They're building a Mosque in my neighborhood

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The fact is that religions all have their nasty bits, Catholicism included, but this is not a reason to go on the warpath against a house of worship.

9/11 was a horrible day. But no more horrible than the American government consistent actions in the Middle East. (Because, let’s remember, this isn’t just about people who follow Islam. It’s people from different cultures who have different skin colors and originate from other countries. It’s a bit more complex than “people who go to mosques”).
 
Windmill said:
Interesting, Sam.

Let me clarify my original post: I wouldn’t be afraid of the mosque being in my neighborhood. I am concerned, as a faithful Catholic, about sharing the fullness of truth with others, including Muslims. We should not presume on anyone’s damnation, but neither should we presume on their salvation. This includes Muslims.

As stated above,** it is an opportunity**.
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I couldn’t agree with you more 👍 And I agree that I don’t think the presence of a Mosque would bring down the “value” of a neighborhood or invite gangs/drugs/etc. I guess if it happened to me, I’d probably be more likely to pray for Muslims, having the mosque as a constant reminder to pray 🙂 But I still don’t like seeing the spread of Islam and its murderous teachings :nope:
 
A mosque was built 1 block behind my old parish church.
Other then the annoying “calls to prayer” (very loud!), I never paid any attention.
Then, after a 7/4 fireworks display, I was walking home with friends and attempted to cross their parking lot. All of a sudden, 4 or 5 men appeared and yelled to us to get off their property. We were told (loudly) that we were not permitted to set foot on their mosque grounds.
Keep in mind, we were all middle aged plus people - not kids.
That incident left a very sour taste in my mouth.
 
ktp said:
Is this level of sarcasm really necessary on Catholic boards? 😦

The fact is… I stress the word FACT… neither the Irish Catholics of a century ago, nor any ‘extremist Christians,’ nor any Protestants that I know of go around killing 3,000 people in a day or preaching that we should kill those who don’t accept our religion, nor practice terrorism in any way.

Executing people for heresy?? It’s been at least 500 years. Terrorism is going on NOW. It is wonderful to see so many do not live in fear, but I think it’s wrong to ridicule someone who, looking at what has come out of Islam, DOES have some concerns.
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We Irish people didn’t kill 3000 people a day, but we were treated terribly, no Irish need apply, the Irish Catholic scourge… we have to many kids and bleed the welfare system dry, we’re filthy, dirty, and stupid. That’s how we were treated, and that’s what people of the Muslim faith are treated to everyday, except change it to violent, corrupt terrorists.

It’s human nature to be suspect of different situations, but it certainly isn’t Christian to say that you don’t want a certain population because of their faith/race/beliefs/

Change mosque to temple. Change Muslim to Chinese. Does that make either ok? No, it doesn’t.

Not every Irish person who crossed Ellis Island was a stupid dirty poor schmuck with no hopes of ever rising out of poverty. Certainly not every Muslim is learning how to fly planes for nefarious reasons.
 
OldAgeGuru said:
We Irish people didn’t kill 3000 people a day, but we were treated terribly, no Irish need apply, the Irish Catholic scourge… we have to many kids and bleed the welfare system dry, we’re filthy, dirty, and stupid. That’s how we were treated, and that’s what people of the Muslim faith are treated to everyday, except change it to violent, corrupt terrorists.

It’s human nature to be suspect of different situations, but it certainly isn’t Christian to say that you don’t want a certain population because of their faith/race/beliefs/

Change mosque to temple. Change Muslim to Chinese. Does that make either ok? No, it doesn’t.

Not every Irish person who crossed Ellis Island was a stupid dirty poor schmuck with no hopes of ever rising out of poverty. Certainly not every Muslim is learning how to fly planes for nefarious reasons.
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First of all as an Irish American, Im insulted that you are comparing my ethnic history in the USA with today’s experience of American Muslims.

Talk about Apples and Oranges!

If it were a Chinese Temple (never heard of one) I would not even think twice.

Because I have a memory of history and Im not blinded by suicidal thoughts of political correctness.

Its people like you who put this country at risk. We don’t want to offend any particular group, or be politically incorrect, so we’ll pretend evryone is the same. Let’s forget about the fact that it was all Muslim men that attacked America on 9-11. Heck, let’s just put that behind us because someone might be upset if we mention it.

