Before they started trying to block mosques, they tried to block synagogues

[babylonsister]

Before they started trying to block mosques, they tried to block synagogues

August 03, 2010 2:01 pm ET by Adam Shah


The right-wing media's so-far unsuccessful campaign to block an Islamic Center near the World Trade Center site through falsehoods and thinly-veiled religious bigotry is nothing new. But some of the characters have changed.

In the 1950s, the village of Sands Point in Long Island, New York, tried to block the conversion of a property known as The Chimneys to a synagogue. Although New York zoning law at the time clearly required Sands Point to issue a permit to a religious facility, the zoning board refused to allow the conversion, arguing that the plan to use the building for Sunday School, a "men's club," a "sisterhood" "a junior high school age youth group," and a community service center for "Red Cross work" and the like meant that the building would not be used purely for religious reasons.

Happily, the New York Court of Appeals -- New York's highest court -- rejected the town's attempt to block the synagogue in the 1956 case of Community Synagogue v. Bates. The court swept away the specious arguments against the synagogue, just as the New York City Landmarks Preservations Commission just swept away the specious arguments against the mosque.

Importantly, the Court of Appeals back in 1956 -- perhaps sensing that religious discrimination was behind the town's decision to reject the synagogue -- included a paragraph in its unanimous decision strongly reaffirming New York's commitment to religious freedom and noting that people came to the New World thinking "they had terminated the interference of public authorities with free and unhandicapped exercise of religion."

more...

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201008030034

[MineralMan]

1. Hater's gotta hate, it seems.

And who are they going to hate? Anyone who isn't them. And so it goes.

[babylonsister]

2. Exactly. nt

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Right-wingers like the Anti-Defamation League?

We regard freedom of religion as a cornerstone of the American democracy, and that freedom must include the right of all Americans – Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other faiths – to build community centers and houses of worship.

We categorically reject appeals to bigotry on the basis of religion, and condemn those whose opposition to this proposed Islamic Center is a manifestation of such bigotry.

The controversy which has emerged regarding the building of an Islamic Center at this location is counterproductive to the healing process. Therefore, under these unique circumstances, we believe the City of New York would be better served if an alternative location could be found.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. They're wrong.

Being the ADL doesn't make that right.

[mmonk]

15. Yes. By saying it should be moved, they continue the new blood libel

put on people of a particular faith as a result of 9/11.

[LostinVA]

16. Yes

[aquart]

What plane did Jews fly into a building? Let me know.

I'm not buying such a blatant false equivalence.

[babylonsister]

6. So we should just allow an entire group of people to be trashed

based on their religion because a few whackos were so destructive? Wow, and you live in NY, iirc?

Did you know or read this, from an occasionally saner r/wer?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_08/025023.php

COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE, FOOT-SHOOTING BIGOTRY.... I don't often agree with Jeffrey Goldberg, but his observation this morning on the proposed Muslim community center in Manhattan is both insightful and important. (via John Cole)

This seems like such an obvious point, but it is apparently not obvious to the many people who oppose the Cordoba Initiative's planned mosque in lower Manhattan, so let me state it as clearly as possible: The Cordoba Initiative, which is headed by an imam named Feisal Abdul Rauf, is an enemy of al Qaeda, no less than Rudolph Giuliani and the Anti-Defamation League are enemies of al Qaeda. Bin Laden would sooner dispatch a truck bomb to destroy the Cordoba Initiative's proposed community center than he would attack the ADL, for the simple reason that Osama's most dire enemies are Muslims. This is quantitatively true, of course -- al Qaeda and its ideological affiliates have murdered thousands of Muslims -- but it is ideologically true as well: al Qaeda's goal is the purification of Islam (that is to say, its extreme understanding of Islam) and apostates pose more of a threat to Bin Laden's understanding of Islam than do infidels.

I know Feisal Abdul Rauf; I've spoken with him at a public discussion at the 96th street mosque in New York about interfaith cooperation. He represents what Bin Laden fears most: a Muslim who believes that it is possible to remain true to the values of Islam and, at the same time, to be a loyal citizen of a Western, non-Muslim country. Bin Laden wants a clash of civilizations; the opponents of this mosque project are giving him what he wants.

The anti-Muslim bigotry has been painful and offensive, but the counterproductinve idiocy of conservative leaders railing against the Cordoba House has often gone overlooked.

