A Mosque in Manhattan

Try this interview style:

So, you've heard all about this mosque they're trying to build at the site of the 9/11 attack.  Everyone's all divided about it. What's you're opinion?

It's a non-issue. When both sides are right, it loses importance. And before you get all unrighteous about it, let's pretend that it is an issue and examine it.  Often, it's in the why's that the real issue is seen. 

Of course it's important! It's the Muslims versus the Christians! It's about all the people who were effected during the 9/11 attacks! How can you....

Imagine there are two people, Christian, and Islam, and they are playing a gigantic game of Risk, with the world being the board. Rewind time, and it becomes obvious that this game has been going on for centuries, with smaller players being taken over, absorbed, or demolished, until there is only a few main players left.  Christian, Islam, Judaism, India, and China. The State trumps religion every now and then (see the Soviet Union a Century ago), but eventually, it all comes down to the forces of belief in the afterlife.  And that's where the mistake is made.

Humans have always wanted to join the winning side. To be the one with the control, power, money, influence. And there's no greater influence than controlling one's spot in eternity.  That's where "religion" comes in.  We have to take "religion" and deconstruct it, to take it apart to its elements, and then the real issue will be seen.  The problem with "religion" is that it is too often seen as a synonym for "church."  A large gathering of people who believe in basically the same thing when it comes to a supernatural being we call "God" and His ability to conquer death, sending us to an afterlife of pleasure or pain, depending on the moralities involved.  Those rules are spelled out in a conglomeration of writings that is called The Bible (or in other religions, The Quaran, The Torah,....etc..) In interpreting those rules, and in imposing others, the leaders of that gathering formed a "church," with social, political, and economical power.  It's those powers that started playing the game of Risk long ago, with the belief that spreading the view of the afterlife prevalent within that group was the goal of the game. In other words, taking over the world. 

So, in this present turn of the giant game, the Islam character has attacked the Christian character and is about to place a piece in the middle of one of his cities, right next to the place where they struck.  It is a victory for Islam.

So you're saying they're doing it on purpose?

Of course they are.  I don't think it's necessary to hide true intentions in the middle of altruistic reasons.  Let's take the Christian character.  In the 1500's, Spanish conquerors brought armadas of troops to the New World, the Americas, in search of gold, slaves, trade, power...etc... Oh, and the spread of Roman Catholicism to the unsaved masses.  The Aztecs, the Incas, Native Americans.  All of these reasons were important, and the spread of religion was a justifying factor.  So when military generals ordered Roman Catholic churches to be built atop Mesoamerican worship sites, it was to vanquish the other religions and to gain power over that area.  The RC church did the exact same thing that the Muslims did when they took over Jerusalem, or when they decided to build a mosque right next to Ground Zero.  It's all the same thing.  Forces playing a game, fighting for power, while the actual religion takes a back seat to the followers' own ambition. 

So they can't make the Mosque at that location?

I'm not saying that.  Rudy Giuliani said in an interview on Fox News Sunday that the Imam who is trying to build the mosque has every right to do so.  He owns the building, has the proper permits.  There's no reason he can't build it.  

What I am saying, if you'd quit interrupting me, is that when you deconstruct religion, you find that, at the heart of it, is God, and you.  The essence of what we believe in is our relationship with our creator.  Thus, what other people do in the name of their religion means very little.  It's what we do for our own relationship with God that matters.  That's why I say it's a non-issue, this whole mosque building thing. It doesn't matter to me, and it shouldn't for anyone else. If the victims of the 9/11 attack were to look at the Bible, and to their relationship with God, they would "turn the other cheek," as it were.  Then it ceases to mean anything to build a Muslim worship center on Ground Zero, and a compromise could be easily worked out.  Except for the fact that there would be no news, no strife, which is what today's 24/7 news channels need. 

There was a very easy solution to all this, if the powers that be would have done it, so many years ago.  It should have been very easy to purchase the buildings surrounding the attack site following 9/11.  I would have thought that property values would have gone down in the area, what with condemned buildings and all.  I might be wrong.  If they had wanted to create a monument to the people killed, they could have easily done so.  But they didn't.  They squabbled and fought and drug their feet, and so now, some 10 years afterward, nothing has been done.  I think they almost wanted to leave it in ruins to keep the wound open, to keep the anger flowing.  It is a more potent force than homage and peace.  It is the same thing that the Japanese did in Hiroshima, leaving a structure untouched as a reminder of those events.  To me, progress, moving forward, building again and prospering is so much more effective than letting the mind wander in the torturous halls of the past. 

Thus the free market system had a hand in all that transpired, and what is to come.  The Christian organizations could have bought that building long ago, but they didn't.  The site that was the WTC could have already been rebuilt and all this would be bunk.  But it didn't.  And since we're talking about free market, let's make the WTC site profitable.  And balanced.  Build a Christian church (the Protestants and the RC can share), a Synagogue, and then build the WTC reborn in the middle, with restaurants and retail and all the things that makes America what it is today. Everyone can eat, pray, and love, all in the same place. 

Because, in the end, the answer is that everyone is right. Or at least, to us, it should be.  Let the Muslims bow to the east, let the Jews follow their traditions, and let the Christians continue to break bread. And we'll all worship our own God and believe in Him. To me, I could care less what other people believe.  I have my own relationship with God, and if I'm right, then that's great.  If they are, then that's good too.  No one has to be wrong or damned or destroyed because of what they believe in.  Leave that up to God. He's got the power to strike us down, not some silly Terrorist in a plane.  And getting all riled up because a Muslim leader decides that he can press our buttons by building a church on top of where some other Muslims attacked our country, well, it's just not necessary.  In fact, it's just what we shouldn't do.  Do what the Bible says.  Turn the other cheek. By forgiving and making it a non-issue, we've already won. I think God would think so, anyway.