[MD] Theocracy, Secularism, and Democracy

[David Thomas]

Hi Horse,
>   Hi David
> 
> On 19/08/2010 13:13, David Thomas wrote:
>> Hi Horse
>>>    Do I detect a note of sarcasm Mr Thomas?
>> Are you psychic this morning (or whatever it is there) or what?
> 
> It's just about afternoon here in sunny Blighty and I'm afraid my pschic
> abilities don't kick in properly until the evening after a beer or a
> spliff. However, being of the same stock as Sherlock Holmes I do possess
> uncanny detective abilities!! So it was elementary my dear boy! :)

Here it's about 8:15 am and I have just finished my third cuppa coffee and
the sun is now just clear of the tree line on the far side of the lake. Oh
life is such a bitch.
 
> However, I was just wondering why, in a country that, apparently, prides
> itself on a constitutional right to freedom of religion, and the
> practice thereof, there should be so much opposition to establishing a
> mosque in close proximity to the 9/11 site. I could understand it if it
> was an Al Qaeda recruitment centre but it appears to be no more than
> what it is. A place of religious worship. Can't stand these places
> personally, be they Islamic, Christian, Jewish or whatever as places of
> religion - they're sometimes OK in architectural/artistic terms but
> that's about it.
> And a mosque is for the use of Moslem folk to come to worship in a
> similar way that Christians and Jews have their places to worship. Would
> the same people who object to this mosque object to a Japanese cultural
> centre in Hawaii, a German travel agency in Israel or a church in
> Jerusalem? Or perhaps the Catholic church should dismantle and recycle
> their churches where there have been practising paedophile priests
> (although that would probably leave very few Catholic churches standing).
> It seems to me that there is a degree of hypocrisy on display here in
> the way your fellow Americans view and treat the Islamic faith when
> compared to the way you treat the Christian and Jewish faiths. The vast
> majority of Moslems had nothing to do with 9/11 and so, in fairness,
> should not be penalised for the way in which a very few Moslems
> belonging to Al Qaeda have behaved. That just seems reasonable to me.

 
So it [is] elementary my dear boy!.......... Politics.

At its nastiest and most divisive. With mid-term national and local
elections coming in 3 months every and any item that can be used drive a
wedge between people is ground continuously until its dust. The merits of
the project in New York have nothing to do with anything other than this.

This continuing and increasing trend may indeed be our downfall as a nation.

Dave