Obama Missed the Point With Confusing Ground Zero Mosque Comments

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You know there was a time when white people felt "uncomfortable" about black people moving into their neighborhoods, attending their schools, or sitting at their lunch counters. This "uncomfortable" fear was borne out of an irrational belief that black people were inferior to white people. The Supreme Court decided that separate was not equal. After the Supreme Court decision, I am sure that many white people would have preferred that black people understand their "sensitivities", and not immediately move into their neighborhoods, attend their schools, or sit a their lunch counters. I am glad that Black people asserted their civil rights and did not wait for white peoples' sensitivities to change. Now is a time when most Americans feel "uncomfortable" about an Islamic Cultural Center moving into "their hallowed neighborhoods". This "uncomfortable" fear is borne out of an irrational belief that the Muslim faith was at the heart of the 9/11 attack instead of terrorists perverting the Muslim faith. How long should Muslims accept second class status until the rest of America can make the distinction between the Muslim faith and terrorists that perverted the Muslim faith? The rest of America needs to look in the mirror, not those "insensitive" Muslims.

Ed of OH 9:40AM August 17, 2010

Woah woah WOAH.....
Your analogy to the atomic bomb in Japan is completely off the mark. We, the United States of America, are the ones who dropped the bomb on Japan. Keeping away from that memorial is respectful.
The muslims who want to build a center in New York are NOT THE ONES WHO ATTACKED US ON 9/11. Holy crap, can't anyone understand this?!?
This is just awful. I can't believe I'm hearing my fellow US citizens say such terrible, bigoted, and unthinking things. Get it straight. Don't conflate groups of people together that have nothing to do with each other. I'm so tired of this stupidity.

Dan of CT 3:36PM August 16, 2010

David Paterson is dead wrong to suggest that the state provide the land for the mosque. Has David Paterson ever heard of the separation of church and state?
The mosque issue once again, David Paterson proves that he has no ability to govern. However, as we all know too well, David Paterson proved long ago that he could not govern. “The Democratic Conference: Organizational and Operational Structure Report” is an eyewitness account of Paterson’s and his crew’s INCOMPETENCE and DYSFUNCTIONAL governing nature while Senate Minority Leader.
http://www.politico.com/static/PPM110_demreportfinal.html
Paterson’s office was criticized for PATRONAGE, LACK OF LEADERSHIP, INDECISIVENESS and INFIGHTING, set against a backdrop of general CHAOS – in other words the office, a ZOO. Those interviewed in the report indicated that its chief of staff the disorganized Michael Jones-Bey had no management skills, and should be relieved of his duties.
Amazingly, for running such a DYSFUNCTIONAL CHAOTIC office, the disorganized Michael Jones-Bey was hand picked by David Paterson to mismanage the Division of Minority & Women Owned Business Development (MWBE) at Empire State Development Corporation.
Now that’s the Paterson Way - being rewarded for your incompetence.

Jane Doe of NY 2:05PM August 16, 2010

The city of NY approved the community center. A mosque already exists just two blocks away were American Muslims go to pray. This community center is not going to be built on the site of the former WTC. It's going to be built two blocks away. NYC is one of the most diverse cities in the world. Muslims, too, died in the world trade center.
If this is a moral issue, then those demanding this community center be moved are on the wrong side of the issue. In a tolerant, just and free country, we celebrate the rights of all people to worship peacefully in our country.
It's more than a moral issue though, it is a constitutional issue. You can't go running people's religious institutions out of your neighborhood because you are offended.

mel of NY 2:02PM August 16, 2010

...completely disagree. Just imagine how it would've gone-down had Obama said, "You know... screw the constitution. We only need it when it works in our favor." I think he did the right thing, and it's only shining an ever-brighter spotlight on all the selfish, narcissistic, paranoid people of our country. Sure, people lost loved ones during the attack, but is an appeal to emotion really strong enough to trump something as central to our Democracy as the Constitution? I think not. To back-down on the argument of religious freedom would open a HUGE can of worms, and the Republicans would simply attack him for "special-casing" our rights. Please. The only sad thing here is that we, as a nation, aren't adult and rational enough to see past our own immediate desires.

Jason of OR 1:26PM August 16, 2010

Mary Kate Cary Missed the Point With Confusing Ground Zero Mosque Comments.
So, Mary we should not let there be any Christan churches in Oklahoma City?

