The Qur'an
Dear Muslims.
I may not be considered completely politically correct in my statement on this but I feel no shame in expressing this. I do not care how compatible you think your religion is with democracy. I do not care about your arguments that Islam is for peace and that the "terrorists" are a minority. I do not care because all of this is just an opinion. That is what religion is: It is just an opinion.
Now if you can get past your initial emotional reaction to this I will tell you a little bit more about why I feel this way. Allow me to introduce you to a special thing that our country strives to uphold called the freedom of speech. Freedom is speech tests both ones faith in their own ideas and ones ability to tolerate the ideas of others. Free speech says that just as you have the right to express your own opinion, others have the right to do this as well, even if you do not agree with them. The case may be that others do not agree with the ideas and ideals you hold dear as well. You are also protected against attacks by those people. The true limit of free speech is when words lead to actual illegal action. Even then talking about breaking the law is in itself not illegal, but it does not help your court case after you have been caught perpetrating such actions.
Do I support your right to read the Qur'an? Yes. Do I need to understand the tenets of your faith to understand why this free speech should be protected? No absolutely not. I do not need to understand your reasons for worship because that is your personal decision, and as an American who values the rights of individuals to determine the course of their own lives, I refrain from interfering in your life as I expect you to do the same for me.
Do I believe that Pastor Terry Jones was showing a lack of tact and advertising his own ignorance for the sake of public attention? Yes definitely, but if your faith in the idea of your religion is strong, you should be able to understand that burning a book is a truly meaningless act. A book with printed words is simply a medium on which information is conveyed. Burning a book does not destroy an idea. If you have anything that even resembles a firm belief in your own ideas, you will be able to tell the difference. The actions of others only weakens the faith of those who have weak faith. If this insults you then so be it. I support his right to burn your book because I support the right to free speech even if that speech is unpopular or ignorant. I also support the right of the proposed Islamic cultural center to be built near "ground zero". I believe this because I believe individual rights should not be granted at the whim of popular opinion. I believe this center and you as a Muslim have the right to exist, no matter how much public resentment for it there is.
What truly bothers me: Sharia Law. Separation of church and state in America is already under constant attack by politicized Christian Conservatives. We don't need more wackjobs trying to erode civil rights in America for their own selfish expressions of cultural vanity which are actually thinly veiled power grabs. Maybe you don't quite understand how strongly Americans value individual liberties. Maybe you didn't read up on our war for independence and then our civil war? We are a nation that is in constant struggle to protect ideas. Welcome to America! A sea of apposing view points that are all legally protected. You can check your ego at the door and understand that your personal rights are inextricably tied to the rights of all other that dwell in this land, or you can leave. Yep that's right. I said YOU CAN LEAVE!
That said, if you have made it to this point and aren't totally offended, welcome to America! The real estate prices are still dropping, but isn't that making mortgage-less real estate buying so much more possible in neighborhoods where Mosque building might have been too expensive to consider a couple years ago?