Archive for the ‘Religion’ Category
April 1, 2011
CNN last week ran an excellent documentary about the controversy over a planned new mosque/community center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It’s called Unwelcome: Muslims Next Door– Soledad O’Brien. The video runs 42 minutes. An excellent summary of it is here.
It’s upsetting to contrast how ordinary American are the Muslims of Murfreesboro with how fearful and suspicious are the mosque’s opponents. The idea that the American Muslims are “other” is reminiscent of similar arguments made about African-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Jewish Americans, and, much earlier, Irish-Americans.
We Americans take pride in our diversity, and in America as a melting pot, but we still have the capacity to summon up a layer of hate and suspicion from just under the surface.
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Tags:American Muslims, anti-Semitism, CNN, diversity, ethics, hate, intolerance, Irish-Americans, Islamophobia, Japanese-Americans, melting pot, mosque, Murfreesboro, other, Soledad O'Brien, suspicion, Unwelcome: Muslims Next Door
Posted in Ethics-general, Religion, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
March 7, 2011
Planning for a Muslim community center in lower Manhattan, 2-1/2 blocks from Ground Zero, was proceeding in an orderly fashion. A sponsor had purchased the former Burlington Coat Factory outlet, slightly damaged by debris from the 9/11 attack, and a Muslim Imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, was holding regular Friday prayers while the municipal rules were being followed to get final approval, which came last July, when New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission declared that the building wasn’t a historic landmark. I wrote about the process here.
But the hate-mongers had just barely started their ugly work, Blogger Pamela Geller got traction with her rants equating Islam with 9/11, and now boasts about her “SRO crowd at CPAC [the Conservative Political Action Committee—a powerful force in republican politics] and a packed house at the St. Luke’s Theatre in Manhattan,” for her “documentary,” The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks.
The trailer is short, and all fair-minded people should see it, as the guiding force behind opposition to the Park 51 project in lower Manhattan, and to other mosques in California, Tennessee, and around the USA.
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Tags:9/11 Attacks, Anti-Muslim, Burlington Coat Factory, CPAC, ethics, Feisal Abdul Rauf, Ground Zero, hate-mongers, Landmarks Preservation Commission, Muslim community center, Pamela Geller, Park 51, St. Luke's Theatre, The Ground Zero Mosque
Posted in Ethics-general, Politics, Religion, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
February 13, 2011
We’re responsible for what we tolerate. If I stand next to a friend who slanders you and say nothing, then I’ve accepted that slander and am responsible for it. John Boehner Told David Gregory on NBC’s Meet the Press that he believes Obama’s a Christian, born in Hawaii, but if a third of Republicans believe different, that’s apparently OK with Boehner: “It’s not my job to tell the American people what to think.”
Why not, Mr. Speaker? You’re complicit in the lies if you don’t challenge them.
And Glenn Beck says that a giant conspiracy comprising Obama, the Egyptian demonstrators, the Muslim Brotherhood, the communists, and the AFL-CIO is dedicated to creating a new caliphate that will govern all of Europe and the Middle East under Sharia law. And Americans, he beseeches, wake up before it’s too late.
We haven’t seen the polls or focus groups yet, but you can bet that a third of Republicans will swallow it, hook, line, and sinker.
The Republican Party has one adult, Bill Kristol, who publicly rejects Beck’s conspiracy rant:
Hysteria is not a sign of health. When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. (more…)
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Tags:AFL-CIO, Bill Kristol, Bill O’Reilly, birthers, caliphate, communists, conspiracy, David Gregory, Egyptian demonstrators, ethics, Fox News, Glenn Beck, John Birch Society, John Boehner, Meet the Press, Muslim Brotherhood, National Review, Obama, Republican Party, Rich Lowry, Robert Welch, Sharia, slander
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, International, Media, Politics, Religion | 4 Comments »
January 26, 2011
Thanks again to Islamophobiatoday.com for tipping us off to this expose by the Colbert Report of the threat to America from creeping Sharia, along with flying robot drones and crystal meth-laden vacuum cleaners.
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Tags:Colbert Report, creeping Sharia, ethics, flying robot drones, IslamophobiaToday.com, Stephen Colbert
Posted in Entertainment, Ethics-general, Religion, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
January 25, 2011
Freshman Rep. Allen West (R-FL), in an interview with Shalomshow TV, calmly stated that Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), one of two Jews in congress, represents “the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established.”
If it’s not clear why West attacked Weiner, this quote from a campaign town meeting, may help explain:
“We already have a 5th column that is already infiltrating into our colleges, into our universities, into our high schools, into our religious aspect, our cultural aspect, our financial, our political systems in this country. And that enemy represents something called Judaism, and Judaism is a totalitarian theocratic political ideology, it is not a religion. It has not been a religion since 622 AD, and we need to have individuals that stand up and say that.”
