The perpetrator doesn't say much, and what he does say doesn't make much sense.
Reports: Sir, what's your name? Why did you do it?
Perp: I have chosen to put the torch to the Qur'an.
Or some such, it's hard to make out over all the heckling he's getting.
Frankly, I don't want to know his name, his 15 seconds of fame has already been too long. But Maybe this guy who has over 5 Million youtube views can help shed some light on why someone would do such a thing.
Apparently it's not enough that almost 3,000 people had to lose their lives in a hideous act of religious mass murder, and the religion that murdered them is allowed to build a towering triumphalist mosque on the ground where they died. Is America losing it's mind? It saYS a lot about the people behind this scheme that hey had the bad taste to propose building a mosque in such a place, but to describe it as they have as a "tribute to the victims" is beyond bad taste, and shows a profound contempt for those who died. It would had to imagine a more provocative gesture short of standing on their graves and burning and American flag.
I'm not even American but it makes me sick to my stomach to think that there could be a mosque anywhere near Ground Zero.
Well, not being American I guess you fail to understand that we don't check people's religious credentials at the door in this country, because there already is a mosque just 4 blocks from Ground Zero, plus one in inside the Pentagon just yards from where the plane impacted. Imam Feisal Rauf's current mosque - which has been there for 28 years in Tribeca - is just 10 blocks from Ground zero.
Besides the fallacy of believing the Crazy 72 Virgins Crowd represent the core of Islam, it's not as if Tim McVeigh, the IRA, the KKK, Christian Identity Groups like Stormfront, The Knoxville Tennessee Shooter, The Holocaust Museum Shooter, the Hutaree Militia, Repent Amarillo, Rev Donald Spitz and his "Army of God", Scott Reoder (Killed George Tiller), Eric Rudolph (Olympic Park Bomber), Paul Hill (Shot an OB/GYN and his bodyguard) and Shelley Shannon (Firebombed Abortion Clinics, Shot George Tiller in both arms) represent the core of Christianity, because they don't. Muslims died in the Twin Towers when they collapsed. Muslims died who served on the police force, in the fire dept, and as EMT's. Muslim's fight along side us - and apparently you're countrymen - in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Muslims are our allies in Jordan, in Kuwait, in Saudi Arabia, in Indonesia, in Chechnya, in Pakistan and in Europe.
We can not afford to treat 1.5 Billion people in the world - who have had nothing to do with any attacks on us - as our enemy, that is just insane.
Whose side of this conflict are these people really on?
This is how they have responded in Afghanistan to the threat to burn Qur'ans by Pastor Jones, even though he ultimately didn't go through with it.
I don't think they're going to be happy with Mr McBurns-a-lot on the streets of New York, but perhaps seeing how the crowd reacts to him and the following people who were also there might be able to help them realize the proper way to show their opposition and displeasure. (Dueling Demonstrations from New - CBS Local News)
As opposed to these people:
Somebody seriously needs to tell these people that THIS is what the Park51 Facility will contain.
Park51 will grow into a world-class community center, planned to include the following facilities:
outstanding recreation spaces and fitness facilities (swimming pool, gym, basketball court)
. a 500-seat auditorium
. a restaurant and culinary school
. cultural amenities including exhibitions
. education programs
. a library, reading room and art studios
. childcare services
. a prayer space, intended to be run separately from Park51 but open to and accessible to all members, visitors and our New York community
. a September 11th memorial and quiet contemplation space, open to all
A basketball court and a culinary school that includes a Memorial to 9/11 and prayer space open to Christians, Jews and Hindus as well as Muslims. THIS IS WHAT THEY'RE Up in arms about.
Just imagine the Horror if they were going to include a Badminton Court?
This place is essential a YMCA, with an open prayer space for persons of all faiths to use and a 9/11 Memorial for persons of all Faiths to sit and contemplate our collective loss, and our collective hopes.
It is essentially what Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf describes at the beginning of this video - a place for the overall community to interact with those of the Muslim faith and gain both understanding and common purpose. It's an olive branch, not a "triumphant Victory Mosque"
All of this tells me this country still has a long way to go. I look at this and I see that we haven't learned from the tragic mistake of Iraq, where we attacked and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims who had nothing to do with 9/11, did not have a stockpile of WMD's or an active Nuclear program in place - and lost another 4,000 of our own in the bargin, plus thousand more wounded, traumatized and brain damaged.
9 years after 9/11 and we have not fully understood that Islam is not our enemy, that we are not engaged in a "Holy War" or a "Crusade" against them, that instead we need to build trust and marginize the extremists until they have no more friends in the words, no more places to hide, no more allies who will protect them.
To Attack Islam - instead of al Qaeda - is going the wrong direction.
When are we all going to figure that out?
Vyan
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