On Sunday a crowd of people gathered at Ground Zero in NYC to protest plans to convert an old Burlington Coat Factory several blocks away into an Islamic cultural center which would include a mosque...
Sunday's crowd included representatives of the conservative Tea Party movement, some of them wearing anti-tax T-shirts that had nothing to do with Ground Zero, Islam or terrorism...
Many protesters held American flags. Many carried signs. "A Mosque at Ground Zero Spits on the Graves of 9/11," one placard proclaimed. Another sign depicted a toilet, with this message: "This is a Mosque. Do You Want it Built at Ground Zero?"
At one point, a portion of the crowd menacingly surrounded two Egyptian men who were speaking Arabic and were thought to be Muslims.
"Go home," several shouted from the crowd. "Get out," others shouted.
In fact, the two men – Joseph Nassralla and Karam El Masry — were not Muslims at all. They turned out to be Egyptian Coptic Christians who work for a California-based Christian satellite TV station called "The Way." Both said they had come to protest the mosque.
"I'm a Christian," Nassralla shouted to the crowd, his eyes bulging and beads of sweat rolling down his face.
But it was no use. The protesters had become so angry at what they thought were Muslims that New York City police officers had to rush in and pull Nassralla and El Masry to safety.
"I flew nine hours in an airplane to come here," a frustrated Nassralla said afterward.
Photo credit AP/Swoan Parker.
Take a note from Arizona. It does not matter what you believe or what you think. The only criteria to the bigots is what you look like. Pig brained bigots will never stop to think. Sorry pigs, no insult intended.
ReplyDeleteBigots are the scum of the earth. Unfortunately they are allowed to reproduce and pass their stupid ideas to another generation.
ReplyDeleteIf good Muslims had their way no woman would be allowed to show her face in public.
ReplyDeleteI'd call that reasonably bigoted.
And if you were properly educated on the matter, you'd know that only overly strict, generally regional forms of Islam force women to cover up their faces, and that the hijab has been, and will always be optional, and even rude or unnecessary to various other cultures that the muslim may live and work in.
ReplyDeleteBut learning is hard, making off the cuff, and ignorant comments on the internet is much much easier.
For shit like this I gleefully discriminate against conservative Christians.
ReplyDeleteI'm white and an atheist, by the way.