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  1. etson, they already owned the space. It was a mosque pre-9/11. There are two other small store-front mosques in the area. It is not ‘at ground zero’, it is two blocks away. It has passed community board approval with only one dissenting vote, and it has passed landmarks.

    Are they building it there to make a point? Most likely they are. You can either believe it is to make a positive point, or you can believe they are building it to show what a great thing they did 9/11.

  2. France is usually more “tolerant”
    of social issues.

    …hey they even go topless on the beaches there
    “sacre bleu!”

    Although it can be viewed as a social issue, toplessness is part of the French CULTURAL aesthetic, just like their appreciation of “fine” cuisine. The French are LESS tolerant than many nations with regards to cultural influences from outside the country and their impact on France’s own culture. Therein lies much of their opposition to burkahs and to the influences that wide-scale immigration is having on French culture.

  3. It’s more than proximity to the Muslim world. At one point, weren’t half of those countries French colonies? Kinda the same reason you still find so many people moving from the Caribbean to England. Those colonies ties haven’t died and the issues resulting from those relations persist in when people migrate to the colonizing country.

  4. Haven’t been following the mosque story very closely. Are they building it there to make some kind of a point, ro did they just get a good deal on the space and then ran into opposition?
    Think I am with the ‘majority of New Yorkers’ on this one (according to the Siena poll I just read!). I don’t like the idea but I don’t think there is much that can reasonably be done to stop it.

  5. And yes, France has a much looser, more open immigration policy which, given their proximity to the Muslim world, is why this has become an issue. But the French are far less open about employing young Muslims as the US is in employing young Latinos.

  6. “you are attempting to deny truth.”

    Not at all, legion, I’m reading quite a bit myself about this subject these days. I think you are extreme in your thinking, and that this kind of extreme thinking and fear-mongering is NOT HELPFUL to sorting out the real issues.

    you march into the OT today saying: “Coming to a neighborhood near you:
    Sharia laws
    Subjugation of women
    Honor Killings
    Stonings”

    It’s fear-mongering, plain and simple. You weren’t posing thoughtful questions, you intended to rile things up with an extreme nonsensical viewpoint.

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