Noga and Jonathan, thanks for the input. How can we claim that our nation is noble, free, or worthy of respect if we act exactly the same as those we dislike the most? Some of us believe it’s important to be proud of our nation and to believe that it superior to other nations because of its actions. That’s a Christian belief. I’m sorry if you don’t believe that that religion can be valuable, either.
I find many of the responses to be fallacious. Remember that the original comment was “The Empire state building is lit green for Eid[...something].” I would say, if you can’t talk about the topic, don’t press ‘reply.’
1. There’s nothing particularly politically correct about the lighting, especially if you don’t mind lighting the place for Chananaka. Numbers are shaky, but there are probably about 1/2 to 2/3 the number of Jewish US Citizens as Muslim US citizens, and most of them are in major cities because, frankly, they feel living in the suburbs and rural areas is dangerous (which, for them, it is). Think of what would happen if they moved next to Bapakgila.
2. Muslims aren’t burning a whole lot of churches, especially in the USA. White Supremists in the South are your biggest threat of that.
3. Muslims citizens aren’t flying anything into any towers, and it’s much less likely they’ll fly them into one that’s celebrating their own holiday. That’s so fallacious there’s not even a term for it.
4. “Appeasement” is generally considered giving land, money, or power to your enemy in expectation that they will be satisfied with it (Hitler: “All I want it Austria, since it was part of Germany anyway). Lighting a tower… not so much.
5. “Making people feel welcome” is not related to the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers. What you would need to make such a claim, mishu, would be that you welcomed the terrorists into your country, and that we didn’t welcome pretty much all the other people who didn’t fly planes into our buildings. That a large burden of proof.
6. I’m not going to respond to the anti-religion people. Throughout history, anti-religious dictators have killed as many folks as hypocrites touting religious names.
Bapakgila, based on your grammar, I find it hard to believe you’ve maintained a job that would allow you to travel so much as you’ve said. I work with a Taoist from Malaysia, which is, I believe, second to Indonesia in Muslim population; he has no stories of repression (except that they have social values similar to the social right). I suppose “Dave in NH” is saying that Islam is heading towards the psychopathy of Christian Fundamentalism, which indeed would lead to a major problem.
