There are people all over this country who believe that President Obama shares the same views as them. People are on both sides of the debate of putting a Mosque in lower Manhattan. On one hand, President Obama said in a dinner at the white house celebrating the beginning of Ramadan “ Over the course of our history, religion has flourished within our borders precisely because Americans have had the right to worship as they choose, including the right to believe in no religion at all. And it is a testament to the wisdom of our founders that America remains deeply religious. A nation where the ability of peoples of different faiths to coexist peacefully and with mutual respect for one another stands in stark contrast to the religious conflict that persists elsewhere around the globe.” Various people that attended the dinner said that the feel in the room was that president Obama had expressed his personal opinion on the matter and he was throwing his support to the building of the mosque. The very next day though, President Obama made a point to say that he was not expressing an opinion on the situation just pointing out the fact that our country thrives on a freedom of religion.
Senator John McCain took an entirely different approach than President Obama. He said “I oppose the planned location of a mosque in close proximity to Ground Zero, the concerns of the 9/11 victims’ families and the citizens of New York City should be respected.” In my research I came across a different situation that could describe another opinion of Americans all over the country. Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer compared construction of an Islamic center near ground zero to when Pope John Paul II prevented a group of nuns from opening a convent near the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp. “He was in no way devaluing their heartfelt mission to pray for the souls of the dead. He was teaching them a lesson in respect: This is not your place; it belongs to others however pure your voice, better to let silence reign.” The United Stated is such a diverse nation that it would be impossible to cover every angle of what people are feeling towards the NY mosque.
In reading up on this issue I couldn’t help but notice the similarities in this situation to other situations that have happened in the past as well as are happening right now. The first one that comes to mind is the Supreme Court ruling on the Westboro Baptist Church. Every person in America who follows the news despises these people for what they are doing and saying about soldiers as well as the other hateful things they say towards different groups of people across the country. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are a religion and the constitution does explicitly protect them under the first amendment, just like the building of a mosque. Other times in history that this has happened are like at Pearl Harbor with a Shinto Shrine only 1,000 feet from a Pearl Harbor site. This situation shows the same time frame as the situation our country is in now. The Shrine being built took place only ten years from when the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor devastated the entire nation and led to the U.S. involvement in WWII. Only ten years has passed since the attacks on 9/11. The proposed mosque is definitely causing the same amount of upset as before. This next one isn’t an actual situation that took place just an analogy that was said on the FOX network TV show “Fox and Friends.” Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, said “Building the mosque near Ground Zero is like putting a Nazi sign near the Holocaust Museum.” This analogy is very extreme and so far off it’s ridiculous. He has compared innocent Americans of the Muslim religion to being the equivalent of Nazis who heartlessly murdered thousands of people.
Throughout the course of events President Obama has tried to stay non opinionated on the issue of the mosque because it is not a federal issue it is an issue that pertains only to the state of New York.
Senator John McCain took an entirely different approach than President Obama. He said “I oppose the planned location of a mosque in close proximity to Ground Zero, the concerns of the 9/11 victims’ families and the citizens of New York City should be respected.” In my research I came across a different situation that could describe another opinion of Americans all over the country. Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer compared construction of an Islamic center near ground zero to when Pope John Paul II prevented a group of nuns from opening a convent near the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp. “He was in no way devaluing their heartfelt mission to pray for the souls of the dead. He was teaching them a lesson in respect: This is not your place; it belongs to others however pure your voice, better to let silence reign.” The United Stated is such a diverse nation that it would be impossible to cover every angle of what people are feeling towards the NY mosque.
In reading up on this issue I couldn’t help but notice the similarities in this situation to other situations that have happened in the past as well as are happening right now. The first one that comes to mind is the Supreme Court ruling on the Westboro Baptist Church. Every person in America who follows the news despises these people for what they are doing and saying about soldiers as well as the other hateful things they say towards different groups of people across the country. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are a religion and the constitution does explicitly protect them under the first amendment, just like the building of a mosque. Other times in history that this has happened are like at Pearl Harbor with a Shinto Shrine only 1,000 feet from a Pearl Harbor site. This situation shows the same time frame as the situation our country is in now. The Shrine being built took place only ten years from when the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor devastated the entire nation and led to the U.S. involvement in WWII. Only ten years has passed since the attacks on 9/11. The proposed mosque is definitely causing the same amount of upset as before. This next one isn’t an actual situation that took place just an analogy that was said on the FOX network TV show “Fox and Friends.” Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, said “Building the mosque near Ground Zero is like putting a Nazi sign near the Holocaust Museum.” This analogy is very extreme and so far off it’s ridiculous. He has compared innocent Americans of the Muslim religion to being the equivalent of Nazis who heartlessly murdered thousands of people.
Throughout the course of events President Obama has tried to stay non opinionated on the issue of the mosque because it is not a federal issue it is an issue that pertains only to the state of New York.
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