Okay, so the “big news” going on locally (and by locally, I mean like a mile down from my house) is that an old rundown movie theater has been bought by the Islamic Center of Tennessee. They plan on making the spot an Islamic Community Center with a mosque, classrooms, meeting facilities and a possible cemetery among other things. 'So what? How is this big news?' is what some people might say. However since this happened, there has been major outrage and opposition with very intolerant and ignorant reasons for opposition, nasty comments being thrown around, and petitions being signed. I won't say what some have said, but it is very saddening to see how fearful, hateful and intolerant people can be of others who are different than they are.
What these people don't think about is how GOOD an Islamic center would be for the community. Where I live right now has become quite run down and more and more people are leaving and businesses are shutting down. There is also a large immigrant population here which is largely Muslim. Rather than have a lot of these young Muslim kids on the streets, possibly causing trouble and joining gangs (which I can so seeing happening here), wouldn't it be better that they spend time at the center where they will be doing GOOD things like charity work, studying, playing sports, learning in the classrooms, etc.? In the past 6 months, the Islamic Center has tried to open three centers around the Nashville area, and only one (in Murfreesboro, about 25 miles from me) has even been successful in buying the land and going forward with a proposal and design. Not without tons of opposition, though. A little while ago, their sign was vandalized.
What these people don't think about is how GOOD an Islamic center would be for the community. Where I live right now has become quite run down and more and more people are leaving and businesses are shutting down. There is also a large immigrant population here which is largely Muslim. Rather than have a lot of these young Muslim kids on the streets, possibly causing trouble and joining gangs (which I can so seeing happening here), wouldn't it be better that they spend time at the center where they will be doing GOOD things like charity work, studying, playing sports, learning in the classrooms, etc.? In the past 6 months, the Islamic Center has tried to open three centers around the Nashville area, and only one (in Murfreesboro, about 25 miles from me) has even been successful in buying the land and going forward with a proposal and design. Not without tons of opposition, though. A little while ago, their sign was vandalized.
And today, opponents in the area announced on the local news that they will be leading a protest march because “a mosque would pose a threat to the state's moral and political foundation.”
On a more level-headed note, a local man was quoted saying, “If America is ever going to be true to its words, then we must adhere to those words we claim to cherish. 'We the people' may be the beginning of the preamble of the constitution of the United States, but when that statement was first written and the document was complete, ‘We’ did not included ‘Me’. The same continues to be true each time we don’t consider others and fall into the comforts of only thinking about 'me'.”
Another said, “Many people who say they love America only want to focus on the good of America. We cling to our guns and religion like a 2nd Amendment militias. If we are to celebrate our religious freedoms, then stop opposing the right to religious freedom. Just because someone doesn’t believe what you believe doesn’t give you the right to oppose them for wanting to lawfully and respectfully practice what they believe.
I soon became quite disturbed at how big of a deal this became here, and then it quickly dawned on me that I live in the Bible Belt. The Bible Belt is a commonly used term for the socially conservative, significantly evangelical Protestant area of the United States where there is high church-attendance. Now, just because this is the Bible Belt shouldn't excuse these recent events, but it helps me understand it. After all, a recent Gallup poll report listed Tennessee as the the 5th most religious state in the nation. I've heard a few well-known conservative (and mostly extremist) Christians making statements that categorize other religious groups as evil, degenerate, sub-human and/or hated by God. So this local outrage is not surprising. I very much realize that many of these peoples' views do not come from any mean-spiritedness or hatred. They follow logically from their very specific theological view, and are a natural result of the way in which they interpret the Bible. However, it gets really frustrating and sad when it starts to trickle into different aspects of society and government. On the other hand, I'm sure majority of these mosque opponents are just the vocal, far-right minority making a huge fuss. Either way, whatever happened to respecting one another? Oh and what about the Golden Rule of reciprocity: love your neighbor as yourself...which by the way is also in Islam.
Anyway, my wish is that more people would just open their eyes, reach out to their neighbor and get to know them. This helps to eliminate fear of the unknown, and hopefully will help people realize that ultimately we all want the same thing – love and acceptance.
On a more level-headed note, a local man was quoted saying, “If America is ever going to be true to its words, then we must adhere to those words we claim to cherish. 'We the people' may be the beginning of the preamble of the constitution of the United States, but when that statement was first written and the document was complete, ‘We’ did not included ‘Me’. The same continues to be true each time we don’t consider others and fall into the comforts of only thinking about 'me'.”
Another said, “Many people who say they love America only want to focus on the good of America. We cling to our guns and religion like a 2nd Amendment militias. If we are to celebrate our religious freedoms, then stop opposing the right to religious freedom. Just because someone doesn’t believe what you believe doesn’t give you the right to oppose them for wanting to lawfully and respectfully practice what they believe.
I soon became quite disturbed at how big of a deal this became here, and then it quickly dawned on me that I live in the Bible Belt. The Bible Belt is a commonly used term for the socially conservative, significantly evangelical Protestant area of the United States where there is high church-attendance. Now, just because this is the Bible Belt shouldn't excuse these recent events, but it helps me understand it. After all, a recent Gallup poll report listed Tennessee as the the 5th most religious state in the nation. I've heard a few well-known conservative (and mostly extremist) Christians making statements that categorize other religious groups as evil, degenerate, sub-human and/or hated by God. So this local outrage is not surprising. I very much realize that many of these peoples' views do not come from any mean-spiritedness or hatred. They follow logically from their very specific theological view, and are a natural result of the way in which they interpret the Bible. However, it gets really frustrating and sad when it starts to trickle into different aspects of society and government. On the other hand, I'm sure majority of these mosque opponents are just the vocal, far-right minority making a huge fuss. Either way, whatever happened to respecting one another? Oh and what about the Golden Rule of reciprocity: love your neighbor as yourself...which by the way is also in Islam.
Anyway, my wish is that more people would just open their eyes, reach out to their neighbor and get to know them. This helps to eliminate fear of the unknown, and hopefully will help people realize that ultimately we all want the same thing – love and acceptance.
WOW. Not only is it very sad to hear about things like this, it’s more disgusting to know that there actually are people that ignorant. How ironic: a big chunk of America’s history includes Protestant Christians & members of other religions fleeing their native countries to avoid persecution and religious intolerance, only to have their descendants repeating everything they despised generations later. Muslim zealots have, unfortunately, set up a bad reputation for Islam, but then again, so much more attention is focused on their negativity in comparison to that of extremist idiots of other religions, which there are also plenty of here & abroad. “A mosque would pose a threat to the state's moral and political foundation?” Wtf is that supposed to mean!? It’s fine to have an opinion about a religious group’s practices, but basically demeaning a certain religious group’s entire morality, then calling it a threat too is pretty ridiculous…& politically? What happened to the Bill of Rights, freedom of religion, & the separation of “Church” & State in this situation? Contrary to what the ignorant believe, a mosque isn’t a place where terrorist plans are drafted, so is building a place for prayer, reflection, tranquility, & education a threat? Sorry I went off on a rant there, but daaaaamnnn, some people are hella ignorant. At least they can try to make an effort to learn more about something before protesting it. They should probably review their own history & the history of the nation they live in before speaking out as well =/
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Preach on sista! lol Thank you for the input! :)
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