What Does America Mean To You?

[cahwyguy]

If someone was to ask me what America means in one word, I would say, “Freedom”. Freedom to say what you want to say. Freedom to believe what you want to believe. This is why America is the envy of other nations, and why extremist religious groups-of all ilks-hate us with a burning passion. This freedom that we have was hard fought, and we must

Comments

[trinker]

I wonder how often "Fair and Balanced(tm)" media outlets give any real weight and respect to the opposition?

There's this accusation that the NYT is completely partisan. But they publish opposing viewpoints in a lot of articles. How does that work, again?

Closer to the original topic:

Those in Osama bin Laden's Wahabbi school consider the Sufism espoused by Abdul Rauf a degenerate form of the religion. And in April, Iraqi authorities said they uncovered a Sept. 11-style Al Qaeda plot to fly planes into mosques revered by Shiite Muslims in the cities of Najaf and Karbala, underscoring the disdain the extremist network holds for Muslims who don't adhere to its puritanical Sunni brand of Islam.

So...Abdul Rauf's considered degenerate by Osama bin Laden. But that's not good enough for people who want to say that Park 51 would mean Al Qaeda winning.

Despite all the insistence that because Islam is a religion, and not an ethnicity, that this isn't racism...if the opponents in this were not convinced that Islam is the religion of dark people, if their major exposure to Islam prior to Iranian extremism and then Wahabbism was Nation of Islam...if there wasn't some unexamined conviction that Islam is *anti White*, would this discussion ever have taken place, starting 10 years ago?

[barnabas_truman]

Complaints that newspapers have a liberal bias are a vast right-wing conspiracy intended to force moderate newspapers more towards the right.

[trinker]

Between that and the way that the Democratic party leadership has been actively throwing away any advantage to be gained by having had a voter mandate...

AAAGH.