Score A Victory For The Constitution Down By The WTC

Defenders of religious freedom and tolerance won a solid victory this week from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The highly controversial debate over whether to allow a mosque to be built on Park Row (two blocks from the World Trade Center site) has been going on for weeks now, and the Commission decided to ignore the bigots who group the terrible attacks of September 11th with the entirety of Islam.

From The NY Daily News:

Board members at the Landmarks Preservation Commission intend to vote unanimously against granting protected status to the 152-year-old building that would be knocked down to make way for the project, the Daily News has learned.

The Italianate building on Park Place, two blocks north of Ground Zero, simply does not meet architectural criteria for protection from the city, sources with knowledge of the issue said.

"The building is not worthy," a source said. "It does not rise to the level of an individual landmark."

The more intolerant among us decided to latch on to the issue of landmarking an old Lower Manhattan building to stop the construction of a mosque....not actually caring for the architectural makeup of an old Park Row facade. People such as Sarah Palin and sadly, the Anti-Defamation League (not so anti and much more defamatory these days, at least in this instance) spoke out against religious tolerance, using ignorance and fear to try and blunt one of the core ideas that our Founding Father fought for.

Good on the Commission for letting this go forward, and voting to keep New York City as a beacon of freedom, not a bulwark against it.

Islam Is A "False Religion"

That is what McCain supporter and key Christian-right ally Rod Parsley said about the one of the world's largest religions in his book. Not only that, but Parsley, a man of the cloth, wants to see the faith destroyed, among with other people that he fears and calls on others to fear the same. When confronted about the details, he doesn't apologize, back down or regret it. This man that is supposed to represent peace is bent on killing billions in order to satisfy his lust for war. Why is this so bad for McCain? Well, this is his spiritual guide, someone that would influence the 'faith' of a potential President of the United States.

From Mother Jones:

Senator John McCain hailed as a spiritual adviser an Ohio megachurch pastor who has called upon Christians to wage a "war" against the "false religion" of Islam with the aim of destroying it.[...]

In a chapter titled "Islam: The Deception of Allah," Parsley warns there is a "war between Islam and Christian civilization." He continues:

I cannot tell you how important it is that we understand the true nature of Islam, that we see it for what it really is. In fact, I will tell you this: I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore.

Parsley is not shy about his desire to obliterate Islam. In Silent No More, he notes—approvingly—that Christopher Columbus shared the same goal: "It was to defeat Islam, among other dreams, that Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492…Columbus dreamed of defeating the armies of Islam with the armies of Europe made mighty by the wealth of the New World. It was this dream that, in part, began America." He urges his readers to realize that a confrontation between Christianity and Islam is unavoidable: "We find now we have no choice. The time has come." And he has bad news: "We may already be losing the battle. As I scan the world, I find that Islam is responsible for more pain, more bloodshed, and more devastation than nearly any other force on earth at this moment."

So Mother Jones begs the question, as do many others I would assume....why would McCain want to be within 10 miles of this nut?

McCain's relationship with Parsley is politically significant. In 2004, Parsley's church was credited with driving Christian fundamentalist voters to the polls for George W. Bush. With Ohio expected to again be a decisive state in the presidential contest, Parsley's World Harvest Church and an affiliated entity called Reformation Ohio, which registers voters, could be important players within this battleground state. Considering that the Ohio Republican Party has been decimated by various political scandals and that a popular Democrat, Ted Strickland, is now the state's governor, McCain and the Republicans will need all the help they can get in the Buckeye State this fall. It's a real question: Can McCain win the presidency without Parsley?

The McCain campaign did not respond to a request for comment regarding Parsley and his anti-Islam writings. Parsley did not return a call seeking comment.

"The last thing I want to be is another screaming voice moving people to extremes and provoking them to folly in the name of patriotism," Parsley writes in Silent No More. Provoking people to holy war is another matter. About that, McCain so far is silent.

So in order to get more votes out of Ohio and other reaches that Parsley influences, McCain will implicitly endorse rhetoric that calls for holy war between Christianity and Islam. How does that differ from the Bush Administration or people close to him that espouse ideas like this?

Well, frankly it doesn't.

The Difference Between Ideology And Religion

Rex Duncan must not be a very intelligent man. As a state representative in Oklahoma, he has a duty to serve all of his constituents, not just the ones that he agrees with in his church. Americans attend services in synagogues, mosques and many other houses of worship. That does not seem to matter much to Duncan and several other representatives who refused copies of the Quran as a gift from the Governor's Ethnic American Advisory Council.

From RawStory:

"Most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology," Rep. Rex Duncan said.

Duncan, a Republican, expressed his feelings Monday in a letter to colleagues. At least 17 legislators have notified the panel they will return the gift.

Marjaneh Seirafi-Pour, chairwoman of the council and a Muslim, denounced Duncan's assessment of Islam.

"I know he referred to Islam as an ideology. That is not a fact. It is a religion. It is very peaceful, very inclusive," Seirafi-Pour said.

It may not be a question of intelligence, but definitely one of ignorance. What Duncan, the other legislators and frankly, many Americans do not get is that there is a difference between religion and ideology. Although religion has its faults (and there are many) there are plenty of ideologies that use religion as a basis for those in charge to get what they want.

Take George Bush and the neo-conservatives for example. They use Christianity to divide Americans from one another so that they can pass discriminatory bills that weaken the essence of democracy in our country.

Going farther back, the leaders of Europe in the dark ages set out on a conquest for more land and power by conjuring armies by using Christianity as a basis for war with the Middle East, resulting in the deaths of many a knight and foot soldier. Not to exclude anyone, but the Caliphates in the early centuries of Islam did the same thing across Asia, Africa and into southwestern Europe.

Religions are often used as an excuse by the powers that be to go to war, but the religions themselves are generally peaceful, no matter what holy book you are reading from.