Actually, EthicsBob is pulling your leg. Obviously. It would be unacceptable to openly attack Jews like that. Rep. West was really attacking Islam: to read West’s real statements substitute Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Muslims, and Islam for Weiner, Jews, and Judaism, respectively, and you’ll have the congressman’s exact words. Glad he wasn’t attacking Jews. That would have made people mad.
Thanks to IslamophobiaToday.com for calling this to our attention. The website does a great public service by its work exposing hatred against American Muslims.
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Tags:5th column, Allen West, American principles, Anthony Weiner, ethics, Islam, IslamophobiaToday.com, Jews in congress, Judaism, Keith Ellison, Muslims in congress, Shalomshow
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Religion, Tolerance | 3 Comments »
January 20, 2011
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley apologized—sort of—for his Martin Luther King, Jr day speech, in which he appeared to embrace fellow evangelicals as “my brothers and my sisters,” but to exclude everybody else.
The Associated Press reports that Bentley met for an hour with members of Alabama’s Jewish community and afterward told reporters he meant no insult with his words.
“What I would like to do is apologize. Should anyone who heard those words and felt disenfranchised, I want to say, ‘I’m sorry.’ If you’re not a person who can say you are sorry, you’re not a very good leader,” Bentley said.
Bentley’s apology seems to have been agreeably received by local Jewish and Muslim leaders, but it would have been better had he regretted what he said rather than that some people “felt disenfranchised” upon hearing it.
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Tags:Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, apology, Associated Press, ethics, evangelicals, Jews, Muslims
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Religion, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
January 18, 2011
Alabama’s Governor Robert Bentley gave a rousing Martin Luther King, Jr day speech at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where the late civil rights leader once was pastor. He told Alabamians that it was important ”that we love and care for each other.” He went on to proclaim, ”I think that Dr. Martin Luther King was one of the greatest men that has ever lived.”
Bentley said that even though he was a Republican he was governor of all the people. Except…maybe…
“There may be some people here today who do not have living within them the Holy Spirit. But if you have been adopted in God’s family like I have, and like you have if you’re a Christian and if you’re saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister.”
”Now I will have to say that, if we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.”
Bentley later explained, ”We’re not trying to insult anybody.” Not trying, but succeeding.
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Tags:Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, anti-Semitism, atheists, Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, ethics, Hindus, Holy Spirit, Islamophobia, Jews, Jr day speech, Martin Luther King, Muslims
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Religion, Tolerance | 1 Comment »
December 26, 2010
The imam behind Cordoba House at Park51, the so-called Ground Zero mosque, has been roundly pilloried by the right for refusing to call Hamas a terrorist organization. It’s a bum rap, but see for yourself in this interview with Feisal Abdul Rauf in the December 27 issue of Newsweek.
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Tags:Cordoba House, ethics, Feisal Abdul Rauf, Ground Zero mosque, Hamas, Newsweek, Park51, terrorist organization
Posted in Ethics-general, International, Religion, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
December 26, 2010
“Emails show Bloomberg office’s desire to get Ground Zero mosque built,” screamed the New York Post headline. The Wall Street Journal was just slightly calmer: “In e-mails, NYC pushes for mosque near ground zero.”
Alarming? Suspicious? Why is New York’s mayor taking sides in the controversy over the so-called Ground Zero mosque*?
Relax, he’s not. It’s just the Murdoch papers’ way of stirring up fears of a Muslim takeover of America. But read on—far below the inflammatory headlines, the Post piece ended with this explanation:
His [Bloomberg’s] spokesman Stu Loeser today said [the Community Affairs office’s] job is “to help groups navigate city government, and from helping prepare for a Papal visit to extending approval of a Sukkah in a midtown Manhattan park, this kind of assistance is typical of its regular work.” (more…)
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Tags:Anti-Muslim, Bloomberg, Community Affairs office, Emails, ethics, Ground Zero mosque, Murdoch papers, Muslim takeover, New York Post, Papal visit, Stu Loeser, Sukkah, Wall Street Journal, yellow journalism
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Media, Religion, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
December 12, 2010
If you’re disturbed by the apparent growth of anti-Muslim prejudice in America, read this AP article by Helen O’Neill about 1 small town’s battle for tolerance. It’s about how the tiny village of Sidney Center, New York (photo, left, of “downtown”), came together in brotherhood after town leaders voted to investigate—and possibly remove—two graves of Sufi Muslims from the town cemetary. It’s America at its best, it’s about the America our immigrant grandparents dreamed of becoming a part of.
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Tags:anti-Muslim prejudice, brotherhood, cemetery, ethics, Helen O'Neill, Islamophobia, Sidney Center, Sufi Muslims
Posted in Ethics-general, Religion, Tolerance | 1 Comment »
CNN last week ran an excellent documentary about the controversy over a planned new mosque/community center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It’s called Unwelcome: Muslims Next Door– Soledad O’Brien. The video runs 42 minutes. An excellent summary of it is here.
Ethics Bob 