Monday, August 30, 2010
Law and Order Why Aren't Political Leaders Speaking Out About Terrorism at Murfreesboro Mosque Site?
Posted by Jeff Woods on Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 7:32 AM
"It really put fear into the community," mosque spokeswoman Camie Ayash says. "Our children are heartbroken. When we broke ground a few weeks ago, they could see the new Islamic center as something that was tangible, something that was going to happen. Now someone had so much hatred to rip the joy out of their hearts."
Some of Tennessee's politicians aided and abetted this terrorism. In her congressional campaign, Lou Ann Zelenik did her best to stoke religious bigotry. "We are not obligated to open our society to any of them," she said. Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey criticized the project with his ignorant comment questioning whether freedom of religion even applies to Islam. Mike McWherter sympathized with the protesters.
"I truly understand the concerns of some of these neighborhoods about bringing these kinds of institutions in," McWherter said at a gubernatorial candidate debate. "You just can't drop these into the middle of a very quiet neighborhood and expect the same type of quality of life."
The rest of our state's elected leaders share the blame for what's happened. Not one has spoken out against intolerance during this entire shameful controversy, which has drawn international ridicule to Tennessee. Now is the time for all of them to make amends. They should condemn these acts and denounce those who would deny Muslims a place to meet and pray. We're waiting.
Middle Tennesseans for Religious Freedom is holding a candlelight vigil tonight. Southern Beale is calling on Newt Gingrich to attend. We'd settle for Phil Bredesen, Ron Ramsey, Mike McWherter, and Bill Haslam.
Comments (52)
Showing 1-50 of 52
Agreed. But instead of a vigil, how about forming an organized, round-the-clock watch on the property? That would send a statement about the Murfreesboro community standing up for its values and literally protecting its most vulnerable members.
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Way to go, TNGA Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey...but Ramsey and his teabaggers probably won't be happy until some MUslim family member gets killed at this site.
Domestic religious tyranny...that is what TNGA Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey and his Tennessee Republican Party teabaggers are all about.
I am so ashamed that this is happening in TN. Anyone who has in any way disrespected this place of faith and it's people should be ashamed. It is not Christian nor is it American! Our leader's should be OUTRAGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wrong. Arson and gunfire, based presumably on ideological grounds, are much closer to terrorism than vandalism. They weren't just defacing some bulldozers, they were apparently trying to destroy and intimidate.
It is all about a slow but sure takeover of our country by muslims. Now they have a small taste of terrorism. They average 9 children per family. In 50 years they will be a majority and can do what they want here. Islam is about conquering and nothing else.
Wow twilighteve. First it was the blacks, then the Hispanics, now the Muslims that are "breeding to take over". Same old racist rant, just change the color/religion as needed. Ignorance is by far the most dangerous thing taking over our country at this time.
Really? Terrorism? haha It's called real true blooded Americans taking a stand against a religion and people that have terrorized our country and killed innocent lives. Yeah let's give them permission to start a training camp for their young ones to learn how to kill our own...NOT. I'm not even from TN but can't believe the city much less state would allow such a thing....Oh and if anyone wants to say anything bad about my comment..that's it (my) comment. freedom of speech..that comment was for you (name anonymous) for dying for this country in Iraq so these idiots over here can build the Muslims a sanctuary to boast in...
twilight,
are you serious? you need to do your math all over again. muslims make up .6% of our population. It would take them 300+ years to catch up with us. I have seen this crap before in emails. They assume the white population just stops growing. It won't. You have to factor in the growth rate of whites and not just make it 0% and assume the current white population just stays where it is. Duh!
I don't know Murfreesboro very well, is it possible the gun fire was someone taking target practice in their back yard?
The arson is unexcusable, and while I am sure that is rises above the level of simple vandalism, I am unsure it rises to the level of a hate crime.
eat the rich: vandalism verses terrorism is a false dichotomy. an act can be both. burning equipment sends the messaage, "we can burn the mosque, too"--which may be occupied. it sends the more general message, "we are prepared to break the law to stop this thing."
From dictionary.com:
ter·ror·ism [ter-uh-riz-uhm]
–noun
1.
the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.
It doesn't say anything about the race or religion of the perpetrator or the victim.
no, the word terrorism really does mean something specific. I don't disagree that this is beyond vandalism which can also just be random defacement of property. This was motivated by bigotry and religious hatred surely, but while it may be on a continuum with terrorism, it still falls short of that mark by a considerable margin.
