Liberty MavenRon Paul talks Ground Zero Mosque “side show” on Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN
August 24th, 2010 12:58 am | by Marc Gallagher | Published in Big Government, Civil Liberties, Commentary, Free Market, Liberty, Rand Paul, Ron Paul | 17 Responses
Ron Paul appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 last night to discuss his own position on the building of a mosque near ground zero. The interview gets interesting when the host delves into the differences between Ron Paul’s views and his son Rand’s views on the building of the mosque.
Ron Paul’s views could not be more in line with my own and represent the most purely consistent view on the matter.
“…the side show, which is what I call this..” – Ron Paul on the ground zero mosque
(Thanks to Minnesota Chris for the video)
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August 24th, 2010 at 2:17 am (#)
If the Catholic Church had attacked us on 9/11, Americans would abandon the
church in droves, establish a new moderate church and would LEAD the fight
against the radicals who had hijacked their religion.
And yes, UNDER THE SAME SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES, 64% of America WOULD protest the building of a Catholic church on that site ~ which totally negates your charges
of hate and Islamophobia.
Pope John Paul II asked 14 Carmelite Nuns to move their convent from just outside
the Auschwitz death camp after Jewish groups and Holocaust survivors expressed
their feelings that it was insensitive, an affront. The Pope realized that the
convent's location would have been counterproductive to reconciliation ~ he DIDN'T
attack Holocaust survivors and sympathizers as bigots. AND HE DIDN'T FORCE HIS
WILL ON THEM BECAUSE HE HAD THE "LEGAL" RIGHT.
By calling Americans hateful Islamophobics, you are stereotyping 64% of the
American people and attempting to obscure and distort the truth of their
protests. That, sir, is the very demagoguery that you accuse others of
practicing.
August 24th, 2010 at 2:52 am (#)
Auschwitz comparison not appropriate.
Al Queda attacked us.
Nazis killed jews.
Muslims want to build a community center.
Muslims are not Al Queda.
Al Queda should be the target of your ire, not Muslims.
Using the Catholic Church is not the best analogy.
You are ignoring history for one.
We are on the tipping point of a cultural world war.
And you are disrupting what should be a healing moment.
Ironically your position is a self fulfilling prophecy.
Feed the hate. And it's wrong because it's inappropriately directed.
This may have negative repercussions for decades.
August 24th, 2010 at 3:51 am (#)
I agree with Chris on this. This is where good logic really comes into play;and one must be very careful of using analogies that do not pass the test of good logic. Therein lays the answer: Muslims win on this one as they should. Disclaimer: I am an atheist, I believe in fair application of the law.
August 24th, 2010 at 3:54 am (#)
You're missing the point. The people who want to build the mosque are not "forcing" anything on anyone. Rather, it is the enemies of the mosque who want to use force to prevent the exercise of property rights. All the talk about religion and terrorism and so forth just serves to distract from the real issue, which is the right to build whatever you want on your own land. The other stuff is just rhetoric.
August 24th, 2010 at 3:56 am (#)
It must be very embarrassing for Ron Paul to see his son pandering to nationalists and neocons.
August 24th, 2010 at 7:38 am (#)
Sadly, I think that Ron is "missing the point".
Like it or not, Islam is at war with the US (in fact, the entire world). It WAS Islam which attacked the WTC. If the "moderate muslims" feel this is inaccurate, then where in the hell are they in speaking up against those who some claim have hijacked and ravaged their 'peaceful religion'??
The Tim McVeigh reference is well off base. We don't have droves of any other religion committing acts of terror in their name of their religion.
Those who we are at war with are not people who just happen to be muslim, but rather, muslims who hate and attack us because we are not going to bow to their faith, it really is that simple.
As for Ron's notion of property rights. I do say that I agree. If the people of NYC are stupid enough to allow this den of terrorist to build their terrorist training centers in their city, they have that right. It is not a Federal issue at all and Obama should have kept his trap shut, but since he opened it, he deserves to reap what he has sown.
Sadly, one can make the private property rights argument, while not having to defend Islam like Ron seems to be bent on doing.
August 24th, 2010 at 12:03 pm (#)
to ron disappointed person and all who disagree i quote my man Charlton Heston in wake of columbine school shooting hosting NRA convention in denver May 1999 on gun rights BUT substitute 2nd amendment with 1st, NRA with AMERICAN muslims and he's still right
"I see our country teetering on the edge of an abyss. At its bottom brews the simmering bile of deep, dark hatred. Hatred that's dividing our country: politically, racially, economically, geographically, in every way- whether it's political vendettas, sports brawls, corporate takeovers, or high school gangs in cleats, the American competitive ethic has changed from 'let's beat the other guy, to let's destroy the other guy.' Too many, too many are too willing to stigmatize and demonize others for political advantage, for money or for ratings. The vilification is savage….