Feisal Abdul Rauf isn't some dangerous extremist for Republicans and Tea Partiers to fear; he's a longtime local imam, active in the Manhattan community, and committed to fighting radicalism. Indeed, he considers it a personal mission. The proposed building is intended to be a monument to tolerance and respect.

For folks like Gingrich, Cheney, Giuliani, et al, Feisal Abdul Rauf is exactly the kind of American ally who should be embraced. Instead, the right is going to genuinely ridiculous lengths to isolate, offend, and ostracize him, signaling their belief that all Muslim Americans should be treated as second-class citizens.

If Osama bin Laden were to write a script for what he'd like to see happen here, it'd be identical to the one Gingrich & Co. are following. This isn't intended to question their patriotism, but rather, their sanity.

—Steve Benen

[Electric Monk]

8. Does it require the use of airplanes to be terrorism?

Keep on moving those goalposts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing

[slampoet]

9. Mossad invented skyjacking. Study your history.

[Electric Monk]

11. Aquart seems to be getting quite specific with their parsing here.

Unless it involves both an airplane AND a building in the same incident, then it doesn't count.

[parkia00]

14. I'm shocked....

but not surprised. Haters hate. It's their religion. It defines them. Without a specific group of people to which they can easily direct their hatred to, life is more difficult. More confusing. They will take some select negative points of the group of people or religion whom they hate and use that as fact to paint them all in the same canvas. Some painters like to paint with only one color. They might think their paintings are masterpieces but most people will think otherwise.

[mmonk]

17. So they flew planes into a building because that is what

people of the Islamic faith do?

[Spazito]

20. Your posts, on this subject, just ooze...

tolerance. :sarcasm: in case it is needed

[Forkboy]

22. Not just this topic.

The other night the poster was upset that there's still Germans alive. Why this bigot is still allowed on DU is a wonder.

[Spazito]

24. Wow, I missed that one...

but, having seen many previous posts by the poster, am not at all surprised. Disgusted but not surprised.

[parkia00]

30. I can't answer that

I have often wondered why some of these Ann Coulter like pit vipers are allowed to remain on DU after constantly spewing racist and bigoted post one after another. If it was any other type of thread in other topics by some freeper troll they would be kicked off so fast their little heads would spin. Yet we cannot often point out their bigotry without anything we say to be deleted because it's considered a personal attack. By even writing this post I run the chance of it being deleted by the mods. Heck this entire thread runs the risk of being canned.

[Forkboy]

21. The other night you were clearly bothered that's there still Germans alive.

Your opinion on anything is worth the same as my cat's turds.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. Actually that is not a false equivalence

and fanatics on all religions are a problem.

The US has had a problem with the other for all it's history, and this is exactly what this is.

Jesus age, there are days.

And yes I am a Jew, and a daughter of the holocaust. Did I just have this same conversation with my mother? Yes indeed.

[MyNameGoesHere]

27. Are you a Likudnik?

Or is there a deeper hatred than just politics?

[aquart]

5. What plane did Jews fly into a building? Let me know.

I'm not buying such a blatant false equivalence.

[rog]

7. "The Muslims" didn't fly any planes into any buildings ...

... any more than "The Jews" are responsible for any number of questionable actions.

Not really a good idea to saddle an entire race, religion, or other group with responsibility for the actions of a small subgroup or government policy, no matter who we're talking about about, don't you agree?

.rog.

[SoxFan]

18. Get a grip

Muslim New Yorkers are no more responsible for the WTC attack than Jewish New Yorkers are responsible for the King David Hotel bombing, or Irish New Yorkers are responsible for Enniskillen, or WASP new Yorkers are responsible for all sorts of nasty shit.

[mmonk]

19. What do you think of the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II?

[Forkboy]

23. We get it...you like Jews and no one else.

[NYC Liberal]

26. What plane did the people building this community center fly into a building?

Let me know.

[Obamanaut]

10. Maybe any and all religious and/or non profit entities should be

disallowed. Why should that prime property by used for something that will be a drain on the city rather than contribute to the tax coffers?

[nilram]

12. k&r

[Scurrilous]

13. K & R

:thumbsup:

[Poll_Blind]

28. Indeed! "Never Again!"...unless it's Muslims, apparently.

Very sad.

PB

[Sebastian Doyle]

29. What they should really do at "Ground Zero"

...is bring in some Native Americans to give the whole site a good smudging, and then build a big sweatlodge there.

After all, who's been fighting the "terraists" longer than anybody?