And the point of this quibbling is what? That it's OK to burn the construction site and fire weapons at it? I'm with Woods. What's with the silence from our revered political leaders who stoked the fires that are now literal?
Only the ignorant, and those who use the ignorant to advance their pursuit of power, would be responsible for, or any way excuse, such hateful, un-American behavior.
Eat the Rich: If it causes someone to fear, it IS terrorism. Only the victim can make that call.
Heartbreaking! Hate crimes against any group, because of religion or ethnicity is inexcusable.
How disappointing to me that my home state of Tennessee is allowing this to happen. It makes me question whether I should return there.
There is not one word in the Gospels that would hint Jesus would ever condone such behavior by those who would follow him.
A Christian minister, currently serving in the Midwest.
I don't think this author or the leftist kooks on here even understand what 'terrorism' is. When a radical Muslim extremist saws off someone's head, that's terrorism. This action in Murfreesboro is nothing of the sorts. Hate crime? Perhaps. Terrorism? Ummm, hell no.
There are days, though they are rare, that I am ashamed to be a Tennessean. Today is one of them.
WHO GIVES A FLYING FUCK WHETHER IT WAS TERRORISM YOU BUNCH OF IDIOT SEMANTICS?!
It is a terrible act for which we will once again be mocked mercilessly on the national stage. You half-wits who condone this sort of thing are entitled to your opinion, sure. It doesn't make you any less a piece of shit.
Shameful... good, solid, and patriotic Americans... real smart of us treating these people like dirt...
Amen, burrito. What happened was wrong and, if the folks who did it think they're Christian, they'd better sit down with their Bibles and ask themselves what part of "Do unto others as you'd have done unto you" they think Jesus was just kidding about.
What do you consider the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing of 1963? The assassination of Edgar Mevers?
Imagine a big Baptist church was going to be built on that site in Murfreesboro, and Muslims were protesting it. They'd be told, "Who the hell are you that you think you can tell us we can't build a church any damn place we want to! Go back to your own miserable country, raghead!"
If a fire was then set on the property, there's be so much outrage from the good Christian people that the National Guard would probably have to be brought in.
Religion is so wonderful.
Medgar Evers, but point made.
Buc, if the issue is one of degree, and the concern is that the cultural center will provide training to "terrorists," are you saying that the cultural center's leaders advocate decapitating non-Muslims, and will provide terrorist training to teach Muslims to do that?
Because if that's the threshhold for whether an act is terrorism, then you have set the bar much higher than any mosque opponent has set it before, at least when applying such "logic" to the allegedly hidden agenda of local Muslims.
If you agree that cultural center supporters do NOT want to cut the heads off non-Muslim, which is what by your logic is what constitutes terrorism, then you either are arguing that Muslims are outbreeding "us" (who? Christians? Whites?) and this "fact" must be prevented, which seems to be making the case that you advocate forced sterilization based on religion; OR you just are outright opposed to the existence and practice of a specific religion and want the government to interfere against a specific religion (apparently on the behalf of another religion), which demonstrates that you are either ignorant of the US Constitution, or hold the Constitution in such contempt that you are advocating policies that wholly undermine it.
i've got a lion and I'm going to start feeding him Christians. Is that terrorism? I hope so!! Watch out all of you Christ-bitten retards! I'm coming for you! WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?!?
As a side note, I notice that the City Paper apparently doesn't think this is worth reporting on. Bobby Johnson's face on a mural, sure...
buc nashville:
because I'm a leftist kook, and therefore don't know what "terrorism" is, perhaps you can help me sort through this list: July 2008 Knoxville Church killings (2 dead, 7 wounded);
April 2009 Pittsburgh Police Shooting (3 dead, 2 wounded); May 2009 Murder of George Tiller, Kansas (1 dead); May 2009 Arivaca Arizona Minuteman murders (2 dead, 1 wounded); June 2009 Halocaust Museum Shooting (1 dead); February 2010 Austin IRS plane attack (1 dead, 12 wounded); March 2010 Pentagon Subway shooting (2 wounded); May 2010 West Memphis police shooting (2 dead, 2 wounded).
Now admittedly, all of these acts were committed by white, chrisitan, conservative, american males, and so probably should be classified as good people excercising their second amendment rights against liberals, bureaucrats or people of color. Maybe if muslims had pulled those triggers, terrorism would be involved, eh?
When the term "race riots" was first coined, it meant white people storming black neighborhoods to attack people and destroy property. The Watts riot and other such uprisings in the 1960s changed most people's conception of the word, so that now we usually think of violence by African Americans against white people or districts. We're fast approaching "religion riots" of non-Muslims against Muslims. When the religion riots flip the other way just as race riots did, are we going to call that "terrorism?"