We Americans should be applauded by the Muslim world for the tremendous amount of restraint following 9-11. And for the continual freedoms that they enjoy.
 
Here are some resources from the show I mentioned earlier.

avemariaradio.net/display_search.php?id=1060&type=2006

And here’s another news article about the disturbing sermons at the mosques: channel4.com/news/dispatches/article.jsp?id=1066

Catsrus, thanks for sharing your experience. We can all sit back and speculate on how we would feel with a mosque in our backyard, but it’s quite a different thing to be accosted in theneighborhood mosque’s parking lot :eek: Can you even imagine something like that happening in a Catholic Church parking lot?
 
Respect for the Bl. Mother is something we have in common with Moslems ; it could serve as an occasion to be able to intercede for them in a special way - that they get to have the fulness of the truth of her role and love in their lives ; the use of the gift from her that come with the special promise of conversion - yes , the Green scapular ; if the mosque is still only in the building stage, hopefully no one will scare you off there yet !
 
Franciscan said:
First of all as an Irish American, Im insulted that you are comparing my ethnic history in the USA with today’s experience of American Muslims.

Talk about Apples and Oranges!

If it were a Chinese Temple (never heard of one) I would not even think twice.

Because I have a memory of history and Im not blinded by suicidal thoughts of political correctness.

Its people like you who put this country at risk. We don’t want to offend any particular group, or be politically incorrect, so we’ll pretend evryone is the same. Let’s forget about the fact that it was all Muslim men that attacked America on 9-11. Heck, let’s just put that behind us because someone might be upset if we mention it.

We Americans should be applauded by the Muslim world for the tremendous amount of restraint following 9-11. And for the continual freedoms that they enjoy.
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You know what, I call a spade a spade. Racism is racism…

I don’t put the country at risk, and frankly I’m pretty insulted by that particular insinuation. I’m not blinded by political correctness, I was just brought up to realize that not everyone has the same beliefs, skin color, political identity, or language as me. I was taught that little thing that Jesus talked about… you know that whole Love your neighbor thing? Or was I mistaught? Was it love your neighbor as you love yourself so long as he subscribes to the same religion as you?

We’re so quick on this board to discuss thoughtful prayer to change peoples minds, to show them what Catholic and Christian behavior is, but then a topic like this pops up, and an awful lot of people say things like it’s time to move, or BE AFRAID BE VERY AFRAID. The likelihood of these people strapping C4 to their chests and detonating in front of the church across the street, or snatching up your children to convert them or even start a campaign of fear and terror is so minimal it’s ludicrous. I mean, their Muslims, human beings, carbon based life forms, who have thoughts, feelings, families, and worship the SAME GOD WE DO! They aren’t even the scary kind of Muslims like Louis Farakhan who go around teaching about how us white folks just want to do the black folks in. They just want to go in, and say their prayers and worship how they see fit.

And to add to that point, look at it in reverse. Say your a Muslim and a Catholic church is being built in your neighborhood, are you afraid that the Nuns and priests and God fearing Parishoners are going to go around and terrorize your neighborhood, or would you try to accept that America is a melting pot and that everyone has a right to worship who they please whether it’s Odin, God, Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, or no one at all?

And sure it was all “Muslim” men who attacked us, but we haven’t been particularly good at routing them out have we? Let’s see a war in Afghanistan that’s all but forgotton, and we just had to go into Iraq, even though almost all of the terrorists were citizens of our beloved allies the Saudis. But hey, I’m the one one who’s a threat to this country.

And honey I’ve got red hair, freckles, an Irish first and last name, been to the country multiple times, read Irish news papers, and speak Gaelic, so not only am I Irish, I know a little something too about Irish history,
 
OldAgeGuru said:
You know what, I call a spade a spade. Racism is racism…

I don’t put the country at risk, and frankly I’m pretty insulted by that particular insinuation. I’m not blinded by political correctness, I was just brought up to realize that not everyone has the same beliefs, skin color, political identity, or language as me. I was taught that little thing that Jesus talked about… you know that whole Love your neighbor thing? Or was I mistaught? Was it love your neighbor as you love yourself so long as he subscribes to the same religion as you?

