Arson At Mosque Site In Tennessee

The silly (and unconstitutional) opposition to the building of a muslim community center in New York City has been hogging the headlines for the last couple of weeks. But it is far from the only religious intolerance happening in the United States. It seems that right-wing "christians" have decided that an American citizen cannot be a good patriotic American unless he/she is a christian.

Of course, this is a stupid and un-American idea. Religious freedom and tolerance are as old as this country and are even included in the Constitution. But even though right-wingers claim to believe in the Constitution, it is obvious that they only believe in parts of it. Other parts, like religious freedom and birthright citizenship and equal rights, are not too popular with the teabagging right.

One of the many places that is upfront about their intolerance and religious hatred is Murfreesboro, Tennessee. I'm sure there must be many good people in that city, but the racists and religious bigots have been getting all the headlines there. They are upset because the muslim community in Murfreesboro wants to build a new mosque in the city.

Now these muslims are not new to the city, and in fact, have had a mosque in the city for over 30 years now. But the muslim community has outgrown the old mosque and want to build a bigger mosque. But Tennessee right-wingers are acting like they have been suddenly invaded by a muslim army. One anti-mosque citizen said, "They are not a religion. They are a political, militaristic group." Sadly, he doesn't see that he is acting in more of a political and militaristic way than any of the Tennessee muslims.

Saleh Sbenaty, a member of the muslim building committee (and engineering professor at Middle Tennessee State University), said, "We unfortunately did not experience hostilities for the 30 years we've been here and have only seen the hostility since approval of the site plan for the new center." Well, the hostility may be new but it has been vicious. There have been demonstrations, graffiti and vandalism.

Now it has gotten even worse. It has graduated to arson. A couple of nights ago a person (or persons) went to the site of the new mosque and set some of the construction equipment on fire. The fire was noticed and reported by a passer-by.

Rutherford County Sheriff Ben Goodwin confirmed that the fire has been ruled as arson. The right-wing haters will probably disavow having anything to do with the fire. I don't believe it. Anyone with half a brain can see this is a direct result of the right-wing hatred for muslim Americans that has been so vocal in the past few weeks.

I don't doubt that the people who did this consider themselves to be patriotic christian heroes. I think they're racist trash, and I hope they are caught and severely punished. Arson is a serious crime.

Has al-Queda won? Have they caused us to be as sick and vicious as they are? It is time for decent folks of all religions (and those with no religion) to step up and reclaim this country. We can't let the racists and haters take over and turn this country into a theocratic police state or a lawless place governed by mob-rule.

Preacher Says Church Will Break The Law

As anyone who regularly reads this blog knows, I am not a religious person. But I was raised in the christian religion and got my B.S. degree from a christian school (Texas Wesleyan University), so I'm not unfamiliar with the religion's teachings. I was always taught that Jesus preached peace and love, and if fact, his only commandments were to love god and love your neighbor as yourself (and all other rules were courtesy of Paul, who never actually met Jesus).

But there is a christian church in Gainesville (Florida) that doesn't seem to be interested in the teachings of Jesus -- Dove World Church (pictured above). Instead of preaching a gospel of love the minister of this church, Terry Jones, is far more interested in preaching hatred and intolerance. He has written a book titled Islam Is Of The Devil, and has even put a sign saying that outside the church.

Now he has decided that the "christian" thing to do is to have a public burning of a bunch of Qurans (the holy book of islam) on September 11th. He wants to blame the religion of over a billion people for the actions of a few fanatics. And it seems this is just fine with the members of this church. I guess the only neighbors they want to love are those who agree with their own religious views (funny, but I don't remember Jesus making that distinction).

That would be bad enough, but now the preacher and his church wants to take this campaign of hatred even further. They say they are going to break the law to spread their vile message.

It seems that the plan for a big book burning (a contemptible action no matter what book is being burned) is against the law in Gainesville. The preacher asked the city to contravene that law and give the church a book-burning permit anyway. The city refused, and Fire Chief Gene Prince says the "church will be fined if it holds the book burning."

Now for a reasonable person that would be the end of this silliness, but Jones (and evidently his followers) are not reasonable people. The church sent out an e-mail last Wednesday saying, "City of Gainesville denies burn permit - BUT WE WILL STILL BURN KORANS." In other words, the church not only ignores the teachings of Jesus but also the laws of their own community.

Now don't get me wrong. We live in a country with free speech rights and those rights do include hate speech (as vile and unpleasant as it is). The preacher and the church do have the right to try and spread their hatred through both the spoken and printed word -- and decent people have the right to oppose them thanks to those same free speech rights. What they do not have the right to do is break the law, and if they do so I hope the city will follow through with a heavy fine.

I'm sure if they are fined this preacher and his followers will loudly whine that they are being denied their religious freedom. It isn't true. No one is denying them the ability to worship as they please (and don't even try to tell me book-burning is a form of worship). The law against open burnings does not single them or their religion out. It would apply to people of any religion, and even to those of us without religion.

How do these spewers of hate dare to call themselves followers of Jesus?

Kathy Griffin Brings Out TV Academy's Bias/Fear

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences gave away part of this year's Emmy Awards last weekend. Winning her first Emmy Award was edgy comedian Kathy Griffin, for her TV show My Life on the D-List. As she is known to do, Griffin told the truth as she accepted her award.

Obviously the Academy was not ready to deal with the truth, and along with the E! network, they have said they would censor Griffin's acceptance speech before it is shown on television. You may be thinking that she must have said one or more of television's seven forbidden dirty words. Not true.

You have probably heard christians thank Jesus when they win something, even though they really won it through talent and hard work. If there is a God, I seriously doubt that he/she cares who wins an award, game, race, etc. To claim you won because of God/Jesus is to say God/Jesus preferred you over the people who lost. That's pretty presumptious to claim to be God's favorite (which is really what you are saying).

But instead of playing that silly game, Kathy Griffin decided to make fun of it. She said that "a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus." She went on to proclaim, "This award is my god now."

I thought her remaks were funny and very true. She didn't win the award because God/Jesus preferred her over the others. Her show got the award because of some very talented performers, writers, producers, directors, cameramen, soundmen, etc.

But some so-called christians didn't see the humor in this little bit of truth. Religious bigot and Catholic League president Bill Donohue was quick to call her words a "vulgar, in-your-face-brand of hate speech". I would think he should know how to recognize hate speech by now, since he indulges in it so often. But evidently his version of hate speech is when someone disagrees with him.

The TV Academy shares Donohue's religious bigotry. Either that, or they are so afraid to offend right-wing christians that they quickly knuckled under and threw free speech out the window.

There is nothing wrong with Griffin's remarks. If christians are free to spout their religious beliefs on TV, then those with differing beliefs should also be free to give their own opinion. Isn't that what free speech is all about?

It's easy to allow speech that you agree with, but if you truly believe in free speech, you must also allow speech that you don't agree with. If you are never offended by speech, then you don't live in a free country.

Censoring Griffin's acceptance speech is just wrong.