Second_in_pie
Senior Member
How bout Imperial Japan? The Japanese were notorious for Kamikaze warfare, and plenty of people around the world had the same view of Japan that many people see of Muslims today. But after over 90 years of peace, very few people will say that there's something built into Japanese culture that's dangerous and, in context of this thread, makes them unfit to be represented with the rest of society through their unique cultural institutions.
Also, plenty of groups targeted during the Holocaust, mainly Jews but also other groups, commonly went on suicide missions against the Nazis, some even blowing themselves up. There are plenty of other groups that committed serious atrocities against random civilian populations. Heck, we're seeing that now with the US in Pakistan and Afghanistan, with a building's full of "collateral damage" a week.
And I still find it hard to believe that there's something inherent in Islam that causes widespread terrorism. Would you like to point out the section in their teachings that does? Any point that the Muslim world is any more dangerous now can be countered by the fact that in the past, the Muslim world was ages ahead of other religions. While Christianity condemned education and endorsed insane punishments for their people, taking the word of the bible as the last word in any matter, Islamic states were building up knowledge, devoting themselves to sciences and philosophy. During the third Crusade, Saladin encountered a lone crusader abandoned in the desert. The Crusader was sure that he would be killed, but instead Saladin invited him to shelter in his home as the Crusade was waged. That turned around when the West became a dominant power and created disrupts in the Middle East.
Also, the only Muslims that are going out to places in the West and committing acts of terrorism are a very specific branch located in the Middle East. The Taliban aren't attacking Westerners abroad, and Islamic extremism in South East Asia is a minute part of the community. While, at the same time, we have criminals all over the world doing essentially the same thing for the sake of money, just a decade ago we had IRA members attacking random places in Great Britain to cause chaos and havoc, we had Quebecois doing similar things, and we had Western and Soviet spies going around murdering and causing chaos in completely unrelated countries. Now, tell me that Ireland, Quebec, the US, or Russia are all sympathizers for the damage they caused and should be punished for the damage done by these groups?
People that oppose this Mosque are almost as bad as the terrorists that were behind 9/11. By spreading around the hate, you accomplish nothing. Not to mention that causing even more grief for the international Muslim community won't do anything to stop terrorist attacks in the future. Likely, it'll incite more instances of Islamic extremism. Americans say that they'll only accept this mosque if churches can be built in Mecca. How does logic like that make this world a better place?
I call you on that. And even if you'd be so ignorant to hate Christianity for the rest of your life, a majority of self-respecting people wouldn't, I assure you that.
Okay, people in the Middle East celebrated when the WTC came down. But did Americans not cheer when the Berlin Wall came down, or when they saw army engineers bring down that statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad? The Middle East is essentially controlled by the West; seeing one of their most important tools of control go down in flames might bring hope into the hearts of people longing for change. And some of them just hate the US, as does half of the rest of the world, including a fair number of Canadians.
Also, do you not realize the difference between people on the other side of the world and those living in the US? American muslims were not cheering when the Two Towers went down. They were mourning just the same as any other americans were. They are the ones that would be using this centre. Why punish them further than we already have?