Who are the Muslums to complain about terriorism?????
If you are embarrased to live in Tennessee, move to New York. Maybe you cam be in the next world trade center.
Terrorism is what happens to a Christian in Saudia Arabia.
Our constitution gives everyone the right to believe or not believe any of the many religious tenets available, not just yours. Your spiteful ignorance is the more dangerous thing. You are as dangerous as any terrorist alive with your insistence of superiority merely because you pretend to be a Christian.
I understand we are simply debating semantics, and I'm not condoning the action in Murfreesboro, clearly it was a hate crime. But to call it terrorism minimizes what real terrorism is. That's not fair to the real victims of terrorism, nor the troops that risk their lives to keep terrorism in check.
Hey I'm Catholic, and we have fringe elements in our religion too. They challenge the Pope's authority, say women should be priests, priests should be allowed to marry, yada, yada, yada. But they don't go sawing people's heads off in the name of God. Yes, the Inquistion days of the middle ages notwithstanding, which would be considered terrorism too. We are in modern times. As long as Islam embrasses some of their own factions that use terror to implement their vision of God's will, you can't blame those that wish to protect their own, like what we see in Murfreesboro now, and near the site of the Twin Trade Towers in NY. In my opinion, mainstream Muslims have not done enough to separate themselves from their violent brethren. I'm not denying the constitionality of it all, nor am I denying that Islam is a religion. I'm just saying that we do have a right to protect ourselves by legal means only. Hey, if it was back in the middle ages, I'd say people would have the right to protect themselves from Catholics, and the Spanish Inquistion too.
Who are the Muslums [sic] to complain about terriorism [sic]?
Same as the Christians, the Jews, the Buddhists, the Hindus, the animists, the atheists, and even the agnostics. Members of all these religious (and non-religious) groups have carried out terrorism and atrocities against members of other groups. That doesn't give members of any other group the right to terrorize or commit atrocities against other members of those groups who are not terrorists.. Pot, kettle, black, ya know. Or, if you prefer, mote, beam, eye.
And, in this case, the folks in question are citizens and legal residents of the United States, which is supposed (according to our Constitution and our legal system) to keep them safe from people who don't agree with them about this or that religious belief.
OK, Buc Nashville, I like the way you ignore recent Christian terrorists like Scott Roeder and pretent that Christian terrorism is all in the past. I don't think you've done enough to distance yourself from your violent brethren, and I think anyone who has a Christian church or community center next door ought to be able to make their displeasure known by illegal means like arson, since legal means aren't going to be enough to keep Christians away.
As far as the question, "Why don't our elected leaders speak out?" The answer is quite simply, it would be tantamount to political suicide. Neither or our candidates for Gov can be described as liberal, but please feel free to get Mike McWherter to speak up for the Muslims, not that he won't lose any way.
I tell you what Buc Nashville, when Muslims in this country have the political might to say who can and can not get married, what myths are taught in the SCIENCE classes of public schools, and what methods the medical field can employ to curb or possibly eliminate terminal illnesses, I'll start feeding them to my lion, too.
Listen up, theocratic nitwits: your Pope, your Mormon church, your Zionism, your 77 virgins, your Six Flags Over Jesus are for you and your family, your home and your place of worship. Keep it there and leave the rest of us alone.
We have a saying in my line of work:
Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings.
wvfii...Feed yourself to your own damn lion. Do you have a dungeon too?
Constitution Lover, your logic makes me dizzy. Don't hold the Constitution as some sacred doctrine. Need I remind you that the Constitution once guaranteed us the right to own slaves? It's been modified time and time again as it's quite imperfect. Does the second amendment provide universal sanctuary? Consider this. The Nazis and KKK could have easily aligned themselves as religious organizations, even Christian ones. Heck, their main symbols embodied the Christian cross. So if the Nazis or the KKK wanted to build a huge 'church' in your neighborhood, I'd expect you to grant them the same leeway you grant to Muslims. Least you not forget how many Americans have been killed by Nazis and the KKK.....and Muslims for that matter.
What, you're still not distancing yourself from Scott Roeder? And what about the IRA? I know that plenty of Christians in this country have contributed big dollars to them, and the number of inoffensive civilians they've killed is staggering. You're obviously a terrorist and we don't need to give you a voice in this discussion.
