to mosque or not to mosque

(pictured above: heraclitus would find this issue incredibly boring).

i'm breaking one of my rules here. see, normally i could care less as to what happens in new york. i possess an irrational dislike of the place, most likely originating from an immense distaste for that dreadful accent. i'm fairly certain that the only cool things to come out of new york in the last 6,000 years are anthony bourdain and the wu-tang clan.

but i really can't ignore the opportunity to chime in on something like this. you guys have probably heard that there are plans in motion for a mosque to be built within a couple blocks of ground zero. i missed the memo that declared ground zero to be sacred ground, but apparently building a mosque near there would be an insult to the memories to those who bravely gave their lives in service of no cause.

i'm going to say this: even if a group that ideologically supported al-qaeda wanted to build a recruitment center 1 block away from ground zero, that wouldn't be that big of a deal (as long as they weren't breaking any laws, which there's a good chance they might be, but whatever). freedom of speech, etc.. additionally, to a staunch non-theist such as myself, all religious buildings are more or less the same. i prefer some aesthetically to others (like those huge gothic cathedrals--they're pretty), and i would prefer to live in a neighborhood full of quaker meeting-houses and zen gardens, but that's just my petty personal preference for having neighbors that are less prone to ludicrous beliefs.

to me, at the end of the day all houses of worship in the service of the desert space-king hashem break about even. some are better than others, some are more moderate than others, but i'm fairly certain that i could drive around this great nation of ours and find a christian church whose teachings are as crazy and ridiculous as what you could find in the mountains of yemen. something along the lines of: sex is bad, drinking is bad, fun is bad, music is bad, women are bad. that's what you get when you side with jerusalem over athens.

which brings me to something resembling a point. a constant criticism made by conservative christians against muslims is that some strains of islam are un-american. that might be true. then again, i would go out on a limb and say that many strains of christianity are un-american (or at least significantly less american than they claim to be). there is plenty of room for un-american-ness in america. i hope. i mean, this place is really big.

then again, if i had things my way, we'd stop constructing religious buildings altogether, and dedicate all that free space to bars, theme parks and places where you could sit and watch the sun-set.

+mc