Friday, July 16, 2010

Love Your Neighbor.... Unless They Are Muslim

It seems that many within Rutherford County, TN are all for freedom of religion...

... theirs that is ....

for the dreaded "other" the Bill of Rights goes right out the window. When an Islamic fellowship decided to build a mosque, many of the locals rose up in protest.

We have seen many demonstrators and sign carriers over the past few months decrying the dismantling of the Constitution. I wonder if they will be heading out to defend the Constitution now?

or....

just who were the 600 people protesting the building of the Mosque?

According to the ABC News article:
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"Some at the Thursday meeting wore religious or patriotic-themed clothing, and no one defended the plan in two hours of public comments, the Tennessean newspaper reported.

"We have a duty to investigate anyone under the banner of Islam," Allen Jackson, the pastor of World Outreach Church, said at the meeting.

"They seem to be against everything that I believe in, and so I don't want them necessarily in my neighborhood spreading that type of comment," said one man at the meeting.

Tracey Steven, who also attended, said, "Our country was founded through the founding fathers -- through the true God, the Father and Jesus Christ."

"I found out when the sign came up," said Murfreesboro resident Mark Walker, whose home is near the site of the proposed mosque. "We are fighting these people, for crying out loud, we should not be promoting this.""

______________

Could they be the same ... I mean they sound an awful lot like the .... Nah.... couldn't be.... mere coincidence.... I am sure that folks that are protesting liberals attacking the Constitution on one weekend, would not turn around and attack someone's Constitutional rights the next weekend. 

Absurd!

That kind of blatant situational ethic only happens ... in AM talk radio ..

.... not real life!!

10 comments:

Unknown said...

This can only happen when a religion is able to dominate a government.... Like in Utah.

Eruesso said...

I've been following this story for quite awhile and it's truly sad. I recently graduated from Middle Tennessee State University located in Murfreesboro and I enjoyed talking to the local Muslims whenever I had the chance (I never got around to visiting their previous mosque though). The protesters say they don't want to live next to Muslims, but the reality is they have been for decades. If I remember correctly the Muslim community of Murfreesboro began sometime in the early 1980s. Freedom of Religion= Freedom of Christianity. Non-Christians are considered ignorant of this "fact".

Eruesso said...

I forgot to mention that my Religious Studies professor at MTSU, Rabbi Rami, posted his first-hand account of the protest on his blog, Beyond Religion with Rabbi Rami.

Anonymous said...

These people are equating Islam with violence, and to some degree there is a shred of truth to that (maybe back in the old country). Fact is, most Muslims that live here adopt the lifestyle we have here and enjoy the freedoms (thus why they come here).

The problem is what they see in the media, they think a Muslim is a terrorist automatically and I am guessing - from Iraq and Afghanistan (the 2 countries America is at war with). It's complete ignorance, if this is the case then the Middle East should send all the Christian institutions packing as well.

irreverance said...

This kind of news is bothersome. What is especially so is the part where they noted how such religious-supremicist pressure tactics have worked in the past to prevent similar building projects. Hopefully, the bigotry does not win out in the end.

Andrew said...

Greeting Irreverence, I like your term religious supremacist... great description.

This kind of thing reminds me that, for all of the ground we have covered in tolerance, it takes VERY little to send us right back to square one. Over on the FB side of this conversation I am watching on friends pages as people justify this behavior on the basis that other countries do this behavior even worse. WTF?

Jon said...

There was an identical story last year in western Sydney where a local community protest scuttled a plan to build an Islamic school (not a madrassa, just an ordinary school with a normal curriculum) - people suggested that it wasn't consistent with Australian culture. What really surprised me was that despite clearly racist comments made in public and in the media, the proponents never took action on the basis of human rights law.

Don said...

Sad, very sad...

"This kind of thing reminds me that, for all of the ground we have covered in tolerance, it takes VERY little to send us right back to square one."

Very well put!!

Don said...

Sad, very sad...

"This kind of thing reminds me that, for all of the ground we have covered in tolerance, it takes VERY little to send us right back to square one."

Very well put!!

Don said...

Sorry about the double post...

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