Objections to mosque require us to look at our own faiths
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Editor,
Having just returned from a three-week trip to the Midwest and being mostly out of touch with the news, upon my return on Aug. 14, I was appalled to hear the great controversy, right up to the Oval Office, regarding Muslims wanting to build a mosque near ground zero in New York City.
And now I am hearing all the talking heads on television and radio weighing in on this ad infinitum.
What better structure to build near ground zero than a place of worship? Why are we hanging on to this idea that all Muslims have a terrorist mentality and motivation? Why are we so blind to the true foundation of all major religions, which is love-based, that we allow ourselves to fall into this wave of anger and fear which only breeds divisiveness and goes totally against everything I have ever learned in my Christian upbringing.
If a person of the Christian or Jewish faith commits a horrible crime against humanity, are all future Christian churches and Jewish synagogues being built held to the same standard of prejudicial scrutiny as this mosque? Shouldn’t they be?
Is it not possible that after this mosque is built the people worshipping there are being encouraged toward “brotherly love,” “love your neighbor as yourself,” “peace, harmony, and balance in life,” and all manner of compassion and love?
Is the Muslim faith the only one where some factions of the faith break away from the basic teaching and form very radical and destructive followings?
Just a few questions rattling around in my mind as I read about, listen to and watch this most curious display of arrogant righteousness and pointing the finger at the other guy instead of looking at our ourselves.
Bob McClellan
Polson
