File under: “Rights for me but not for thee.”
Residents of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, have spent the last four years fighting to prevent construction of mosque. According to a story in Religion News,
Hundreds marched in protest after Rutherford County officials approved plans for the mosque in 2010. Televangelist Pat Robertson labeled the Islamic center a “mega mosque” and claimed Muslims were taking over Murfreesboro. An arsonist set fire to construction equipment on the building site.
Mosque opponents eventually filed a suit against Rutherford County, seeking to block construction of the worship space.
What reports have called a “thriving anti-Muslim movement” in Tennessee fueled the fight, with opponents of the Mosque asserting that the First Amendment’s religious freedom guarantees don’t apply to Muslims–that they only apply to Christians.
Joe Brandon Jr., a lawyer for mosque opponents, went so far as to claim that Islam is not a religion, and that the mosque would be a threat to the community.
I guess the residents of Murfreesboro define “liberty” as “rights for folks like me.”
Think about Murfreesboro the next time a pious apologist claims that religion is a force for good.
Perhaps Jesus was all about love, but a significant percentage of his followers are all about fear and hate.
I have been saying that religion is destructive force for years. This just supports my position.
Any gay person knows that to be true. hate seems to be their motivating force.
Jesus was all about love; he also chased the moneychangers from the Temple. The Tea Party, NRA, big business and lobbyists are the 21st Century version of moneychangers; they own the GOP and have now chased Jesus from the Temple with their pseudo-religious blathering. Their refusal to accept other religions as having the same rights and religious freedom as non-Christians is also against what Jesus stood for. They have also forgotten that he was jew and a Rabbi who tried to bring his followers up to date during his era; compare him to the actions of Pope Francis today. No church, synagogue, temple or shrine is a threat except in the minds of people who fear what they do not understand – and refuse to accept as the religious rights of others. This country was supposedly settled by those who sought religious freedom – not Christian control. Remember the Salem witch hunts were led and enforced by so-called Christians who demanded total obediance to their beliefs and slew those who didn’t obey. Equating muslims with terrorists and denying their freedom to erect a temple or mosque is un-American and shows the ignorance of residents of Tennessee and beyond the south today.
Idiot’s
The mosque will be a definite threat to Murfreesboro’s citizens–a threat to their unfounded belief that Islam is going to destroy them. I wonder if these morons understand that the god they worship, the Christian God, is the same god worshiped by Jews and is the same god worshiped by Muslims. All three religions can trace their origins back to Abraham, but at times they treat each other as if they came from separate planets.
The Christians refer to the second coming. He’d better hurry as, he has many to get back on the right track.
This is very bad. Sorry to hear about this. In contrast there is an Islamic Center in Merrillville, IN, area and as far as I know there has never been a problem. There is something to be said for diversity in a community.
Just wanted to add that Lake County has a large population of Christians and you don’t have this kind of problem with the Islamic Center even though certain elements of the U.S. media and certain political groups have done a great job of stirring up general hatred toward toward all Muslims in the country at large. I think politics is far more to blame than religion. And anyone who actually knows what Christianity teaches, could not take the stand the people in Murphysboro have taken against the Muslim community. The problem is their lack of knowledge, apparently, about what this country is really about, and the result of living in an area where there is no significant diversity.
Sorry, I misspelled Murfreesboro. Should have rechecked the spelling.
Cannot edit comment like on FB.
Indianapolis has elected a Muslim Congressman 4 times now and we have several mosques in town but amazingly Sharia Law has not taken hold on either East or West Market Street!