I'm just going to refer back to my earlier post/posts in this thread: those who think this "mosque" (inverted commas intentional) is a bad idea go back and look.
I will reiterate again, Al Qaeda; most of whom are Wahhabi muslims, attacked America. The Sufi American muslims who wish to build a center 2 blocks away from ground Zero did not attack America.
Al Qaeda attacked America - Islam did not.
An interesting thing has happened in this conversation however, it has ceased more or less to be a discussion on "the mosque" (as most of the arguments against said "mosque" are ridiculous and based in ignorance or hypocrisy) and turned into some kind of broad attack in Islam or the United States (take your pick).
Both are foolish - The United states for all its flaws has much that is admirable.
Islam is a religion of 1.2 billion followers. If people want to make broad and largely ignorant sweeping statements belittling a 1400 year old faith then go ahead, live in ignorance and intolerance and i guess Bin Laden will get his wish of a "clash of civilizations" - The war on terror has to be fought with ideas, intellect and examples to follow - So far, only one side seems to have been fighting the "war" with their heads and with ideas, and it isnt ours.
As i already said earlier - finger pointing at other's intolerance as a means to justify your own is weak. Why use someone else's stupidity as the standard by which you set your own behavior, why not be better than that?
To use a fictional example: I watched Ridley Scotts "Kingdom of Heaven" the other night. The Balian character says to Salah Al-Din (Saladin) something along the lines of:
Balian: "The Christians butchered and murdered all the Muslims when they took this city until the streets ran red with blood."
Salah Al-Din: "I am not those men."
So Muslim crazies call for people to be be beheaded, that justifies the same ignorance by others? Is it now OK to condemn the "whole" for the actions of a few? Why do we not condemn all of Christianity for the actions of Christians? Those who murder in the name of christ, those who abuse their positions of power within churches and abuse children, those who blow up abortion clinics somehow believing that the "prince of peace" would ever condone violence in his name.
The hypocrisy here is obvious, its evident and in plain view. And wake up so called "nations of the free world"... there is a guy in a cave in Pakistan, who has so far played this whole thing a hell of a lot smarter than we have; who see's it too. The Taliban let out last week that this mosque issue has been a recruiting gold mine...
Wanna be better than them? Then be better than them.