In This Economy?

We here at ITE? try to steer clear of major issues whenever possible. This is for a variety of reasons, like:

• Major issues such as religion or politics demand a level of research and fact checking that we can’t be bothered with
• These major issues aren’t really all that funny at times (this article will prove that)
• Major issues are extremely divisive, and, well, we just want to be everyone’s buddy

BUT, unfortunately, sometimes an issue (that some may consider to be “major”) cannot be ignored, and this is one of those times.

Let’s start with the Ground Zero mosque uproar.

Yes, I know that this story has been beaten into the ground, but it really needs to be mentioned as a table setter for the main course of ignorance to come.

As most of you probably know by now, an Islamic community center and mosque called Park51 is being built two blocks from where the World Trade Center towers once stood. What you probably also know is that a lot of people aren’t happy about this. Increasing numbers of people have been emerging over the past couple months to speak out against the construction of the center, calling it disrespectful to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy.

You see, because the dickhead terrorists who crashed their hijacked planes into the trade towers that day were Muslim (albeit radical Muslim), the entire faith is somehow responsible for the catastrophe, and should have to pay some sort of price.

No one opposing the mosque seems to care about the aspects of the Constitution that allow religious freedom. These same people don’t want to acknowledge the fact that these religious freedoms are one of the things that makes the United States of America such an amazing place to live.

Nope. They’re happy just leaving that part out.

They’re happy being ignorant.

And please don’t misunderstand, I feel horribly about the 9/11 tragedy. I’m a proud American, so of course I do. But the acts of one subset of crazy people should not become the standard that an entire population is judged against.

The ignorance being displayed at Park51 will most likely not lead to any immediate changes at the site. The building will be built, and once election day scoots off the calendar in November the Fox News air waves will tire of the subject completely. The litany of politicians and pundits using the “issue” as a talking point will no longer see its value and will move on to something else.

But the damage of their ignorance will still leave a mark.

Hell, it already is.

Ignorance gives way to blind hatred.

Here’s the problem:

The perfectly innocuous construction of Park51 has become a rallying point for a new wave of vehement anti-Islamic sentiment. Everywhere you turn now there is a crowd of ignorant fools gathering to demonstrate against a mosque being built in their area.

Unfortunately, these crowds don’t have the convenient excuse of being near a tragedy site to mask their discriminatory ramblings. Nope. Instead, they’re just carelessly spouting hate speech about Muslim people and customs in places like Tennessee and Wisconsin. So instead of there being two sides to the argument (and I’m stretching to say that there are two sides in the NYC case) there is only one side, the side of hatred. And discrimination.

And ignorance.

And then, just when you think things can’t get any more ridiculous, Terry Jones comes along and turns up the heat. Literally.

Terry Jones hates America.

The powder keg of anti-Islamic bullshit that has been poked and prodded over the past 90 days has given way to some truly despicable acts. A few weeks back, an Islamic cab driver was slashed with a knife for simply admitting he was Muslim. Then, a few days after that, several Islamic prayer rugs were urinated on (and YES, if I wasn’t running so hot right now I’d totally insert a Big Lebowski comment here) by a man who shouted “terrorists” after drunkenly wandering into a mosque.

And now, the great and powerful Reverend Terry Jones has organized an event for this Saturday (which happens to be 9/11) encouraging people to burn copies of the Quran.

So we’ve got a knife attack based solely on blind (and ignorant) hatred, a despicable act of biological vandalism and a zealot encouraging people to burn the most holy book in the entire Muslim faith.

Yikes. That’s not good.

Rev. Jones has spoken out and said that he is organizing the book burning to “send a message to radical Islam,” but the whole thing sure seems like a classic example of stooping to the level of your enemy to me. The argument could be made that this is a time to “fight fire with fire” or some other bullshit cliche, but when your enemy is a group of people that are completely crazy, you don’t want to play with the sort of fire they’re dealing with.

Plus, isn’t one of the great strengths of America the simple fact that we don’t handle problems in radical ways? We’re a rational nation that thinks before it acts.

But I guess Rev. Jones doesn’t really like America all that much. At least that’s what his actions make me think.

Despite name dropping the Constitution whenever someone questions how he can do something this crazy, he obviously has no real appreciation for the document or he wouldn’t be persecuting an entire faith of people.

In fact, based on the words of General David Petraeus (who knows a thing or two), the Quran burning movement could very easily lead to more anti-American violence both here and overseas, where our troops are busting their asses to protect assholes like Terry Jones.

Yet, despite the potential violence that could befall Americans, the good reverend has not given up his cause yet. Why? Well, for lack of a better (and more rational) reason, I’d have to say it’s because he hates America.

Or… maybe he’s just ignorant.

In conclusion…

If you’re thinking about burning a Quran this Saturday, don’t do it. Light up a candle and say a prayer for our troops instead. Or say a few words for those that lost their lives back in 2001.

Don’t contribute to this movement of ignorance and hate. Just don’t. Muslim Americans are Americans and to think that they’re any different than you or me because they worship differently is UN-American.

And now, because I can’t think of a better way to end this thing I give you this:

Listen to Rodney, people. Listen to him.

Tags: idiots, ignorance, religion, Terry Jones, youtube

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 at 9:12 PM and is filed under Bad News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.