For Americans this is just one of those things where the laws of the land seem in error. This is not the first time it has happened as it is frequent in communities where religion and state tends to blend or clash in ways the Constitution frowns on. But in this case while troops are fighting and dying as a result of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, it spark strong feelings from coast to coast.
There are a number of ways to look at this, and certainly there is enough to make a series from it. But in this case we will look to outline similar yet different examples that more or less fit the same mold.
As a general rule of thumb people tend to be more sensitive about recent negative events than distant past negative events. The healing power of time eventually turns everything to a dull gray. Short of going to a therapist for counseling or a clinical hypnotherapist who can speed up time in a persons mind and condense years into days, people must let time pass. In the case of 9-11, because troops are still fighting, it is way to soon to even thing about a mosque being built near ground zero.
But putting that aside, we see similar conflicts tied to religion and how religion somehow seems to step on people who do not even belong to that religion. Perhaps the most common example has to do with adult entertainment. Connecting the Dots did a story on this some time back where some politician was looking to make a name for themselves by looking to block or close adult related venues or stores. The name of the politician does not matter simply because it is a cycle that repeats, and each time another name gets added to the tried but failed list that is hundreds of years if not thousands of years in the making.
So in general with the ground zero mosque issue it would seem that an adult entertainment facility that sold adult movies and novelties like vibrators and dildos would be more readily accepted than the proposed mosque. The reason the mosque is a symbol that it is tied to a religion that has a very bad track record of producing extremists.
So expanding on that thought, if each religion from Catholic to Protestant, to Jewish, to Buddhist to whatever produced an equal number of terrorists, somehow the ground zero mosque would not be an issue. So simply it is that programmed response connection that the Muslim religion produces terrorists. Simply put that is the true issue behind the conflict, and the mosque is seen as an IN YOUR FACE response.
On the reverse side of the coin, lumping everyone into one basket is very wrong and immature and shows how far we have yet to go as a species. Each person must be looked at by their own merits, and it seems almost certain any person that walks in or out of that proposed mosque will get just that complements of some government security agency be it the FBI or Homeland Security or whoever. It also may invite some spontaneous violence that will no doubt fall under the hate crimes laws.
For now it seems the timing is all wrong, and perhaps should be put off until the global terrorism issue is under control. But by then it will not matter much as most of Manhattan will be under water complements of global warming.
