A Modest Proposal
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This reasonable suggestion from a friend of mine came in today:
“If it is true that the mosque near Ground Zero is to promote tolerance,
then I propose to test that tolerance by announcing the opening of a
gay nightclub next door to the mosque. I suggest two names for the
club to fit with the neighbor—”The Turban Cowboy”, and “You Mecca Me
Hot”. Either should be a good test of the tolerance of its next door
members.
Later, I would announce a specialty butcher shop aptly named “The
Hog-Wild World of Pork,” to be located on the opposite side of the
mosque. Hams, Chops, and Loins to be displayed in the windows.
“Across the street, facing the mosque, there would be women’s specialty
store, like Victoria’s Secret, that only sells and displays thongs,
bras, and other ladies lingerie worn by live models in the windows and
entrance doors. The shop would have a full range of magazines to
include Playboy, Hustler and others to serve the test.
This would not, mind you, and I mean would not, be a provocation. It
would merely be a means to test the tolerance of those who are
proposing the mosque as a tribute to their honest answers about the
specific mosque location.”
Anybody want to do an office pool on how much trouble it would be to get permits for all these businesses from the same New York City government that so enthusiastically approved the infamous mosque? It would probably go all the way to the Supreme Court—if the petitioners were lucky. I’m referring, you understand, to that mosque whose imam, as I understand it, declared that the United States only got what was coming to it in the 9/11 attacks.
Just when did this society decide that the rights of people whose sacred scriptures call for them to take over the world and slaughter anyone who resists conversion trump the rights of Americans who adhere to our constitutional tradition? This kind of exacerbatedly psychotic reversal of values is beginning not only to enrage me, but to terrify me.
Oh, yes. Maybe one of those businesses could also house a monument to the Crusades.
Comment by Facepalm on 9 October 2010:
You seriously expect me to believe that doing those things isn’t incitement?1 Much less that I’m to trust a christain theologist with a long line of posts in the church, not to be biased and cruel to Muslims.
Sir, I implore you, think. Just think. Many christians wouldn’t want a lingerie shop cross the street from their church. Why would you suggest that for a mosque? Think what that would do to further bad body image in the young girls attending such a church, or to the young boys who’s parents are trying to raise them not to see women as objects.
Pork is filthy meat, bluntly. The animals wreck the land, it spoils easily, and the taste and texture honestly make the choice of pork regrettable compared to chicken or beef. Now, a fishmonger’s or a butcher who specializes in rare poultry would be fantastic.
Addressing another option of yours, … do you know how noisy gay clubs get? While the peak hours of operation do make a club a good option to be next to a mosque (one’s patrions are there while the other’s are all gone, which helps with urban congestion) it would seriously disrupt certain nighttime celebrations the Muslim cultures embrace.
A monument to how horrible humans can be to each other should be on that site. Having a mosque is a way for Muslims to humble themselves and remember the ideal of peace that exists in their and your religions.
‘A Modest Proposal’, if your title refrences the summit of social satire written by Johnathan Swift, was obviously satirical. Your piece, sir… not funny, seems too sincere, and too much echoes concepts commonly suggested in the area I’m currently living and working. I’m having a hard enough time educating people in rural Texas that are nationally expected to be ignorant. Why in the world are you promoting these ideas?
Again, I entreat you, THINK!
Comment by Hurricane on 9 October 2010:
First off, if you’re challenging me to think, you might consider your own record in that area. Fact: There is no place in the world where Muslims are in control where they are not persecuting Christians. If you want something to think about, get the facts of the Muslim atrocities of just the past ten or fifteen years. I don’t know of a place where Christians are chopping the heads off Muslim schoolgirls (in places where there are such things). At the very lowest level, it is in supremely bad taste for the Muslims to put up something of this sort that close to what should be a gross embarrassment to the moderates among them. The 9/11 events are something they ought to be apologizing for, not celebrating. And as for your educating the ignorant, I suggest that you begin with your own butchery of the English language.
Comment by Facepalm on 9 October 2010:
Oh, dear gods, you were serious!
Your fact is wrong, bluntly put. Tell me if my sources are bad. Muslim countries or contries with major minorities: http://www.islamproject.org/images/muslim_2000_final.jpg
Countries where christians have been persecuted:
http://www.persecution.org/awareness/persecuted-countries/
The maps on both sites were quite helpful and user-friendly.
Further, there are many places were muslims are being treated horribly. A shudder-worthy example is the current persecution in the USA and UK. Muslims are being being raped, sodomized, physically assaulted, and then there’s the petty crimes of being verbally abused, refused service, bullying, and such.
As to a history of christians committing genocide against muslims, try Bosnia, Kosovo, and the state of Chechnya in Russia!
http://www.themodernreligion.com/racism/muslim-holocaust.html
The latter site is a twin accross religions to the former christian persecution site.
There are crimes on both sides. Is there any reason why not to give the honest and sincere muslims in this country the right to make amends? The Manhattan community could probably benifit from a mosque.
I must point out that you’re deliberately, whether consiously or not, taking the worst opinion of everything. Building the mosque there is a subtle apology that most people of Anglo culture aren’t understanding.
Honestly, try to get out more. I’m sure you could find a mosque to visit, and muslims love having visitors to come listen in. Talk to the congregation before service, listen to a reading of the Koran, they won’t mind.
Thank you so much for sticking to the issues instead of resorting to something as petty as namecalling.