We’re so quick on this board to discuss thoughtful prayer to change peoples minds, to show them what Catholic and Christian behavior is, but then a topic like this pops up, and an awful lot of people say things like it’s time to move, or BE AFRAID BE VERY AFRAID. The likelihood of these people strapping C4 to their chests and detonating in front of the church across the street, or snatching up your children to convert them or even start a campaign of fear and terror is so minimal it’s ludicrous. I mean, their Muslims, human beings, carbon based life forms, who have thoughts, feelings, families, and worship the SAME GOD WE DO! They aren’t even the scary kind of Muslims like Louis Farakhan who go around teaching about how us white folks just want to do the black folks in. They just want to go in, and say their prayers and worship how they see fit.

And to add to that point, look at it in reverse. Say your a Muslim and a Catholic church is being built in your neighborhood, are you afraid that the Nuns and priests and God fearing Parishoners are going to go around and terrorize your neighborhood, or would you try to accept that America is a melting pot and that everyone has a right to worship who they please whether it’s Odin, God, Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, or no one at all?

And sure it was all “Muslim” men who attacked us, but we haven’t been particularly good at routing them out have we? Let’s see a war in Afghanistan that’s all but forgotton, and we just had to go into Iraq, even though almost all of the terrorists were citizens of our beloved allies the Saudis. But hey, I’m the one one who’s a threat to this country.

And honey I’ve got red hair, freckles, an Irish first and last name, been to the country multiple times, read Irish news papers, and speak Gaelic, so not only am I Irish, I know a little something too about Irish history,
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:bowdown: You just made my day. 🙂
 
Thanks sing I guess you and I can go hang out at our lonesome table for two at the hot new restaurant calle Naive.

Perhaps it’s because I live in a big city, and I’m exposed to all kinds of people, but a mosque just wouldn’t bother me. I’d be more concerned over the neighbor you never see who always seemed so quiet shy and polite, but has a stack of bodies in his basement freezer.
 
I live near a couple of Islamic Centers. I don’t know that they are considered Mosques, formally, but signifigant numbers of people gather on certain days of the week. I would be concerned about a spike in traffic at those times. The streets can get kinda clogged when there are so many autos coming in and out of a place.
 
Chicago that is by far and away the MOST valid concern posted here. in my opinion.
 
It’s interesting to me, how a religion evolves or devolves, or does neither based on how people interpret it.

Muslims back in the day, were pretty peaceful and tolerant in Spain. They encouraged learning, they didn’t really give a rats patoot what you worshipped, pay your taxes and your fine. It wasn’t til us Catholics took over that things got a little nasty there with the Inquisition and the killing of Muslims, Jews, and "heretics’, and the motives were hardly keeping the Catholic faith protected, it was more about raising money to fund explorations of the new lands being discovered to garner more wealth and power and far less about converting the natives, though I am sure there were plenty of individuals who took the long boat ride over with the best of intentions.

Only a few hundred years ago Christians and Catholics were picking fights with each other, and against other religions for a host of reasons. Now for the most part we’re a pretty peaceful group.
 
OldAgeGuru said:
It’s interesting to me, how a religion evolves or devolves, or does neither based on how people interpret it.

Muslims back in the day, were pretty peaceful and tolerant in Spain. They encouraged learning, they didn’t really give a rats patoot what you worshipped, pay your taxes and your fine. It wasn’t til us Catholics took over that things got a little nasty there with the Inquisition and the killing of Muslims, Jews, and "heretics’, and the motives were hardly keeping the Catholic faith protected, it was more about raising money to fund explorations of the new lands being discovered to garner more wealth and power and far less about converting the natives, though I am sure there were plenty of individuals who took the long boat ride over with the best of intentions.

Only a few hundred years ago Christians and Catholics were picking fights with each other, and against other religions for a host of reasons. Now for the most part we’re a pretty peaceful group.
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Of course, there are Catholics who sincerely wish to go back to those times.
 
Well, to be fair, I have a list of people I’d like burned at the stake: a few politicians. one of my high school math teachers,child molesters, rapists, animal abusers but overall the list is heavily populated with ex boyfriends. But I’ll take them getting a papercut and then having to cut lemons… or stubbing their toe on a regular basis. It’s a little less gruesome.
 
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