Sarah Palin: An Object of Scorn?

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Palin: Ground Zero mosque an "unnecessary provocation"

Although I hadn't heard anything about this proposal before, I'd imagine the goal of the mosque is to encourage interfaith dialogue and the idea that peaceful American Muslims were hurt by the terrorist attacks of 9/11 too. Notice also it's being proposed for two blocks away from Ground Zero using private funds on private property, according to Wikipedia:

This is an example of the kind of thing Sarah Palin has been doing a lot of since the 2008 presidential election; she's been finding events that might fire up right-wingers and calling attention to them. Whether it's mostly cynical political maneuvering or a sincere belief, I am not going to try to figure out, but it stands that many of Palin's supporters do sincerely hold these kinds of views, so let's try to infer what Palin meant (and some of the people opposing the mosque were much more blunt in saying):

• There is an underlying attitude that Muslims, even native-born U.S. citizens, are not really American, that the freedoms Tea Partiers speak of apply only to a certain type of American (namely, white, English-speaking, native-born, Christian); minorities are viewed as being in the U.S. only on the goodwill of these "real" Americans and should passively know their place (thus the phrase "Peace-seeking Muslims," meaning only those who would suppress all aspects of their identity to supplicate the more bigoted segments of the U.S. population).
• There is a projection of collective guilt onto all Muslims because of the acts of terrorists. All Muslims are viewed as something foreign, hostile, and more or less interchangeable with terrorist (some of the activists made this view even more clear than Palin did). There is no care made to establish much nuance between violent extremists and people holding more moderate, tolerant views (again, pleads to "Peace-seeking Muslims" are asking for submission to the culture Palin represents rather than equality and mutual respect and understanding).
• Those who would feel, "it stabs hearts," view the mosque as a demonstration of the 9/11 hijackers' triumph against those killed in the World Trade Center rather than as an act of intercultural/inter-religious communication.

The great thing about the United States is we have freedom of speech, so people like Sarah Palin are free to spout this nonsense; I of course am also free to document how unjust and hypocritical her words are and show that they are what's truly hostile to deeper American values like tolerance, diversity, equality before the law, and freedom of religion.

Insanity. It is private land that they purchased completely legally. They may do what they wish with it, in accordance with NYC zoning laws. As little love as I have for Islam, we still allow basic freedoms to everyone. If they wish to worship their Allah in a location that happens to be near Ground Zero, I see no reason to stop them.

Well, I'm a conservative Christian and Republican voter. And while I do admire Sarah Palin for boldly stating her views, the one criticism of Palin that I have is she's not the strongest representative of party views nor the views of her supposed constituency (other conservative Christians). I have to confess I'm disappointed in that we couldn't do better than McCan't/Failin in the last election--but then a lot of the Obama-maniacs back then are back-pedaling now. What goes around...

But anyway...

I'm not going to say what a religious organization can and can't do in this country. But erecting a mosque on a site that had been destroyed by Moslem terrorists does seem, if nothing else, quite insensitive.

If you had bothered to read, you would realize that the Mosque is being built a couple blocks away. I fail to see the issue.

And what do you say of erecting churches over the ruins of villages destroyed by Christian Conquistadors?

Muslims have freedom of religion as much as anyone else..this is the friggin' USA!! ! What happened to the Constitution and the ideals it embodies? Oh yeah, according to our *last* president, Dubya, it was just a godd**n piece of paper ....this is what comes of attitudes like that. I know nobody is making a LAW about it, but when you disrespect the very foundations of our system like the neocons do, crap like this happens. UGH!

~Kate

This is exactly what I'm talking about. You're equating extremist Muslim terrorists with moderate Muslims who want to build a bridge out to the wider community. These Muslims were harmed as much by 9/11 as any other American. The Muslims who want to build this mosque are not the 9/11 hijackers and are not affiliated with Al-Qaeda or similar groups; their goals are different. They want to integrate into the broader U.S. culture the way we have Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics, and so on.

Exactly. Lumping moderate Muslims who are no more extremist than your next door neighbor who is Jewish or Catholic in with Al Qaeda terrorists is what's truly insensitive.

~Kate

Typical populist politician who seeks to hoard prejudice against people as a basis for a political career. Another Berlusconi.

She also has ties to an alaskan militant separatist group - and she is NUTS!

Well, certainly. I can understand that.

But it vaguely reminds me of an incident that happened in my music classroom once.

