It's too bad Americans can't articulate their instincts. When Bill O'Reilly tried to defend his opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque on "The View" he said 70% of Americans oppose the Ground Zero Mosque. He got kicked and scratched by a bunch of girls until he apologized. (See debbieschlussel.com for more information.) Then some other FOX news clod, Brian Kilmeade says that "all Muslims are terrorists" and then apologizes (as he should). What people typically don't know is that 7% of FOX News is owned by Prince Al-Waleed, a Saudi gazillionaire who proves yet again that we get the best news money can buy. Is it any wonder that O'Reilly and Kilmeade back down under pressure and fail to explain themselves in a truly convincing manner.
So if you're reading this blog and this column, you know that I'm the "real deal". There's no 10-second sound bites to limit what I say. I don't post 3-5 columns a day blathering like an idiot (See http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com for a fine example.) demonizing Muslims. That's not me! I don't hold any illusions, but I count some Muslims as long-term personal and professional friends. I don't believe they're looking for new and creative ways to hurt my fellow American citizens. But I digress.
Here's the problem folks. Whether you're talking about FOX news' talking heads or just the average daily American, few people can articulate why Americans are so wary of this Ground Zero Mosque and all this talk about "Moderate Muslims". Let me assure you, FOX News ain't helping. So let me take a stab at this with the realization that this is a BLOG and I can always change my mind later if someone makes a really compelling argument to the contrary.
You see, in spite of a whole list of stuff Americans are upset about, the opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque boils down to something Americans know but can't articulate any better than Bill O'Reilly did on "The View". That "something" is the reaction of the Muslim world to the 9/11/01 attacks. That reaction can be summarized in three theses, all of which are insulting to Americans. Yet Muslims offer 2/3 of them freely without the faintest idea of how insulting they are. One of these theses is pretty obvious and results in people like Bill O'Reilly (and so many in the mainstream news media) retreating into the "They were radical Muslims" mode. If that were the only problem, few would oppose the Ground Zero Mosque.
So let me offer the three theses that make up the sum of opinion in the Muslim world (Naturally, there are a exceptions, but I'll touch on that later). They are:
1. High fives Osama bin Laden! The Jihad must continue.
2. The 9/11 attacks were terrible. There is no excuse for Muslims doing this. However, if the United States didn't have such a huge laundry list of transgressions against Muslims, the attacks never would have happened. I'm afraid the Jihad will continue.
3. The 9/11 attacks were terrible. No Muslim would do such a thing. Therefore, the attacks were actually carried out by the United States and/or their Zionist allies to justify waging war against us. Muslims must resist. Jihad is how we resist.
Thesis number one probably doesn't need much explanation. We know that lots of Muslims overseas feel that way about the United States. We saw news footage of Muslims celebrating the 9/11 attacks that were hastily removed by news bureaus in order to appease their Saudi/OPEC patrons. Still, the word got out and Americans weren't all that surprised.
Thesis number 2 is the darling of "moderate Muslims" as well as the extreme left. Basically, it's another version of "The beatings will continue until morale improves". Thesis number 2 tells us that America need only concede to Muslims on their list of grievances and we'll never have to worry about 9/11-type attacks again. Unfortunately, this doesn't explain the massive bombing attacks against Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Algeria etc; all Muslim nations.
But hey! The leftwingers embrace thesis 2. It must be true! After all, most terrorist attacks in Muslim countries are usually tucked away in the back pages of the newspapers and treated as unimportant.
The 3rd thesis boggles the mind of the average American. Some Americans are at least a little bit aware of thesis 3 and it's popularity in Muslim countries. We also know that there are all kinds of "9/11 truthers" running around pushing this thesis here in America. Some of these "truthers" are extreme leftwingers; others are from other parts of the political spectrum including (but certainly not limited to) the extreme right. That being said, most Americans are not fully aware at how popular thesis 3 is in Muslim countries. The "truthers" may seem whacky by American standards, but most Americans are unaware that thesis 3 is quite popular in Muslim countries.
So you might be saying to yourself: "Hey! I know Muslims that don't hold these three theses. They know who attacked us on 9/11 and don't believe for a millisecond that attacks like this would stop if America were to suddenly satisfy every grievance that exists in the Muslim world." I would hastily acknowledge a similar observation. There's only one problem: those whose views fall outside the three theses, are too few and far-between to form a critical mass of opposition to the rest. Americans can't articulate it, but we know this instinctively and THAT is why there is opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque.
FOX News, (and other mainstream news media outlets) cannot tell us WHY Americans oppose the Ground Zero Mosque. Nor can they articulate the fact that there's no critical mass of Muslims opposed to these three theses. Even if they could, they wouldn't dare. Their OPEC patrons would intervene and they know it.
That is FOX News' "Ground Zero Mosque Problem" and they are hardly alone in the mainstream news media. It need not be YOUR problem.
