Cab Driver Attacked for being Muslim

Sigh

Okay, so I'm scanning the news of the day, trying to find out who my "winner" is for today and I find this article.  A NYC cab driver was stabbed in the neck and face after confirming that he was indeed of Muslim faith after the passenger asked him.  Michael Enright, 21, who I resembles your stereo-typical WASP, hailed a cab on Tuesday early-evening and then attacked the driver after asking him if he was Muslim.

This is clearly not the only religious war going on in NYC right now.  We've all heard and read about the protests going on because the city approved for a Muslim Mosque to be built close to ground zero.  Which is in itself another completely ludicrous event.  I recently read something about this that I so completely agree with that I wanted to share:

"There's a small chance you have heard about a plan to build a mosque near (not "at") Ground Zero in New York. The controversy is puzzling on many levels, most important, that this is America! Freedom must not be an empty concept. Freedom of religion means freedom of religion. The basic bargain of the First Amendment, as regards speech as well as faith, is that the sole way to protect the right to opinions and beliefs is to protect all opinions and all beliefs, keeping government out of the business of deciding which ones we like or don't like.

The people who attacked the United States on 9/11 might have called themselves Muslims, though clearly they were breaking the tenets of their faith. All religions have produced a few murderous fanatics -- we don't hold this against the faith when Christianity or Judaism is involved. Baruch Goldstein, raised as a Jew, used a machine gun to murder 29 Muslims in 1994 in Hebron on the West Bank. Goldstein was a monster, not a religious believer, and was breaking the tenets of the faith he claimed. No sensible person would say that because of Baruch Goldstein, synagogues should not be built on the West Bank. Timothy McVeigh, who was raised as a Christian, murdered 168 people with a terrorist bomb in Oklahoma City, and it's clear to everyone he was breaking the tenets of his faith. Why can't we understand the same thing about the 9/11 killers? No one would object to a Christian church being built near the Oklahoma City terror bomb site.
Here's what really puzzles me -- with all the snarling on display regarding the proposed downtown New York mosque, there's been no discussion of the mosque that already exists inside the Pentagon. Islamic services are held in an interfaith chapel quite close to where a plane flown by murderers struck on 9/11, and that has caused no problems. The Washington Post buried the story on Page A-11, and most newspapers and newscasts haven't mentioned the Pentagon mosque at all. If the people who work inside the Pentagon can see past their differences and embrace religious tolerance, how come this is impossible for people such as Newt Gingrich?"
- Gregg Easterbrook

We have seen what religious wars have done over the years.  Look at Israel and Palestine now, they are still fighting.  America is the country of freedom of speech and religion.  We are living in a different place that we were 10 years ago, I understand that.  But if we are are not careful, we are going to continue down a road on internal religious strife that will be more costly than any individual terrorist acts.

Just my opinion, what do you think.  Agree?  Disagree?  Think I should be punched?  Post you comments.