Haters Go After the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’
Leonard Peikoff: even crazier after all these years
by: Justin Raimondo
Nothing illustrates the utter craziness of our society in the post-9/11 era than the controversy over the “Ground Zero mosque.” To begin with, the proposed Islamic center – not a mosque, but the Muslim equivalent of the YMCA – a nonprofit foundation wants to build in New York City isn’t at “ground zero,” it is four blocks from the site of the World Trade Center. But that doesn’t deter demagogues like Newt Gingrich and various other unsavory opportunists from making it into a political issue.
Never mind the fact that there is already a mosque four blocks away from the site of the World Trade Center (see here), which has been there for many years. If we follow the “logic” of Newt and his fellow crusaders, then this should be torn down – along with all the other hundreds of mosques in New York City. And don’t forget Washington, D.C., the site of the attack on the Pentagon: surely symbols of the “enemy” religion must be banned there, too.
Of course, that would suit the haters, like Pamela “Shrieking Harpy” Geller, fuehrer of the “Stop the Islamization of America” movement, just fine. Geller is a self-proclaimed “Objectivist,” a follower of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, whose blog – “Atlas Shrugs” – is named after Rand’s famous novel. It’s a case of intellectual expropriation both obscene and absurd, since Geller’s style of “argumentation” is as emotion-laden and out of control as Rand’s was cool, objective, and rational. Geller’s “argument” is that all Muslims are inherently and irredeemably evil, and out to destroy America: there are no “moderates,” and those who pretend to be so are merely biding their time until the day they can reveal their true colors and impose Sharia law on the rest of us. Reading her tracts is kind of like perusing the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, only with Muslims taking the place of Jews as the sinister, all-powerful Forces of Darkness.
Reposted from LewRockwell.com