I’ve been giving a lot of thought to this whole “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy. Here’s the way I see it. What the Ground Zero imam and his cohorts are trying Tom do is akin to what the Klan does when they hold a march or rally. They are doing something which is offensive in the extreme, marching in the public square typically on some American holiday, screaming about white power, while denigrating blacks, Jews, Catholics, and whomever else is insufficiently like them. I view the Ground Zero Mosque in a similar light. Namely, while I disapprove of what they’re doing, I believe in their right to do it.

But there was something about the analogy which didn’t sit right with me. Namely, when the Ku Klux Klan or the neo Nazis stage a rally, they know they’re being controversial and offensive and they make no bones about it. But the Ground Zero Imam claims to be trying to build a bridge between the Muslim world and the west by building a mosque so close to Ground Zero. Putting aside the evidence that he’s totally disingenuous by calling for Sharia to be practiced in the United States and by seeking financial support from the Muslim Brotherhood, the guy is either an ignoramus or malevolent in insisting upon building the mosque, even after Governor David Patterson offered to give him state land to build his mosque elsewhere. Had he accepted governor Patterson’s offer, we could conclude that he never meant any offense, that he just misunderstood the sensibilities of the citizens of his host country. But he hasn’t, and so we’re left searching for an analogy to his current behavior. And we are to find it with none other than Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson, of course, was accused on multiple occasions of molesting boys who stayed at the Neverland Ranch. The reason for this was that he insisted on inviting these pre-teen boys to sleep in his bed with him, and he was unapologetic about it. His response to those who said that his behavior was abnormal and that it gave the appearance of him being a child molester was simply, “that’s just ignorant.”. The guy literally had no sense that what he was doing was inappropriate or why people would view his behavior with distain. Now Jackson may have been putting on a front, or he may have been sincere, he was simply too weird a guy to tell for sure. But what’s the Ground Zero Imam’s excuse?

He has none. And it’s preposterous for him and those who support him to go on, claiming like Michael Jackson that anyone who questions the wisdom of building the mosque of being ignorant. As with Michael Jackson, these arguments are silly on their face, and should be dismissed out of hand.

Tags: ground zero mosque, Michael Jackson

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 5th, 2010 at 5:10 pm and is filed under News & Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.