On this ground, zero tolerance

[didymus]

northjersey.com:

On this ground, zero tolerance

NEW YORK — Richie Mitzner of Fort Lee revved up his motorcycle and headed for Ground Zero on Sunday to proudly declare himself an “American Infidel.”
He was not joking.
As a hot, humid wind blew off New York Harbor, Mitzner joined some 500 others to stir up a rhetorical whirlwind of protest against a proposal to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center near the site of America’s bloodiest terror attack.
Unfortunately, this is what Ground Zero has now become — a scene of protests.

. . . .

“A Mosque at Ground Zero Spits on the Graves of 9/11,” one placard proclaimed. Another sign depicted a toilet, with this message: “This is a Mosque. Do You Want it Built at Ground Zero?”

At one point, a portion of the crowd menacingly surrounded two Egyptian men who were speaking Arabic and were thought to be Muslims.

“Go home,” several shouted from the crowd.
“Get out,” others shouted.

In fact, the two men – Joseph Nassralla and Karam El Masry — were not Muslims at all. They turned out to be Egyptian Coptic Christians who work for a California-based Christian satellite TV station called “The Way.” Both said they had come to protest the mosque.

“I’m a Christian,” Nassralla shouted to the crowd, his eyes bulging and beads of sweat rolling down his face.

But it was no use. The protesters had become so angry at what they thought were Muslims that New York City police officers had to rush in and pull Nassralla and El Masry to safety.

 

[Argh]

That’s really sad, Copts in general have suffered so much already

 

[Peter167]

More sad at the state of racism among the crowd.

 

[Zatzat]

More sad at the state of racism among the crowd.

America should embarassed by the racists in the crowd.

 

[Brooklyn]

I live in Brooklyn not far at all from Ground Zero - we smelled the smoke for sometime after 9/11. I also live in a neighborhood populated by thousands and thousands of Muslims. There are also Jews, both Orthodox and Reform, who live here, and of course we have some who were personally affected by the events of 9/11. We all live together with no incidents at all.

At Ground Zero, you are talking about a burial ground that is sacred to those who lost loved ones on that ground, thousands who were vaporized and pulverized, murdered by fanatic Muslims. The reason these fanatic Muslims murdered almost 3000 people on that day is because of what they believe their religion teaches. I’m not going to get into whether that is actually what Islam is about. The fact is that those 19 men believed it was their religious duty to murder as many Americans as they could.

The people protesting here are not fanatics. They are people who had loved ones torn from them for no good reason. To put a Mosque near this sacred burial ground is pouring hot oil into the wounds of those who lost their loved ones on this ground.

If you can’t see what is going on here, then you have no idea of what compassion and empathy mean.

Unless you were here on 9/11 or lost someone on that day, you have no right to judge these people.

 

[iamrefreshed]

I live in Brooklyn not far at all from Ground Zero - we smelled the smoke for sometime after 9/11. I also live in a neighborhood populated by thousands and thousands of Muslims. There are also Jews, both Orthodox and Reform, who live here, and of course we have some who were personally affected by the events of 9/11. We all live together with no incidents at all.

At Ground Zero, you are talking about a burial ground that is sacred to those who lost loved ones on that ground, thousands who were vaporized and pulverized, murdered by fanatic Muslims. The reason these fanatic Muslims murdered almost 3000 people on that day is because of what they believe their religion teaches. I’m not going to get into whether that is actually what Islam is about. The fact is that those 19 men believed it was their religious duty to murder as many Americans as they could.

The people protesting here are not fanatics. They are people who had loved ones torn from them for no good reason. To put a Mosque near this sacred burial ground is pouring hot oil into the wounds of those who lost their loved ones on this ground.

If you can’t see what is going on here, then you have no idea of what compassion and empathy mean.

Unless you were here on 9/11 or lost someone on that day, you have no right to judge these people.

I was midtown that morning. I watched the second plane hit from my office at One Penn Plaza. I then watched the first tower fall before we had to leave the building.

For anyone to ask for a mosque to be built there is cruel.

 

[Brooklyn]

I was midtown that morning. I watched the second plane hit from my office at One Penn Plaza. I then watched the first tower fall before we had to leave the building.

For anyone to ask for a mosque to be built there is cruel.

Amen.

 

[Zatzat]

Unless you were here on 9/11 or lost someone on that day, you have no right to judge these people.

Oh, so I must personally have been present or have had someone I knew killed in 9/11 in order to judge any angry mob of Americans surrounding brown skinned Christians and screaming at them while they all assumed that those brown skins were Muslims?

