Fred Slough
Fred Slough is with the law firm of Slough, Connealy, Irwin, and Madden, a law firm with the most decent and humane group of people that I know of in the practice of law. Fred is an expert on the law but he is also a strong supporter of human rights. The following is his statement concerning the current controversy surrounding the building of a Muslim Center near the site of the 9/11 tragedy in New York:
The site of the 9/11 murders is now being called “sacred” in an effort to thwart the building of a mosque that is only nearby, not actually on the “sacred ground”. This position is clearly not American. Americans respect the rights of people of every faith to worship where they please. And, we do not blame the Muslim faith and Muslim people for the criminal acts of the few.
If it is sacred, it is not Christian sacred, Muslim sacred or Hindu sacred. It is American sacred. And the people who died there were of all faiths. To decide otherwise and not allow the mosque is an aggressive insult to Islam and its adherents that is not worthy of the people who live under our Constitution and enjoy the blessings of liberty.
Many came here to avoid religious persecution. We incorporated religious liberty into the founding of this nation. Are we such cowards that we will give that up so easily? Or has history been forgotten because we are riding our religious high horse and wish to condemn the Muslim faith to second class status?
Fred Slough
The Muslim faith is of no status since it is not even a religion but uses the veneer of religion for its agenda.
The Muslims have assaulted the known world since its origins.
If it were left up to me or if I had the money I would drive a herd of swine over this site and kill them on it.
I have no respect at all for the Muslim mentality and their so called religion is not to be tolerated or respected.It is an evil institution and always has been.Wherever they become the majority terror and persecution reign.As individual persons they deserve the rights and respect due to the person.But they have no right to practice their so called religion in this country.
This country is Christian by custom and tradition established by the American people and does not and should not allow any religion that would and will destroy Christianity if given the chance.It was the Christian Faith and Christian Families that founded this country and gave it its existence.This country does not have to tolerate anything that threatens its existence.The existence of this country depends on Christianity and its moral teachings.Congress may not be able to establish a religion but one can be established by the people.
But don’t lose hope.The way things are going perhaps Christianity will be short lived.
Thank you for your comment Bruce. I must, however, vociferously and strongly disagree with your view of Muslims as well as with your view of the role of Christianity in U.S. history. No doubt, as religions go, Christianity has dominated the U.S. religious culture. Nevertheless, the framers of the Constitution clearly favored a tolerant society. This country has been built by people who are Christians, Jews, Atheists, Muslims, and just about every imaginable type of religion.
Blaming Muslims in general for what the terrorists did on 9/11 is like blaming Christians for what Timothy McVey did at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma. He was, after all, a follower of a white supremicist, violent, terroristic Christian sect known as the Christian Identity Movement. I don’t think anyone would protest the building of a church close to that site.
Wow, Bruce!! Your understanding of Islam AND Christianity is clearly lacking! Islam,(despite the sick propaganda of authors like Samuel P. Huntington) has within its teachings no more inherent animosity towards Christianity than Christianity has for other religions. As a matter of fact, throughout even the bloodiest periods of “religious” warfare, historically Islam has been tolerant of the rights of others to practice their religions, even WITHIN Muslim dominated territories. Perhaps even more so than people of other faiths were afforded in Christian dominated territories! There is no intrinsic “mission” to destroy Christianity within Islam so you can relax, Bruce. Of course today there are the “wahabi” fundamentalist cults within which reside actual America and Jew hating terrorists who have no pretense towards respecting the views of others. Strangely, they use language a lot like yours, Bruce! Yes! You actually have quite a bit in common with the perversion of Islam that you ignorantly believe is typical of ALL of Islam. See, you say things like “I have no respect at all for the muslim mentality and their so called religion should not be tolerated or respected. It is an evil institution and always has been”. Now Bruce, that sounds remarkably similar to the type of statements made by psycopathic Wahabi terrorist cult members about the United States, Jews, or other Muslims who do not follow the sick, intolerant, fundamentalist view of Islam that they follow. Both of you deny the “right” of others, not like you, to simply exist. Now, since you realize that you esentially share the same worldview as sick, depraved terrorists, it might suprise you to know that the main financial base of wahabi terrorism, through the banking networks of the BAE, is the Wahabist Saudi royal family. Yes, the same ones who play power politics and pal around with ultra-“christian” George W.Bush and friends! The very same George W Bush who famously conspired to fly members of the Wahabist Bin-Laden family out of the country immediately after the 9/11 attacks. The same Bush/ neo-con networks who conspired to use the terrorist attacks of 9/11 as a trigger to manipulate the United States into a never-ending power-grab operation throughout the Muslim world in the name of “fighting terrorism”! So it DOES make sense!! The wahabist fundamentalists and the fundamentalist “Christians” like yourself are not really muslim or christian but facist/totalitarian! Neither of you are practicing religion but an outdated type of political facism cloaked in fundamentalist rhetoric more suitable for 12th century territorial/religious warfare than as a behavioral model for citizens of a modern nation state. As a matter of fact, despite your mis-understanding about the origins of the identity of the United States we were never a Christian nation. We have always been a nation state as envisaged by the Cardinal Nicholas De Cusa who’s thinking led to the development of the nation state as implicitly OPPOSED to the religous fighting that the world had known with territories being split by religious designations. So on that note, to state that America was founded on Christianity is absolutely incorrect. The United States was founded on many principles, one of them being an EXPLICIT separation of church and state! This was done precisely to keep people like you and your Wahabist, fundamentalist counterparts from practicing political totalitarianism in THE NAME OF RELIGION! So, Bruce, while you mistake your religous intolerance as patriotism, you actually do a disservice to our country when you mis-represent our priciples by suggesting that any one “religion” has the right to determine the “identity” of our nation. You also do a disservice to Christianity when you suggest that Christians should carry this type of hatred in their hearts. It seems you could stand to study your history and your bible a little closer.