Irony Is Dead

Irony Is Dead

In a blog a couple of days ago I wrote about how this whole Muslim church controversy was a bunch of horseshit and that the conservative religious right were making such a big deal about it being built within 2 miles from the WTC foundation and were silly in trying to block it from being built.

But this next story, one that didn't make the cut, mainly due to it being released far after I finished writing that piece and showed up in the news over the last two days is something that The Onion couldn't make up. You see The Museum of Tolerance director opposes the Mosque

The group behind the recently opened "Museum of Tolerance" museum in Manhattan has come out against a planned Islamic community center, which includes a mosque, near Ground Zero.

"Religious freedom does not mean being insensitive...or an idiot," Rabbi Meyer May, the Wiesenthal Center's executive director, told Crain's New York.

"Religion is supposed to be beautiful," he said. "Why create pain in the name of religion?"

It's a topic he knows something about. The Wiesenthal Center caused an uproar in for building one of its Museums of Tolerance on top of an old Muslim burial ground in Jerusalem.

The building of that museum has "resulted in digging up the remains of people who had been buried in a Muslim cemetery for generations," according to City University professor Marnia Lazreg. Indeed, in 2006, workers dug up bones, and an Arab group sued to stop the project from going forward.

The Wiesenthal Center has pushed forward, however, and in 2008 the Israeli Supreme Court declared that the center was allowed to build its museum on the land.

The court pointed out that no one had objected years before when the city had paved over the land for a parking lot.

The furor over the downtown Manhattan community center has intensified over the past few weeks. It should be noted, though, that Muslims already hold daily prayers in the building and have for months. And the actual World Trade Center site will host an office tower -- with Conde Nast in negotiations to become a prime tenant.

You really can't make this stuff up anymore. This is what reading hours worth of news papers/sites and hearing NPR news is all made worth it.

Thus, Irony is fucking dead. I wonder how much tolerance is needed to bulldoze Muslim gravestones in Jerusalem to build a museum for tolerance and human dignity. The whole act of building on the cemetery is particularly disgusting.

Speaking about worthless things, I've been asked why I hate the New York Times so much. I find their articles to generally be written like shit.

Across Nation, Mosque Projects Meet Opposition

While a high-profile battle rages over a mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, heated confrontations have also broken out in communities across the country where mosques are proposed for far less hallowed locations.

In Murfreesboro, Tenn., Republican candidates have denounced plans for a large Muslim center proposed near a subdivision, and hundreds of protesters have turned out for a march and a county meeting.

In late June, in Temecula, Calif., members of a local Tea Party group took dogs and picket signs to Friday prayers at a mosque that is seeking to build a new worship center on a vacant lot nearby.

In Sheboygan, Wis., a few Christian ministers led a noisy fight against a Muslim group that sought permission to open a mosque in a former health food store bought by a Muslim doctor.

At one time, neighbors who did not want mosques in their backyards said their concerns were over traffic, parking and noise — the same reasons they might object to a church or a synagogue. But now the gloves are off.

In all of the recent conflicts, opponents have said their problem is Islam itself. They quote passages from the Koran and argue that even the most Americanized Muslim secretly wants to replace the Constitution with Islamic Shariah law.

White people are the best hypocrites ever. Americans are becoming 1930's era Germans right before our very own eyes.

I suppose that at least it's interesting to observe the rise of First World bigotry as a far-right response to tough economic times. Still, must suck to be brown right now. It really blows my mind that people actually believe shit like this:

_{“As a mother and a grandmother, I worry,” Ms. Serafin said. “I learned that in 20 years with the rate of the birth population, we will be overtaken by Islam, and their goal is to get people in Congress and the Supreme Court to see that Shariah is implemented. My children and grandchildren will have to live under that.”}

Conservatives basically think that all the horrible allegations throughout history against the Jews in Western Europe are true when applied to Muslims.

Large mosques are a million times more pleasing to the eye than mega churches. But if we must deny a place of prayer, why do it to mosques? The largest of mosques are a million times more pleasing to the eye than mega churches that you see all along the south.

Besides that, when the fuck did Ground Zero become some sacred ground?