By Kevin Foley
It’s a controversy that just won’t go away. The raw emotions of those for and against the Park51 Muslim community center in lower Manhattan were on vivid display yesterday morning as Fox News blatherer Bill O’Reilly tangled with liberal chatterboxes Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar on “The View.”
In discussing his book, “Pinheads and Patriots” (guess who is who in Bill-O’s world), O’Reilly declared that the Park 51 Center is “inappropriate.”
Behar interrupted, “This is America!” O’Reilly, never short on condescension, exclaimed, “Listen to me because you’ll learn…70 percent of Americans don’t want that mosque down there!”
The figure is actually closer to 60 percent, but that isn’t what caused the fireworks. O’Reilly’s next statement was: “Muslims killed us on 9-11!”
Whoopi’s reaction was bleeped out and Behar flew out of her chair saying, “I don’t want to sit here.” Goldberg and Behar stormed off the set with their live studio audience cheering them on.
After they were gone, Barbara Walters scolded her co-hosts, “You have just seen what should not happen!” before pointing out to Bill-O that it was “extremists” who killed Americans on 9-11, not all Muslims. O’Reilly apologized and Behar and Goldberg skulked back to their seats.
It was an astonishing flair-up coming from people whose stock and trade is verbal skirmishing but it also underscored the overheated passions on both sides of the debate over the proposed center.
Over here are those who view Park51 as a Muslim affront to America because of its proximity to Ground Zero. In that corner are those who believe we can’t place restrictions on any religion and still be called America.
Along with Whoopi and Joy, I happen to be in the latter camp. Opponents repeatedly refer to Park51 as the “Ground Zero mosque” or “victory mosque.” This is a deliberate distortion far removed from the actual intent and vision of Park51: “Park51 is a nonsectarian community, cultural and interfaith spiritual center along with a Muslim prayer area and a monument to honor all those we lost on 9/11. Park51 enriches lower Manhattan in body and spirit, with ecologically conscious design and operation. Our goals are pluralism, service, arts and culture, health and healing.”
It is difficult to understand why such a mission could be viewed as offensive in a country that values diversity.
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Kevin
Foley is president of KEF
Media Associates, an Atlanta-based producer and distributor
of sponsored news content to television and radio media. |