The Right To Feel Offended
There has been a lot of talk in the news and online about something called the “Cordoba Initiative.” If you don’t recognize the name, then you’ve probably heard it called the “Ground Zero Mosque.” Both names are inflammatory, but only one is usually treated that way.
Centuries before the Crusades, Muslim forces invaded Europe, conquering what is now Spain and Portugal. The fighting, first to take the Iberian peninsula from Christians, and then to take it back during the Reconquista lasted almost 800 years. When past dealings between Christians and Muslims are discussed the Crusades are often mentioned. Most discussions pretend that the Crusades happened in a vacuum. It is more accurate to say that the Crusades happened in the middle of an 800 year war between Christian and Muslim forces that saw invasions and atrocities on both sides.
The city of Cordoba, Spain was capitol of a Muslim caliphate, and then the Muslim Kingdom of Granada. Eventually, in 1492, the last of Spain was reconquered. Osama Bin Laden calls the ejection of Muslims from Spain a name that resonates in many quarters – The Tragedy of Andalusia. So the name “Cordoba Initiative” actually hearkens back to a conquest of part of Europe by Muslim forces. Since people have begun to catch on to this, the advocates have taken to calling it “Park 51.”
(The rulers of Spain were King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. You probably recognize those names and the year 1492 from school. It was a long and expensive war, and like governments everywhere, Ferdinand and Isabella needed money. So when a certain explorer and navigator from Genoa showed up with a scheme to make lots of money, Isabella hocked her jewels to finance Christopher Columbus.)
This is America. People have freedom of religion. People have property rights. The Cordoba Initiative has an absolute right to build a cultural center, a mosque, or darn near anything else they want on the lot that is two blocks from Ground Zero.
Whatever you call it, the project is offensive. This being America, I still have the right to be offended.
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[...] powers spent the next 800 years getting it back. (I have touched on this history before in “The Right to Feel Offended.”) During the time that Islam was the local religion there were many mosques built, but the [...]
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[...] of Ground Zero. I, too, have the right to be offended by this slap in the face of the USA by Islam. http://beregondsbar.com/the-right-to-feel-offended/ Written by Steve Posted in Personal Opinion Tagged with [...]