhead]

16. Thanks for the links.

That's some interesting reading.

In a way it makes me think about the confrontations I have with some individuals here and elsewhere.

Thank you very much. :)

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. You welcome

if I get the gig teaching poli sci I will have to actually track those downs... in actual journal articles and all that. Worth sharing with college kids.

:hi:

[CreekDog]

4. and so will the last school teaching evolution

if we keep backing away from our principles, that's all there'll be.

until then, watch your back near Planned Parenthood.

[Xipe Totec]

5. The solution is to have the religious equivalent of a turducken

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x496137

[pitohui]

7. i doubt it -- wingers love to kill their own

we have a lot of right wing nutjobs in this country, as far as i know, their focus has historically been on burning down churches (best example, the 4 little girls killed in 1963 when racist fuckwits bombed a church) or medical clinics where all types, black, white, and in between get health care, just as long as they're female and preggers...

mcveigh didn't cross an ocean to kill arabs, he was happy to kill americans working right in oklahoma city

the thing you're missing is...wingers are LAZY...they aren't gonna cross the street to kill a muslim when they can kill their own aunt hilda in a drunken argument over thanksgiving turkey...

[Posteritatis]

8. Yes, let's never build anything controversial or large ever unless everyone agrees it's fine

Augh, fucking post-9/11 cowardice everywhere.

[Hissyspit]

13. Good ol' American moral courage.

Pretty much everything in NYC is a target. Pretty much every mosque in America is a target. I suppose if they hold their prayer meetings in the back of a bus somewhere it would be safer.

[spanone]

15. who decides they can't put it there...same for abortion clinics or anything controversial

[pinboy3niner]

18. So you're saying, "You have the right--just don't exercise it ('for your own good')"?

Reminds me of when civil rights marchers were asked not to march because "somebody might get hurt, or even killed."

[Mariana]

19. We REALLY need a new national anthem.

'Cause this sure as hell ain't the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, that's for damn sure. It's fucking embarrassing.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

20. I've heard of lot of internment apologists use the same logic.

"Oh, the Japanese were interned for their own protection. Really, we were doing them a favor."