Provocation

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Palin sparks Twitter fight on mosque (Politico via Yahoo! News)

Astute readers will have noted that over the past couple of years I really haven’t had much to say about Sarah Palin.  Sure, I make references to her now and then as various subjects she’s connected to are brought up, but I haven’t gone out of my way to skewer her in particular.  In part this is because she’s such an easy target, and there are already enough people out there doing such a good job of it.  In part it’s because, all things being equal, I think Sarah Palin ultimately does more to hurt Republicans and conservatives by turning off moderate voters than help them with her rhetoric and charm, so the more she talks, the better off I think the country will ultimately be.  (This is just one of the many reasons I’m such a staunch First Amendment supporter; it makes it easier to identify the loons when they can spout their lunacy openly and loudly.)  The only reason I’ve ever felt all that inclined to go after Palin was that she gives hockey moms a bad name, but given that I seem to be in the post-sports phase of my life right now, that’s not something I’m really all that worried about at present.

Palin wading into the subject of the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” is kind of getting to me, though.  Given that I’ve never set foot in the state of New York, let alone the Big Apple, I can’t claim to understand the emotional milieu of post-09.11 New York as its residents do.  However, from even the most basic of news reports on this controversy, it’s clear that there are plenty of New Yorkers on both sides of the issue.  What bothers me the most about Palin’s comment is her use of the word “provocation,” which perfectly encapsulates the inherent ugliness of the argument the anti-mosque contingent is making, that the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero is some deliberate act intended to pour salt into the still-fresh wound of New York City and its residents.

I wish I could give these people the benefit of the doubt and say that they’re simply misreading the intents of the Muslim community, either in New York or around the world, but time and time again these people have displayed their xenophobia and intolerance, and their belief that “America” is synonymous with “Christian,” and not just “Christian” in general, but in particular a distorted, myopic, hate-filled version of Christianity that has less to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ and more  with scaring people into handing their money (and votes) over to greedy, misanthropic hate-mongers.  They may claim that the area near Ground Zero isn’t an appropriate place for a mosque, but the reality is that they don’t want mosques anywhere in America, or anyplace else for that matter, not even in historically Muslim lands.  After all, the land those mosques are on could be “better used” if you bulldozed the mosques and built oil wells instead.

Still, maybe Palin has a point when she infers that it isn’t right to build a religious structure near land where adherents of a particular religion (if only in name) inflicted violence on innocent people of another religion.  I propose a compromise.  In exchange for not building a mosque near Ground Zero, let’s bulldoze every Christian church in America.  After all, look at all the violence European-descended Christians inflicted on the indigenous people of North America, either through overt warfare or more covert ways.  (Smallpox-infested blankets, anyone?)  If you think those wounds aren’t still fresh, just look up the alcoholism rates in the Indigenous American community, particularly on reservations.  If we should be sympathetic towards those who feel hurt by violence perpetrated by nominal Muslims in New York, why shouldn’t we be sympathetic towards the Indigenous Americans who were cast out of their land and had generations upon generations slaughtered by nominal Christians?

This does pose a problem for Christians, though, because as we Wiccans can tell you, if we apply this model to Europe as well, there won’t be any churches left there either.  That would be a pity, since there are so many beautiful European churches, but hey, you have to have sympathy for the victims of religious violence, right?  South America and Africa are right out because of other past violence, and the last President pretty much cut off the Middle East as well.  I guess that leaves Antarctica.  Yes, let’s let the Christians build all the churches they want in Antarctica, where there’s never been a history of religious violence, and then all the victims of religious violence around the world will finally be respected.  That is, at least until the internecine Christian warfare breaks out like we all know it will.  Ah well, that still leaves the bottom of the sea, and there are certainly enough religious right wingnuts out there who keep saying SpongeBob SquarePants needs some religion.

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