08-17-2010, 01:13 PM
That picture is awesome.
It's kinda funny that that article takes shots at the Republicans though when the whole thing really has nothing to do with them. Harry Reid came out against the mosque and Obama spent three press conferences across two days on the subject without definitively saying one way or the other.
Personally I can see both sides. On the one side, lumping all Muslims into the "OMGWTFTERRORISTGTFO" group is absolutely retarded and religious freedom is a large part of what America is about. On the other hand, some part of a religious outreach program should look at the division it's causing the community it's purporting to help and just step back and say, "Hey, we don't really get why you guys are freaking out about this, but it's clearly an issue for you so we're just going to move our shit a few miles away. Be cool." If your stated goal is to strengthen the community, but your plan to do that ends up doing more ham than good, you back off. A “community center” that pisses off half the community can’t really call itself that.
Then again, they could always take the stance that it's an "Islamic Community Center" and not an "Everyone Community Center". Such is definitely within their right, plenty of religions and other groups do that. However, I think the community divide at this point is too large for that to come off as anything but completely obnoxious.
It's kinda funny that that article takes shots at the Republicans though when the whole thing really has nothing to do with them. Harry Reid came out against the mosque and Obama spent three press conferences across two days on the subject without definitively saying one way or the other.
Personally I can see both sides. On the one side, lumping all Muslims into the "OMGWTFTERRORISTGTFO" group is absolutely retarded and religious freedom is a large part of what America is about. On the other hand, some part of a religious outreach program should look at the division it's causing the community it's purporting to help and just step back and say, "Hey, we don't really get why you guys are freaking out about this, but it's clearly an issue for you so we're just going to move our shit a few miles away. Be cool." If your stated goal is to strengthen the community, but your plan to do that ends up doing more ham than good, you back off. A “community center” that pisses off half the community can’t really call itself that.
Then again, they could always take the stance that it's an "Islamic Community Center" and not an "Everyone Community Center". Such is definitely within their right, plenty of religions and other groups do that. However, I think the community divide at this point is too large for that to come off as anything but completely obnoxious.