I think not.

 

[Zatzat]

I was midtown that morning. I watched the second plane hit from my office at One Penn Plaza. I then watched the first tower fall before we had to leave the building.

For anyone to ask for a mosque to be built there is cruel.

Is Islam not true to the God of Abraham? Do Muslims not worship the one true God? Is Islam not the truth?

 

[Brooklyn]

Oh, so I must personally have been present or have had someone I knew killed in 9/11 in order to judge any angry mob of Americans surrounding brown skinned Christians and screaming at them while they all assumed that those brown skins were Muslims?

I think not.

We have Mosques all over New York City. There is no legitimate reason to build one at Ground Zero. And as I said, Muslims live in total peace with the rest of us here in this city. We are not an “angry” mob and I as a New Yorker and an American am insulted and offended by your comment.

There was no way for those people to know that someone who dressed like a Muslim was not a Muslim. Their thought was no doubt that these were people there to rub salt in their wounds. If you cannot understand why the Americans reacted the way they did at that location, then you have no understanding of anything.

Your comments show a complete lack of empathy.

 

[Zatzat]

We have Mosques all over New York City. There is no legitimate reason to build one at Ground Zero.

Freedom of religion.

As the fundamentalists like to remind us Atheists, that doesn’t mean, ’ freedom from religion.’

 

[EmperorNapoleon]

The people protesting here are not fanatics. They are people who had loved ones torn from them for no good reason. To put a Mosque near this sacred burial ground is pouring hot oil into the wounds of those who lost their loved ones on this ground.

If you can’t see what is going on here, then you have no idea of what compassion and empathy mean.

Many Muslims were murdered in the terrorist attacks on 9/11. They deserve compassion and empathy too and that doesn’t mean a mob of protestors descending upon perceived Muslims like a pack of rabid animals.

 

[Zatzat]

There was no way for those people to know that someone who dressed like a Muslim was not a Muslim. .

How does an American who is a Muslim dress? What does male Muslim attire resemble? Especially considering that those men were Christians.

 

[iamrefreshed]

Is Islam not the truth?

No

 

[iamrefreshed]

Many Muslims were murdered in the terrorist attacks on 9/11. They deserve compassion and empathy too and that doesn’t mean a mob of protestors descending upon perceived Muslims like a pack of rabid animals.

No one here said otherwise. Other than you.

Rabid animals? You are so colorful.

 

[Brooklyn]

How does an American who is a Muslim dress? What does male Muslim attire resemble? Especially considering that those men were Christians.

You need to come to Brooklyn and you would have your questions answered. Some dress in Western garb, but many dress just like they do in Pakistan and their other native countries. There was no way of knowing by looking at these men that they were Christians, and no way of knowing that they weren’t there just to antagonize the crowd.

Your question betrays your ignorance.

 

[Brooklyn]

Many Muslims were murdered in the terrorist attacks on 9/11. They deserve compassion and empathy too and that doesn’t mean a mob of protestors descending upon perceived Muslims like a pack of rabid animals.

I hope you never have to experience anything like 9/11, but if you do, maybe you will learn to be a little more caring.

I am amazed at this thread.

 

[EmperorNapoleon]

I hope you never have to experience anything like 9/11, but if you do, maybe you will learn to be a little more caring.

Don’t you think the families of the Muslim victims deserve compassion and care?

 

[Brooklyn]

Don’t you think the families of the Muslim victims deserve compassion and care?

I don’t remember differentiating between victims of 9/11. You were the one who made that distinction, and it doesn’t work. How do you know there weren’t Muslims in that crowd reacting with non-Muslims?

I believe that anyone and everyone who was affected on that day and the hundreds of other times that terrorists have struck around the world deserve compassion, and I don’t think that includes building Mosques next to where their loved ones died.

 

[iamrefreshed]

I don’t remember differentiating between victims of 9/11. You were the one who made that distinction, and it doesn’t work. How do you know there weren’t Muslims in that crowd reacting with non-Muslims?

I believe that anyone and everyone who was affected on that day and the hundreds of other times that terrorists have struck around the world deserve compassion, and I don’t think that includes building Mosques next to where their loved ones died.

From the article…

“This proposed mosque is an insult to my son,” said Joyce Boland of Ringwood, whose 25-year-old son, Vincent, perished in the North Tower.
“They say they want to teach us and want to be friends to us,” she said of the mosque supporters. “You can’t be friends when you are sticking someone in the eye with a knife.”