This harvest of hatred is then sold as news. As entertainment. As government policy. Such hateful, divisive forces are leading us to one awful end–America's own form of Balkanization. A weakened country of rabid factions, each less free, united only by hatred of one another…
But the screeching hyperbole leveled at gun owners has made these two camps so wary of each other, so hostile and confrontational and disrespectful on both sides they have forgotten that we are first Americans. I am asking all of us, on both sides, to take one step back from the edge, than another step and another… however many it takes to get back to the place where we are all Americans. Different…different, imperfect, diverse, but one nation, indivisible.
This cycle of tragedy-driven hatred must stop, because so much more connects us than that which divides us because tragedy has been, and will always be with us. Somewhere right now, evil people are planning evil things. All of us will do everything meaningful, everything we can do to prevent it, but each horrible act can't become an ax for opportunists to cleave the very Bill of Rights that binds us. America must stop this predictable pattern of reaction. when an isolated, terrible event occurs, our phones ring, demanding that the NRA explain the inexplicable. Why us? Because their story needs a villain. They want us to play the heavy in their drama of packaged grief. To provide riveting programming to run between commercials for cars and cat food….
Now, if you disagree, that's your right. I respect that. But, we will not relinquish it, or be silenced about it, or be told: 'Do not come here, you are unwelcome in your own land.'
Let us go from this place, this huge room, renewed in spirit and dedicated against hatred. We have work to do, hearts to heal, evil to defeat, and a country to unite. We may have differences, yes, and we will again suffer tragedy almost beyond description. But when the sun sets on Denver tonight, and forevermore, let it always set on we the people, secure in our land of the free, and home of the brave. I, for one, plan to do my part. Thank You."
Charlton Heston – RIP
August 24th, 2010 at 1:41 pm (#)
I would say in the gist of the book 1984, that we kill in the name of spreading "democracy". That sounds like a zealot's cry. So yes, we do have droves killing in the name of a higher power.
August 24th, 2010 at 2:03 pm (#)
Guest Vmac,
Islam did not attack the USA. A group of soccer loving al Quada (mostly Saudi) men attacked the USA with the blessing of bin Laden (also a Saudi).
August 24th, 2010 at 2:15 pm (#)
Moderate Muslims, especially the one in charge of the Community Center, have been speaking up against terrorists. if that is what you want, then you should be in full support of this community center, which is meant to be a bastion against radical, terrorist-based islam.
August 24th, 2010 at 5:56 pm (#)
when the wtc was destroyed people were dancing in the street of Baghdad. That alone should tell us enough. It's insensitive to build an Islamic Center near the tragedy of 9-11
August 24th, 2010 at 7:53 pm (#)
How about when Protestants and Catholics killed each other in droves in Ireland? Does that mean that all Christians should be treated as fanatical terrorists?
August 24th, 2010 at 10:37 pm (#)
Neocons like Harry Reid and Howard Dean, for example?
August 25th, 2010 at 8:57 am (#)
They may not be neocons, but they have the same flawed collectivist mindset.
August 25th, 2010 at 12:14 pm (#)
Julda — when 9-11 happened, Ambassador Madeline Albright had ALREADY admitted that 500,000 Iraqi children were ALREADY dead due to U.S. sanctions against humanitarian aid — and that the price was worth it — as if she and Bill & Hillary were the proper ones to determine such a barbaric thing. Thousands of others had already died over the preceding decades (such as Bill Clinton's never-ending bombing runs in Iraq and elsewhere) as a result of U.S. foreign policy.
As Ron Paul points out tirelessly, we started messing with THEM at least back to 1953, or way further back if you include our support for the British who wreaked havoc over there since the 1920s or earlier, mostly in the name of oil. Then there's our support for Israel, which the Al Queda types keep telling us is on their amazingly short list of complaints about the U.S. government. Bin Laden explained this to the American People in a video, but I bet most people did not see that one!
MANY tens of thousands of Middle Eastern people, young, old and in between, have died as a result or our foreign interventions, direct and indirect. This is well-established history that cannot be, and has not been, refuted that I am aware of. It always boils down to military/ industrial/ banking/ congressional imperatives to control the mineral wealth and political/ economic landscape world-wide. This is why Ron Paul keeps saying, and is confirmed by research published by the CIA, our 9-11 deaths were the DIRECT result of U.S. foreign policy — Blowback.
Iraqis celebrated 9-11 because the American People are too sheep-like to stop their own government from killing people around the world by the tens of thousands, mostly for political and economic reasons, and nothing to do with actually protecting our people or our lands. Yet the U.S. government expects our sanctions and war against the Iraqi people to overthrow their own government. If WE can't control ours, how can we expect THEM to do it?
Please start reading Antiwar.com and fff.org and get an education, instead of believing the false propaganda provided by your/our government.
August 25th, 2010 at 10:36 pm (#)
http://groundzeromosquetheamericanway.blogspot.co…
September 8th, 2010 at 9:00 pm (#)
Hey Julda, the Israelis were also dancing in the street after 9/11. So do we go to war with them too?