Give Cole's fanatical hatred of Jews & Israel, I am not surprised that he is taking this tone - patriotism & the refuge of scoundrels & all.
This is an instance where I find the knee-jerk reaction of the left to be just the same as the right: "Oppose the mosque & you're a bigot" is the exact equal to "Oppose the war & you're a traitor." Just as there were loyal Americans who had questions about the war, so are there decent Americans who don't want the mosque built just there:
That'd be the same Jeff Jacoby who claimed that, because some of the people who got civil unions in Vermont had previously been married, that civil unions caused the dissolution of 2000 marriages. Somehow this does not fill me with confidence in his ability on other topics.
Juan Cole hates Jews? Are you reading the same Juan Cole I've been reading, or is there something wrong with your self-to-reality interface?
(Well, given that you're citing Jeff Jacoby as an authority, there is something wrong with your self-to-reality interface.)
Besides which, it's not a mosque, for fuck's sake -- it's basically a Y (as in the former YMCA), and it's not at the former WTC site (it's two blocks away, which, in Manhattan distances, might well be on another planet).
Besides which again, the group in question that wants to develop Park 51 owns the site and since when are Americans into telling the lawful owners of property what they may or may not do with that property, excepting compliance to the same rules and regulations as everyone else has to follow, huh?
So ... opposing a war that violates the American ideals of local self-determination and religious freedom is exactly equivalent to opposing a mosque that would reinforce the American ideals of cultural diversity and religious freedom? How odd.
From flaviarassen
This is an instance where I find the knee-jerk reaction of the left to be just the same as the right: "Oppose the mosque & you're a bigot" is the exact equal to "Oppose the war & you're a traitor." Just as there were loyal Americans who had questions about the war, so are there decent Americans who don't want the mosque built just there:
http://www.jeffjacoby.com/7568/a-mosque-at-ground-zero-moderate-muslims-say-no
Re: From flaviarassen
Re: From flaviarassen
(Well, given that you're citing Jeff Jacoby as an authority, there is something wrong with your self-to-reality interface.)
Besides which, it's not a mosque, for fuck's sake -- it's basically a Y (as in the former YMCA), and it's not at the former WTC site (it's two blocks away, which, in Manhattan distances, might well be on another planet).
Besides which again, the group in question that wants to develop Park 51 owns the site and since when are Americans into telling the lawful owners of property what they may or may not do with that property, excepting compliance to the same rules and regulations as everyone else has to follow, huh?
Re: From flaviarassen