"So if the Nazis or the KKK wanted to build a huge 'church' in your neighborhood, I'd expect you to grant them the same leeway you grant to Muslims"
nice job, Buc Nashville, equating the entire Muslim population to the Nazis and the KKK. You make Jesus and America very proud.
Most KKK members are explicitly Christian, after all. Why hasn't Buc Nashville, an admitted Christian, distanced himself/herself from them? Buc Nashville is a terrorist!
No, Buc Nashville is a Faux-Snooze edy-cated cretin. Anyone who supports hostile acts (of any level of intensity) against anyone else whose religious (or non-religious) beliefs fail to conform to the manufactured gospels of the former is living in the wrong country and worshipping the wrong god.
Less than three generations ago, the KKK terrorized not only Blacks but also Jews and Catholics in my home state of Mississippi. The one thing they have in common with the Nazis is wrapping themselves in a false Christianity to further their own evil ends. Hasn't worked in the past (for very long) -- it sure as hell should not work now (if those of us who love this country and the tolerant and accepting basis for its existance speak up).
My thanks to Jeff for challenging our state leaders (sic) to start acting like Americans. When our next governmental leaders are sworn in, many of them will place their hands on a Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution. If their oaths to their own conceptions of a Higher Power mean anything, they will act like that oath means something. The ones who've already gone through that ritual should remember it also.
Buc Nashville, surely there are some bugs you could be pulling the wings off of this afternoon, instead of demonstrating just how low Tennesseans can go these days who have no concept of what being an American or a Christian really means.
You really stink up this place.
nm...I got your point, there are bad Christians too. Gee who knew?
Small 'd'...I'm not supporting the perpetrators of this act, I'm supporting the Tennesseans whom you, Mr Woods, and the rest of the liberal panty 'wastes' are so fond of ridiculing with terms like 'bigotry', and saying how "ashamed they are of Tennessee", or to be "Tennessean". Move to New York, San Fran, or perhaps even Oregon. Your indignation is based on constitutional idealogy that is flawed at best. Nobody should get universal santuary based on the protection of the second amendment, not even Catholics or other Christians. Jim Jones proved that to us in Guyana in no uncertain terms. You and other liberals are much less likely to have a real dog in this fight. You're not going to allow your children to enlist in the military. Your motto is 'Ask not what you can do for America, but ask what America can do for you." The indignation of the people in Murfreesboro is much more likely to be rooted in real life experience. They much more likely have a relative, classmate, or friend who was killed in conflict...by Muslims acting in the name of God. You can't just ignore the human experience of those that are affected on a much greater level than yourself or Mr Woods.
"They much more likely have a relative, classmate, or friend who was killed in conflict...by Muslims acting in the name of God. "
of course, there are all of those people who were killed ...by George W Bush acting in the name of God. Screw them though, huh? and by the way, I know plenty of people you would no doubt consider "liberals" who have served proudly in the US armed forces. pick a new straw man, dude.
Everyone has a voice in this, not just who you select from your catalog of viable Christian American patriots. You have no idea who is affected on any level and you certainly aren't equipped to judge. You pretend you know better than the authors of the Constitution and even the words of Christ, yet your idiotic, small-minded bigotry is betrayed in every word you write.
No, Buc Nashville, you seem to have missed my point entirely. My point is that you are just as closely related to Christian terrorists as the Muslims in Rutherford County are to Muslim terrorists. And unless you are seriously suggesting that everyone ought to be afraid of you, call you a terrorist, stop you from living freely, prevent you from building or being in their neighborhoods, all the things you are claiming about Muslims generally and the Muslim community in Murfreesboro in particular, you have no business suggesting it about them.
And, just so you know, I lost a member of my congregation who worked in the Towers in the September 11 attacks (others in the congregation of a couple of hundred people worked there but got out mostly unhurt) and my husband lost two colleagues in the planes that day. I'm going to bet that my world has a higher proportion of people in it who were directly touched by terrorism than yours. And military service? My father, father-in-law, and uncles are/were veterans (we've run to girls since then). All the parents of all my friends growing up were so routinely vets that it didn't even get mentioned -- it was just taken for granted. And my father could have told you all about how after he enlisted his fellow American soldiers beat him up for not being a Christian. Don't you dare try to suggest that you are a better American than me and my family. Don't you dare try to suggest that someone who happens not to be identical to you is inferior in love for this country or in service or sacrifice. This kind of rejection of everyone who isn't just the same is what's the trouble in Murfreesboro, it's what was the trouble with my father's fellow-soldiers, and it's your trouble too. You are a disgrace to this country.