Waltz of OR 12:24PM August 16, 2010

Ms. Cary's likening of the September 11th attacks to the atomic bombing at Hiroshima is entirely off the mark.
In the case of the September 11th attacks, you have a group of rogue terrorists, inspired by a sick ideology that employs Islamic symbolism but which, in reality, has as much to do with Islam as Timothy McVeigh's inspiration had to do with Christianity.
In the case of the Hiroshima bombings, you have a sovereign government electing to carry out the bombings during the course of war, in a calculated and coordinated manner, knowing full well that the scale of casualties would be immense.
These two historic events have absolutely nothing in common with one another, from either practical or ideological grounds, and as such I don't think a comparison of the two is appropriate. Moreover, why should the New York Muslim community have to account for the actions of a group of rogue actors who, for the record, do not even consider American Muslims to be Muslim, by virtue of the fact that they choose to live in the US?
American Muslims should in no way be made to feel culpable for the September 11th attacks, and to liken their desire to build a mosque to serve the massively under-served Muslim community working in downtown NY to the US's delegation at the Hiroshima memorial is absurd.

Ed Tanzer of NY 12:13PM August 16, 2010

When I was growing up I was told a story that was meant to help me distinguish correct from incorrect things to do.
An old woman sees a snake outside her door freezing to death. Feeling compassionate, she takes the snake in her house and lies it by the hearth to warm up. The snake revives and comes alive again, to the old womans great pleasure. She goes over to pet the snake, and it bites her. She asks the snake "why did you bite me, I was the one that saved you?". The snake answers "you knew what I was when you took me in!". This little story applies perfectly to the ground zero mosque in particular, and to the cancer of islam in general. You already know of their intolerance of other religions, and their intended purpose of world domination, yet you allow them in.
The muslim theocratic world view is incompatible with the freedoms we have to offer, and in the end will destroy those very same freedoms. Perhaps it is time to put the snake back out in the cold.

Hooey of ID 12:08PM August 16, 2010

Perhaps Americans would not be opposed to this mosque if they heard American Muslims condemn suicide bombings against innocent Israeli men, women, and children on busses, in restaurants, shopping malls, and schools. Instead there is silence or outright refusal to condemn suicide bombers - and lest we forget, America was the victim of suicide bombers on 911. The Imam of this mosque refuses to condemn the murders of suicide bombers from Hamas, believes America brought 911 on itself, and believes America should be governed by Sharia law.
There have been hundreds of thousands of Iraqis murdered by other Iraqi's in the Shia Sunni bloodletting but yet American Muslims are quiet about that as well. American Muslim groups were silent when the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped by Islamic terrorists, made to say "I am an American and I am a Jew" and had his head chopped off in a barbarity made even more horrific in that it was posted on websites in the Moslem world and applauded!
Americans DO have the right to freedom of religion but they also have the right to express their dissatisfaction with this particular mosque at this particular location. If Moslems want to win over Americans then stop justifying the murders of innocent civilians around the world whether they are Jewish, Christian, and Moslem, in the name of Islam.
When an extreme right Jewish settler, Baruch Goldstein, entered a mosque in Hebron sixteen years ago and slaughtered thirty five Muslims who were praying, Prime Minister of Israel Rabin called Yasser Arafat and said "I am ashamed." In an address to the Knesset, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin denounced the US-born Goldstein as a “foreign implant” and an “errant weed”. He continued, “We say to this horrible man and those like him: you are a shame on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism.”
I'd like to hear more Muslim leaders in America say words like that about Hamas.

Mark Jeffery Koch of NJ 11:52AM August 16, 2010

I was unopposed to this, until i learned it was 2blocks from the wtc bombing.
of course sen. schumer thinks it's all ok? even after hamas,and other wackjobs
state it is nessescary to bring islamic law to america.
this will encourage, more mosques and eventually killings, for our spineless ny senators,and politcans everywhere it'l mean we have to pay israel more $$ to stop terrorists(what they know about terror) we have a batch of morrons in albany, and in wasington.
we need Martial Law ,and throw the sceaming insurrectionists out of the country.
(please take schumer with you.)
Oh, and Mr.Obama. guess you think the american people are fooled?
we'l see pal...

Vietnam vet. of NY 11:42AM August 16, 2010