The Mosque Hype!

I was recently bored out of my mind and on Facebook like normal, when a friend's Facebook status came across my newsfeed.

"Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City Bomber, was responsible for the deadliest terrorist attack within the US prior to 9/11. He was a Navy Veteran and a Catholic. What are the implications of applying the same 'reasoning' that many are applying to Islam due to the demographics of the 9/11 terrorists?"

This status instantly peeked my interest because I had never thought about this in the way that she has stated. The only things that I had been hearing was people's opinions on the mosque, and that there should not be a mosque built near Ground Zero based on the circumstances of the horrific events of 9/11. I could definitely see where people could be coming from with these opinions; however, seeing my friend's status made me think about how people have treated other people of different religions and cultures since the attacks.
The First Ammendment of the Constitution of the United States expresses that everyone has Freedom of Religion. Who is to say that a person of Islamic faith cannot practice their religion wherever they so choose? No one can! Also, going along with this fact, not all people are bad. Even though some of the terrorists who bombed and flew into the World Trade Center were Muslims, not all Muslims are terrorists.
This being said, everyone is NOT perfect! Just because we were raised in America does not imply that we are all good. Catholics, Buddhists, and Muslims, etc. alike all have their faults, no matter what religion. Timothy McVeigh was a person who was a domestic terrorist. He killed many innocent people by committing the Oklahoma City Bombings. Although I know very little about the attacks that he committed, I do know that killing is killing, and it is not always or ever connected to a religion. It is most often the person's own sick mind that leads them to do these horrific crimes. There is much bias coming from the news stations and other media. I feel that people should take into account the horror of these attacks, and realize there is no difference in attacks, besides the difference of domestic and international terrorist attacks. Also, I hope that you take from this that there should not be judgment placed on the innocent Muslim people... They are only trying to practice their religion. I feel that there was nothing intentional in the desired placement of the mosque. I think that people are taking this mosque debate way too far, and I feel that it may have been overexaggerated more than necessary. I feel that the "surveillance" on the media's part was poor, and the newsworthiness shouldn't have been one of the higher topics on the list, but this is only my opinion.

(I hope this peeks some interest of everyone else and that you can realize what I realized about the similarities in attacks on the US.)

First Blog!

Hi Everyone!
This is my first post for Mass Media& Politics! I am looking forward to blogging for this class and learning about everything that is going on around us! I am still trying to figure out the whole Twitter thing and blogging as well, so I hope to figure out everything really soon. My blogs will be posted on Twitter as soon as I figure out how! Thanks for being patient!
Katie Williams