Check out our very own Alex Zaitchik’s dispatch on the, uh “Restore America” rally in DC this past weekend in The New Republic. Ya’ll will recall the Beck Junta that Alex led off of his new book. Honestly, every time I read about Beck I want to smash something, the guy is so infuriating. He holds what is basically a white power rally on the same spot that MLK gave his iconic speech and continues to try to co-opt the civil rights movement. If I was a veteran of those events in the 60s I would be so sick with rage. The NY Times op-ed page had some good columns on the subject by Charles M. Blow and Bob Herbert.
Speaking of right wing idiocy, I’ve gotten really worked up lately about the “ground zero mosque”. I keep getting the most vile email forwards from people (unfortunately family) with hateful jingles against Muslims and dumb-ass conspiracy theories by crack-pots posting on youtube.
Like a lot of people when I first heard about the downtown Islamic center I thought “that doesn’t sound like such a good idea”. And then I learned more about it. I learned that there are already two mosques in that area that are so busy that people need an additional place to pray. I learned that this isn’t a mosque per se but an Islamic cultural center–with a pool and recreational center–and a prayer room. Though it’s two blocks away from the site of the trade center attacks you can’t see the site from there; there will be no minarets over the pit of the towers. The Islamic center is also led by the most pro-American, pro-Western imam I’ve heard of, Feisal Abdul Rauf, a pretty amazing man actually. I recommend reading this article about him, but if you don’t have time you can note that he has actually been sponsored by the State Department to travel to Muslim countries and speak about how the US respects Muslims and that they can worship as they want in America; he has also said he accepts Israel’s legitimacy. We really want to estrange this guy?
But really for me the bottom line is that this is America and the country was founded on religious liberty. I don’t care for religion at all, but I feel strongly that we all have a right to worship as we see fit. You can criticize Islam, and there is a lot to criticize: Islamic countries are overwhelmingly run by dictators, and the development indicators that the UN charts are abysmal in those countries; and there is no denying, of course, that Islam has a terrible problem with extremists and that its moderate wing has not done enough to stand up to that fringe element. Isn’t that all the more reason to empower someone like Feisal Abdul Rauf? It baffles me that morons like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin can puff their chests out about the Founding Fathers and then disrespect their vision of religious tolerance. Actually it doesn’t baffle me, those two and their ilk are so full of it they have no real conviction and are only out for themselves.
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