I taught at a predominantly black school for 2 years. And sure, I was a little uptight and guarded in my speech because I really wanted to do a good job and actually teach these kids something. So it came about one day I broached the subject of ethnicity in music and I found myself struggling with words. One of my students spoke up and said, "We're black. You can say 'black'." So I laughed about it with the rest of the class and moved on, and it was somewhat a relief. Later on, some days or weeks later, there was some down time in instruction and casual conversation when a different student said, "Aw, it's ok. You can say n*****. We don't care." I explained that I could NOT say that word, in part due to my mother giving me a hard time about it when I was a small child (it was quite common where I grew up to say that) and in part due to what the word means and the insensitivity a white person displays in so casually throwing that word around. The insistence of my student could have meant one of two things: 1. It was a setup designed to paint me as a racist and get me fired, or 2. It was a genuine statement of their acceptance of me as a respected teacher. I tend to think #2 based on the context of the exchange--further, one of my white students was mentally unstable and frequently made racist remarks, though his classmates left him alone about it because they knew he was just trying to get attention. But assuming the friendly intention of my students made no difference. A racial slur is still a racial slur, not something a teacher can really get away with for long. So I chose to avoid it out of respect to my students and their parents.

And that's my whole point. Just because you CAN do something as an allowance of another's goodwill towards you doesn't necessarily mean that you SHOULD. 9/11 still stings for many of us. That is something that these people have to at least consider if they are to build a mosque on or near the WTC grounds. And like I said, far be it from me to tell you what you can and can't do in the name of religion in this country.

Sarah Palin took an oath to serve as governor of Alaska then resigned from that office breaking her promise with the people who elected her. She decided to become a kind of Rush Limbaugh. It seems to me that it's clear she will never be able to run for president and win due to the fact she would likely resign from a Palin Republican White House within a few weeks of being elected to pursue some other endeavor of her choice. Many persons view Sarah Palin as irresponsible/self-serving/a promise-breaker due to her resignation of the governorship in Alaska.

What does it mean to integrate into the broader US culture?
What are the signs that a person has or has not integrated?

I agree with you. Although if I see someone planting an explosive charge on this Mosque I am going to delay called the police at least one hour.

ruveyn

What does "9/11 still stings for many of us," have to do with this mosque, though? The point is the connection you're making is tenuous: It's based on your feeling stung by all Muslims rather than by the subset who embrace a violent, extremist ideology. It's like you're demonstrating the points I made in the original post. "[A]llowance of another's goodwill"? Again, as I wrote in the original post, it's a mistake to believe the construction of this mosque hinges on the "goodwill" of a "host culture"; we're a secular nation, where no religion rules and people can believe what they want—so long as they don't get at each others' throats over it. If the people who want to build the mosque own the property, have the funds, and are complying with zoning laws and building codes indiscriminately applied, there is absolutely no good reason why they shouldn't build this. Unfortunately it was originally intended as cultural outreach, but now conservative demagogues have spun a controversy up, and so unfortunately either way this ends up going it's going to offend someone. It'll offend the right-wingers if it's built because they'll feel "stung" by the mere presence of an Islamic cultural artifact; or they'll concede, and it'll be a loss for American principles of tolerance, liberty, and equality. As far as I'm concerned, the bigots can just feel "stung" all they want; they really don't have a legitimate grievance no matter how worked up they get over it (if they keep feeling "stung," maybe they should venture out and get to know these Muslims and learn more about Islam so that they stop feeling afraid of it).

Wouldn't that make you complicit?

What does it mean for any other religion, culture, or ethnicity who reside within the United States? It means they live here in peace with their neighbors and accept the existence of people unlike them in many regards while nevertheless embracing the common humanity. It doesn't mean completely submerging their identity; it means integrating it into a more complex view of identity that blends their own cultural tradition along with "meta" liberal values that enable different groups to coexist as neighbors, friends, family, and coworkers.

That it still stings apparently has nothing to do with it. Whether it stings or not won't make a difference. But then again, slavery still stings for blacks. I never owned a black slave. I don't owe these people a single THING. But I WILL at least give them the respect any human being deserves and act towards them with an appropriate amount of sensitivity and avoid throwing around racial slurs like my father and grandparents did. Even if they tell me it's ok, there are just some things one ought not do. If you imagine that WTC site is a wound in the American psyche, then this mosque is the salt being poured into it. And these people, Moslems, even if they are peaceful people who even feel wounded by their own, even if they had nothing to do with an act of terrorism, ought to be able to see that doing something like that even THIS soon is NOT the way to send a message of peace to the rest of America.

I mean, come on! Christians are STILL getting a hard time from others over that little Crusades incident. People STILL like to bring up the Inquisition and the Salem Trials. So yeah, we conservative Christians know all too well what it's like to drink our own poison. And it's things like this that really make it difficult for us now. We don't DO those things--our ancestors did. So if we're made the bearers of the penalties for the evils of our past, why shouldn't Moslems expect to be called out on the evils of their present? If they are truly a peaceful religion and people, why aren't the peaceful ones reaching out to those who persist on suicide bombings and other murderous actions in the name of God to bring an end to this? The first step would be to help ensure that the WTC is a memorial to the victims who died there, not a banner of victory to those who committed that horrendous act of violence.