Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

If you have been paying attention to the news lately maybe you have picked up on a story coming out of New York City that has not only locals up in arms, but across the country people are speaking out for and against the subject in question.

All of the hullabalu surrounds a group that wants to build a Muslim Mosque a few blocks from generally excepted as a holy place, Ground Zero. Families of the victims of 9/11 are rightfully upset and politicians on both sides are lining up either for or against it’s being built. Even President Obama has come out in favor of the building, however he later performed what can best be described as a “you didn’t understand what I meant” smoke screen and dance when the Muslim extremist terrorist group Hamas not only agreed with the President but applauded his stance on it.

I attempted to put the entire thing in relation to something that could or has happened here in order to better understand what the real issue was. I think we all agree that a religious group should have the right to build anything they want on property they own. In fact I would dare say that if a group of people got this wound up about a Christian group building a 200 foot statue of Christ, no one would say two words against it. We as a republic are founded on a core set of principals, one of which is the freedom for all peoples to practice the religion of their choice. Neither you, nor I, nor anyone in government has the constitutional right to keep them from doing so.

I also am pretty sure that if a group wanted to erect a giant crucifix in the heart of Mecca there would be a holy war like this world hasn’t seen in thousands of years. We, Christians, are much more tolerant, and yes, there are many practicing Muslims that are as well, however when we are spoon feed the knowledge that those in the Muslim world of the middle east want nothing more than to kill each and ever infidel and to eradicate all other religions certainly it doesn’t make me very sympathetic to the cause.

It is unfortunate this group hasn’t stepped up and decided to move the location of the mosque, because in a way it’s like putting up a Go-Go bar in a residential district next to a school. Certainly they have the right to erect it, even in the shadow of the World Trade Center site, however they missed the mark of spreading the love and compassion that should be the basis of the Muslim teachings, and if nothing else their actions can be labeled tactless and uncompassionate, even if that wasn’t it’s intended purpose.

See you next week…remember, we’re all in this together.