I have been feeling somewhat frustrated over the coverage of the mosque that is going to most assuredly go up in the area of Ground Zero where the attacks on our freedom took place. Those responsible are Muslim and they are extremist in their views.
Everything I have read in the Quran and in the literature of their own faith encourages them to treat everyone who doesn't believe as they believe as an infidel worthy of death. There isn't any backtracking on this in terms of the radical clerics, leaders and practitioners of their belief and life systems. To them, it is the ONLY way to the salvation promised to them by Allah and their faith. We are in their way. I was angry at the concept that we were, as a Judeo-Christian nation, left ripe for the picking.
Then, I began to ponder a few thoughts.
It was not so very long ago that my own faith was the enemy of everyone who believe differently that we do and, as a body, our faith and belief was cast out, repudiated and treated as dross. We were driven from pillar to post in search of our Zion. People died defending the right to believe in God in a way that defied tradition of other faiths.
But does believing differently mean we have to be unjust?
I don't make this parallel lightly.
I am just as angry as everyone else that they lack sensitivity to the feelings of the people of America who are against this edifice they hope to build. Personally, I feel like they are thumbing their nose at the ongoing pain left from a scar that it will take generations to heal. I also feel like they are doing some kind of victory celebration by planning to place what will most assuredly be much more than a simple place of worship, educational and cultural facility in such a controversial location. I honestly believe it will become, in short order, a gateway of jihad to be perpetrated upon the American public.
But setting aside my own personal biases, I have to ask myself a pretty painful question: Do I have the right to constitutionally deny ANY religious faith the right to construct an edifice for the state purpose of worshipping God in the way they see fit?
As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we have a tidy little 13 bullet point statement that defines the basics of the tenets of our faith. Number 11 has kept me up all night considering my opinions.
It states: We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may. (Pearl of Great Price|Articles of Faith 1:11)
When we consider the fact that our nation supports literally THOUSANDS of denominations which vary wildly in their beliefs and applications of same, do we have the right to prevent some from exercising their beliefs on the basis of what we THINK they may be up to inside the walls of their church? We have our own home-grown churches that protest at the funerals of our military that in reality protect the very right of these insensitive bigots to protest! Yet, we tolerate their presence, knowing in time that they will reveal themselves for who and what they are and be rendered useless to society at large.
There is a lot of real estate in New York City. Those who are seeking to build could chose from plenty of places to build their house of worship.
I have come to believe that this is an issue of personal sensitivity more than one of basic human rights to worship in the way they want.
If their stated purpose is to advance their opportunity to worship, those rights we seek to deny them, in time, will be denied to the rest of us. Who is to say that OUR chosen religious rites of worship will not find themselves in the crosshairs of popularity?? My faith has endured that particular bullet shot. How would we like it if every other faith had to "enjoy" that same agony?
You can't build here because you aren't popular? It's just something to think about...
I still think the mosque could be and should be built elsewhere. But my own faith demands that if I am to avoid being a hypocrite that I support their religious freedom.
Sometimes, being a God-fearing woman is a tough row to hoe...
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