"Ground Zero Mosque" One Way to Fight Back!

[Karenina]

SIMPLY STOP REFERRING TO IT THAT WAY!

This is a suggestion of a small way to take back the language. Just on this site. Just in this forum.

Many DUers are familiar with Chomsky and Lakoff who regularly expound of getting the language and framing right. Once everyone here has adopted the appellation of the RW, the clarifications have the power of a bullhorn against a stack of Marshalls.

What would happen if every subject line reference to the project seen here used the words: Park 51, Cordoba House, Community Center, prayer room and Lower Manhattan or Park Place (to more accurately describe the location). How about "Ground Zero Mosque" ALWAYS contained in quotes with an asterisk and short disclaimer to acknowledge M$M's faulty frame?

Just wondering.

:shrug:

[aquart]

1. How about we find out if they plan to take the religious tax exemption?

If they're tax exempt, THEY'RE A MOSQUE.

[pinboy3niner]

2. It really makes no difference--they have a right to locate there

Do you have a problem with a mosque in lower Manhattan?

[uppityperson]

4. How about you find out, you can call them A New York Mosque. However, many places

have tax exempt status that are not religious places. Fail, again.

[RetroLounge]

8. OMG! A Mosque!!!

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/05/muslims_infiltrate_pentagon

RL

[TreasonousBastard]

9. That's not true at all-- YMCA's have traditionally been tax exempt because...

of their nonprofit and charitable nature, not their religious nature.

(Yes, there have been recent attempts to pull the tax exempt status with some of them because they're essentially opening health clubs competing with commercial ones-- but that's something entirely different than religion.)

[Karenina]

10. It's enough now, Aquart.

Elad designed a wonderful tool to allow each participant on this site to control their exposure to offense. Rabid, unrelenting, bigoted attacks against Muslims offend me and it pains me to watch an otherwise decent person descend so deep into madness. Goodbye, old friend.

[tammywammy]

15. So the YMCA is tax exempt, is it a church? n/t

[uppityperson]

3. Cordoba House works well. I am tired of reading the other

since it isn't at "ground zero" and contains a mosque amongst many other things. Good though.

[marmar]

5. It's funny you posted this just as I was listening to a local TV news anchor.....

....refer to the Mosque ON Ground Zero.


:argh: I'm zapped from the heat and humidity and can't even muster the energy to scream.

[pinboy3niner]

11. I hear you!

I've heard some (even here!) suggest that because the Cordoba Center building was clipped by one of the jets, that makes it 'hallowed ground'.

The wildest contortion of logic was in the suggestion by some that the 9/11 dust--containing ashes of the victims--drifted more than two blocks, and that somehow magically annointed the Cordoba Center site as hallowed ground.

The extreme reach for justifications for opposing the Center has to really make one wonder about the motivations behind that kind of nonsense...

Like you, I'm :argh:

[Karenina]

12. I don't wonder...

;-)

[pinboy3niner]

13. Oh, I hear you, too!

Of course, name-calling is out of bounds here. But I think we're still safe in (carefully) characterizing a position or a line of reasoning (or mis-reasoning). :)

When I did an OP recently on bigotry, there were a lot of unrec's and some opinions that bigotry is in the eye of the beholder. There were also admonitions about broad-brushing.

With bigotry so obviously prevalent these days--with the current targets being gays, Mexicans (including 'terror babies') and Muslims--we're being told that naming it as 'bigotry' is unfair and outrageous. We're granted some leeway in labelling RW bigots, but here we have rules. I happen to like our rules. And, while they may not allow us to call someone a bigot, they don't prevent us from challenging bigoted posts.

:hi:

[Octafish]

6. Excellent suggestion.

Words have power. Cordoba House it is. And if anyone has a problem with it, interesting.

[keep_it_real]

7. "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise,

we don't believe in it at all."
-- Noam Chomsky

Freedom of religion is the LAW in America. If we are against the religions Mosque next to the World Trade Site - what's next? When they come for us, who will speak up?

[SeattleVet]

14. The far right has co-opted the language and the discussion.

Somehow they turned an Islamic Community Center (containing a theater, pool, classrooms, restaurant, and, oh yes, a prayer room) that is a few blocks from 'Ground Zero' into the "Ground Zero Mosque". Not at Ground Zero, and not a mosque. Why are we calling it by the incorrect handle that they have given it?

By having everyone talk about the 'Ground Zero Mosque', they would have everyone believe that there is going to be, you know, a MOSQUE at GROUND ZERO. We have let them get away with defining the terms of the discussion, where there really should be no discussion. It's not a mosque, and it's not at Ground Zero. End of discussion.

By their logic we should be calling every YMCA a 'cathedral' if there is a chapel room.

[Karenina]

16. Why are we calling it by the incorrect handle that they have given it?

No time like the present to stop doing so! :hi:

[TheBigotBasher]

17. With images so simple

even teabaggers and Plainites should understand what it means.



I do accept that the words have the correct spelling so that may make comprehension by teabaggers and Plainites difficult.

[Karenina]

18. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

:rofl::rofl::rofl: