# Mosque to be built two blocks from Ground Zero **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 14, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432 "2010-05-14T14:36:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 25
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/481 "2010-08-19T20:44:06Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > This is false. > > The Shah suppressed a lot of Muslim rights, even prohibiting the wearing of the _hijab_, (not the body covering _chedor_ or sack-like _burqa_, but the simple head scarf). It was that sort of brutal intolerance that gave Khomeini the wedge to come back in with his own variety of brutality. One leader’s suppression of rights is another leader’s misogyny. Women are now forced to wear body coverings. > [@tomndebb](#): > > True. I attacked her credibility. We went through this dance with Valteron, earlier. Sultan has made numerous claims about what “Islam” does that are based strictly on her experience in Syria, encountering a Wahabbist organization. She has extrapolated those beliefs, to all of Islam in a way that Imam Rauf’s very existence belies. (She also has a record of making claims about her own experience appear to be contradicted by facts. For example, she claims to have been a witness to the assassination of one of her moderate Muslim professors, (even though she also denies that there can be moderates), but she was not even at the location where he was assassinated.) I would not challenge her credentials to talk about Islam as it was practiced in Syria in the 1970s, but her broader comments are in direct conflict with facts in regards to Islam as it is practiced in Turkey, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Europe, and North America. If anything, her experiences in Syria in the 70’s are played out today the world over in places like India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Europe. The mindless violence that explodes over comments made, cartoons drawn or books written is precisely what she experienced in Syria. There is not enough space on this site to list all the attacks made and people killed. > [@tomndebb](#): > > As to the “victory,” if the haters had not made a point of pretending that all Islam was identical and throwing up the lies that Imam Rauf was some sort of Wahabbist, the community center would have gone in with no protests and there would be nothing to “celebrate.” Allowing a religious group to build a community center that is not even within sight of the WTC location is not going to give any Islamists something to crow about. It will simply be a building that provides a place for opponents of zealots to spread their message of cooperation and mutual understanding. The politically correct thing to say is that most Muslims are not terrorists and end the conversation with a visual inspection of sand. The reality of the world is that there are people who want you dead and they base this on religious doctrine. The violence has a common theme and it’s not Wahabism. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/482 "2010-08-19T21:01:35Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > > [@tomndebb](#): > > > > This is false. > > > > The Shah suppressed a lot of Muslim rights, even prohibiting the wearing of the _hijab_, (not the body covering _chedor_ or sack-like _burqa_, but the simple head scarf). It was that sort of brutal intolerance that gave Khomeini the wedge to come back in with his own variety of brutality. > > One leader’s suppression of rights is another leader’s misogyny. Women are now forced to wear body coverings. And the Shah had them tortured. But hey, that doesn’t count since he did it for Capitalism and not Allah! > [@Magiver](#): > > The reality of the world is that there are people who want you dead and they base this on religious doctrine. The violence has a common theme and it’s not Wahabism. Yes, quite a few of them are Christian. ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/483 "2010-08-20T00:55:45Z")
[I stopped by the site today](http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs260.snc4/40341_1558917089972_1146618256_31609151_4443701_n.jpg) and all of the protestors were GONE! All that was left was a cop and two anti-protestors, who told me that they’ve given up and gone back to their gay bashing. Either that, or Bloomberg is having them all rounded up. I’m going to chime in here - America is FUCKING STUPID (which explains why there’s so much religious crap happening here that doesn’t seem to happen in any other civilized countries). This site, despite being physically less than a mile from the WTC (it’s actually closer to City Hall) has no relation to the site. You would never know that the WTC was 2 blocks away if you walked out the building - even when the towers were standing, the alleyway would block the view of them. Building this site does no harm to anyone except for the retards who think “Muslim = terrorist”, and they shouldn’t even deserve to have a say in the decision. I also say that as long as one of the streets of the WTC is called Church St, and as long as St John’s and Trinity church are still standing, both within view of the WTC and the same distance as this new prayer center, then nobody should have any right to bitch about any OTHER religions being within proximity. So the terrorists were Muslim, big deal. The acts of 20 people does not deserve to punish the other 2 billion Muslims in the world. The guy who bombed the Oklahoma City Federal Building was a card carrying Christian, and I seriously doubt anybody campaigned to stop any new churches being built in Oklahoma. Newsweek declared Finland the world’s greatest country. The USA was 11. We should probably be lower, for all this stupidity alone. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/484 "2010-08-20T01:43:33Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > The only thing suppressed by the Shaw was the misogyny that defines current leadership. If by ‘misogyny’ you mean ‘all other political parties,’ sure, but that’s not actually what the word means. > [@Magiver](#): > > the only thing he suppressed were the zealots currently tormenting Iranians. The CURRENT government screens potential political candidates for religious purity before they are allowed on a ballot. The zealots currently tormenting Iranians are communists? I guess they must be, [SAVAK was](http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/world/iran/savak.htm) > [@](#): > > Founded to round up members of the outlawed Tudeh, SAVAK expanded its activities to include gathering intelligence and neutralizing the regime’s opponents. An elaborate system was created to monitor all facets of political life. For example, a censorship office was established to monitor journalists, literary figures, and academics throughout the country; it took appropriate measures against those who fell out of line. Universities, labor unions, and peasant organizations, among others, were all subjected to intense surveillance by SAVAK agents and paid informants. The agency was also active abroad, especially in monitoring Iranian students who publicly opposed Pahlavi rule. > … > Over the years, SAVAK became a law unto itself, having legal authority to arrest and detain suspected persons indefinitely. SAVAK operated its own prisons in Tehran (the Komiteh and Evin facilities) and, many suspected, throughout the country as well. SAVAK’s torture methods included electric shock, whipping, beating, inserting brokon glass and pouring boiling water into the rectum, tying weights to the testicles, and the extraction of teeth and nails. Many of these activities were carried out without any institutional checks. The Tudeh being the [Tudeh Party of Iran](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudeh_Party_of_Iran) who were communists. You’d do well to read up on the brutality and political repression committed by the Shah and SAVAK before writing further nonsense about them. The Shah never had any problems with screening potential political candidates for religious purity before their names were put on the ballot because **there was no ballot for names to be put on.** ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/485 "2010-08-20T02:34:04Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Shorter **Perciful** : > > If you love the United States of America, stand up and repudiate one of the cornerstone tenets of our entire existence! > > Jesus Christmas, **Perciful** …go find a bunker and cower in (hopefully, silent) fear and cowardice there. You’re the kind of person who kills your own kids by shooting before you verify what you’re shooting at because you’re so frantic with panicked terror, aren’t you? > > Maybe I’m being kneejerk, but this kind of irrational bigotry does that to me. This whole thread (well, one side of it) has had me gnashing my teeth in frustration over the blanket stereotyping. Well said. And just WHO is it that really wants to keep eroding the constitution and bill of rights??? It’s those who would trash it, piece by piece in order to protect themselves from some bogey man. There’s the real erosion. I get it, “freedom for me but not for anyone else”. Sell off freedoms a little at a time for the illusion of security. Be a good American by throwing out what it stood for once (or at least used to pay some nice lip service to). I think Franklin said something about that, but I’m too lazy to look it up. This is still the United States. There is (I HOPE) still freedom of religion, even if it is the religion of the Bogey Man. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/486 "2010-08-20T02:34:36Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > > [@tomndebb](#): > > > > This is false. > > > > The Shah suppressed a lot of Muslim rights, even prohibiting the wearing of the _hijab_, (not the body covering _chedor_ or sack-like _burqa_, but the simple head scarf). It was that sort of brutal intolerance that gave Khomeini the wedge to come back in with his own variety of brutality. > > One leader’s suppression of rights is another leader’s misogyny. Women are now forced to wear body coverings. The theocrats only came to power because the Shah suppressed Islam, giving the Islamists a lever to get into power. The Czar did not become a good guy because the Bolsheviks turned out to be worse. The Reign of Terror did not magically make Louis XVI into a wonderful king. If the U.S. had not installed the Shah and supported him as he suppressed Islam, there is no reason to believe that the actual elected government of Iran would have created the same problem. > [@Magiver](#): > > If anything, her experiences in Syria in the 70’s are played out today the world over in places like India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Europe. The mindless violence that explodes over comments made, cartoons drawn or books written is precisely what she experienced in Syria. There is not enough space on this site to list all the attacks made and people killed. Of course, the violence is what happens when people opposing Islam create support for the terrorists by portraying all of Islam as evil, thus forcing Muslims to choose between rejecting their religion and embracing the fundamentalists–much as the opponents of the community center are currently doing. > [@Magiver](#): > > The politically correct thing to say is that most Muslims are not terrorists and end the conversation with a visual inspection of sand. The reality of the world is that there are people who want you dead and they base this on religious doctrine. The violence has a common theme and it’s not Wahabism. It is also not Islam. It very much is Wahabbism and a few like minded sects. If it had actually been Islam, then we would have been subjected to similar attacks throughout the entire Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. The fact that the violence did not erupt until the end of the Twentieth Century, and then only among regions where there was other political violence, is a pretty strong indication that it is the result of political situations that have encouraged the Islamists, not any inherent aspectof Islam. The subsequent spread of the violence is an indication that the post Cold War world has unresolved issues remaining from the breakup of colonial powers, not an indication that Islam is inherently violent. Every location where “Islam” is perceived to be violent is a location where there has been post-colonial upheavals, (and all the places where there is post-colonial violence without Muslim participation are conveniently hand-waved away as being “different”). ---
**Author:** ![Inbred\_Mm\_domesticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/aca169/32.png) [@Inbred\_Mm\_domesticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inbred_Mm_domesticus)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/487 "2010-08-20T03:42:08Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > > > And amazingly enough so does being bombed, or tortured, or being invaded and/or tyrannized by a US backed regime. Like it or not, there are millions of Muslims who have perfectly good reasons to be angry at the US. > > So? There are also millions of Muslims who are angry at the U.S. for completely stupid reasons. This is inevitable when religion and politics get intertwined, or when when someone _wants_ to get them intertwined. A trivial political sleight isn’t somebody criticism your system of government - it’s them profaning your religious beliefs! There’s no easier way for dictators and wannabe dictators to get the stupid to play along then by accusing some outsider of slamming their religion. In the U.S., people who would like to make Christianity the official religion (as Islam is the official religion in many countries) bleat about some specious “war on Christmas” and the idiots bleat right back. > > Sure, you’ve got lots of Muslims pissed about wedding parties getting massacred by U.S. bombs, but you’ve also got lots of Muslims getting pissed because somebody drew a cartoon. If they’re not going to be selective about what they’re pissed about… fuck 'em! Let them be pissed. You can’t stop it anyway. Do you really think the people that planned and executed 9/11 are pissed because of cartoons? Or do you think they might be the Muslims that are pissed because of our meddling in their countries? I really doubt these guys give two shits about cartoons. The people that fucked up my country and blew up parts of Spain, England, Iraq and Turkey for 10+ years are extremely selective about what pisses them off and that is what the Imam was speaking to. Putting the cartoon freaks and Al Qaeda in the same basket is as stupid as confusing the Western freedom loving Muslims who want to build this Mosque with the kind of scum that performed the Fort Hood shootings. The Imam makes a valid point. Although I don’t agree with him it doesn’t make him a member of Al Qaedahamashezbollah. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/488 "2010-08-20T04:16:27Z")
I thought it was the UK and the USSR who installed the Shah’s pop but the US who supported the last shah. Or is that oversimplifying the issue? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/489 "2010-08-20T04:19:17Z")
I heard that Muslims crack their soft boiled eggs on the little end. That’s why everybody hates them. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/490 "2010-08-20T05:15:09Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > The theocrats only came to power because the Shah suppressed Islam, giving the Islamists a lever to get into power. The Czar did not become a good guy because the Bolsheviks turned out to be worse. The Reign of Terror did not magically make Louis XVI into a wonderful king. The current government wasn’t elected it was filtered by a committee who screens candidates. > [@tomndebb](#): > > Of course, the violence is what happens when people opposing Islam create support for the terrorists by portraying all of Islam as evil, thus forcing Muslims to choose between rejecting their religion and embracing the fundamentalists–much as the opponents of the community center are currently doing. Uh huh. The world hates Islam? Really? > [@tomndebb](#): > > It is also not Islam. It very much is Wahabbism and a few like minded sects. Well that explains the violence around the world connected with Islam. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/491 "2010-08-20T05:21:36Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > I thought it was the UK and the USSR who installed the Shah’s pop but the US who supported the last shah. Or is that oversimplifying the issue? IIRC the UK supported the Shah as well, and together with the US kicked out the elder Shah, an installed the younger. There were previous father-son transitions characterized as coup, and back and forth control between political and religious groups, including foreign rule. I think Iranians would see the changes in rulers through history to be as regular as the US presidential elections. The Iranians I’ve known seem to have an independent concept of Iranian culture that isn’t tied to the roi du jour. So I think you’ve made an appropriate simplification in that context. The people tied to factions desiring power tend to characterize it differently. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/492 "2010-08-20T05:21:50Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I heard that Muslims crack their soft boiled eggs on the little end. That’s why everybody hates them. You know where you stand with a horse, though. Noble creatures, really. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/493 "2010-08-20T05:31:49Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > > [@tomndebb](#): > > > > It is also not Islam. It very much is Wahabbism and a few like minded sects. > > Well that explains the violence around the world connected with Islam. Yes, it does. You keep talking as if Islam was a monolithic religion, instead of the fragmented one it is. You might as well well be panicking over the Quakers next door blowing you up like an IRA terrorist. Or Gandhi strangling you in the name of Kali. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/494 "2010-08-20T06:24:04Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/495 "2010-08-20T07:35:16Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > The current government wasn’t elected it was filtered by a committee who screens candidates. Which has nothing to do with anything posted. The Bolsheviks were not elected. Robespierre and his buddies were not elected. Sometimes the bad guys win, but that hardly changes the fact that a revolution was sparked by the actions of an evil power–in the case of Iran, a repressive monarch/despot who, among his other actions, oppressed Muslims while being openly supported by the U.S. > [@Magiver](#): > > Uh huh. The world hates Islam? Really? And another meaningless _non sequitur_. > [@Magiver](#): > > Well that explains the violence around the world connected with Islam. As a matter of fact, it does, regardless of the views of those who want to pretend that Islam is wholly, universally, uniquely violent, despite several centuries of contrary evidence that it is not inherently violent. ---
**Author:** ![qpw3141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/6bbea6/32.png) [@qpw3141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qpw3141)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/496 "2010-08-20T10:10:47Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Well that explains the violence around the world connected with Islam. So, what explains the violence around the world connected to the UK and the US? You label all Muslims violent because a few get involved in violent activities but you don’t use the same rules for Western powers that do the same. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/497 "2010-08-20T10:46:16Z")
> [@Inbred\_Mm\_domesticus](#): > > Do you really think the people that planned and executed 9/11 are pissed because of cartoons? Well, if not them, there are plenty who were. My point is that it doesn’t matter - whatever valid grievances there might be are mingled freely with a great many stupid grievances. > [@](#): > > Or do you think they might be the Muslims that are pissed because of our meddling in their countries? I’m looking forward to controlled fusion, frankly, because then the Americans can afford to ignore the region entirely (apparently what the Al-Qaidans wanted) and Saudi Arabia can be crushed by whatever ambitious Muslim neighbor feels likes it, and nobody will give a damn. Well, I guess until all their self-inflicted internal strife proves embarrassing and they need to blame somebody, anybody, for their problems. They’ll attack Israel, who will destroy them and set up puppet governments throughout the middle east, with mandatory education for women… …well, one can dream. ---
**Author:** ![qpw3141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/6bbea6/32.png) [@qpw3141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qpw3141)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/498 "2010-08-20T11:09:54Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > > [@Inbred\_Mm\_domesticus](#): > > > > Do you really think the people that planned and executed 9/11 are pissed because of cartoons? > > Well, if not them, there are plenty who were. My point is that it doesn’t matter - whatever valid grievances there might be are mingled freely with a great many stupid grievances. Ah, right. Such as a bunch of idiots whining about building a Mosque out of site of the scene of a tragedy and making a major issue out of nothing. Got ya! > [@](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Or do you think they might be the Muslims that are pissed because of our meddling in their countries? > > I’m looking forward to controlled fusion, frankly, because then the Americans can afford to ignore the region entirely (apparently what the Al-Qaidans wanted) and Saudi Arabia can be crushed by whatever ambitious Muslim neighbor feels likes it, and nobody will give a damn. Bit of a non sequitur. Good luck with waiting for fusion, BTW. There will have been plenty of other changes by the time **that** arrives. And by then it will almost certainly be more relevant what the Chinese or Indians think of the situation in the Middle East. > [@](#): > > Well, I guess until all their self-inflicted internal strife proves embarrassing and they need to blame somebody, anybody, for their problems. They’ll attack Israel, who will destroy them and set up puppet governments throughout the middle east, with mandatory education for women… > …well, one can dream. Dream on. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/499 "2010-08-20T11:35:52Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Every location where “Islam” is perceived to be violent is a location where there has been post-colonial upheavals, (and all the places where there is post-colonial violence without Muslim participation are conveniently hand-waved away as being “different”). Are you sure? I mean, places like Burma and Sri Lanka have been so peaceful and quiet in recent years… ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432/500 "2010-08-20T12:15:42Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > > [@tomndebb](#): > > > > Every location where “Islam” is perceived to be violent is a location where there has been post-colonial upheavals, (and all the places where there is post-colonial violence without Muslim participation are conveniently hand-waved away as being “different”). > > Are you sure? I mean, places like Burma and Sri Lanka have been so peaceful and quiet in recent years… That looks pretty much like hand-waving away non-Muslim violence as “different.” The violence in both (Buddhist) Burma and (Buddhist and Hindu) Sri Lanka can be traced back to colonial and post-colonial disruption of society. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432.md?page=24) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mosque-to-be-built-two-blocks-from-ground-zero/539432.md?page=26)