a few things to be angrier about than the ground zero mosque

First let me go on the record by saying that I am personally opposed to the building of the mosque/Islamic center/whatever anywhere near Ground Zero. It's polarizing, hurtful, and just generally in very bad taste. However, Imam Rauf is an American citizen and perfectly within his rights to build a religious establishment on privately owned property. I hope that he folds under pressure from the private sector, but there's absolutely no way that any freedom-loving person could hope that the city, state, or federal government would infringe upon Imam Rauf's rights. The whole situation has become pretty poisonous. But whatever happens, it's okay. Muslim-Americans will get over it if it's not built, and those opposed to the mosque will get over it if it is built. Americans have thick skin, and there are worse things. Here are a few.

Femicide in Juarez. Mexican President Calderon's war against drug cartels and the resulting violence have been getting a lot of media attention this year, and rightfully so. But people seem to have forgotten that a war on women has been endemic to one area of Mexico for nearly 20 years. Over 1,000 women have been murdered by rapists, robbers, domestic abusers, and narco death squad executioners in Juarez. There are hundreds more who are missing. Mass graves including both women and men have been unearthed in and around Juarez. And it's not slowing down. If you're heartless and don't really care, you should probably know that Juarez is directly across the border from the United States. A lot of this violence is motivated by the drug trade, so if you live in Texas and do a lot of cocaine, you should probably have a real moment of introspection. The fact that this type of carnage is happening in our own back yard is horrifying. Just this week yet another dead woman was found. Decapitated.


Iran's Nuclear Program. This is a very complicated ongoing political issue, but here's my take on it: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust-denying nut who hates the West and wants to destroy Israel. So nobody's buying his whole "we need a nuclear program for clean energy" thing - not Dubya then, and not Obama now. And, despite intense political pressure, Iran has not, and will not, stop enriching uranium. The United Nations has thrown a few sanctions their way which have done absolutely nothing. (Surprise!) Ahmadinejad is not going to blow us up next week or anything, but Israel is a different story. And, regardless of your personal political beliefs about Israel, there is no way that any sound-minded person would condone the eradication of a people. I'm not being melodramatic; he really does want to wipe them out. I know because he has repeatedly said it himself. Do you want this guy enriching uranium? Didn't think so.

Mass rapes in the Congo. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the rape capital of the world (over 15,000 last year), with as many as 303 reported over a span of only 4 days. Most victims are adolescent girls, but reported cases span from ages 3 to 75. And these are just the ones the authorities know about. In the Congo, rape is used as a weapon of war to "punish" villages and break the spirit of normal civilians. This violence is fueled by the struggle for control over conflict minerals that are used in a lot of our cell phones. Although the international community has been aware of this situation for years (even the clueless CBS News did a big story on this crisis in 2008), very little has changed. The United Nations had the gall earlier this week to release a report "shedding light" on the situation. This to me just affirms once again how impotent the U.N. is. All of this has been going on right under the noses of peacekeeping forces, and paperwork is the best they can do. I'm sure the women of the Congo are very grateful for their help. Maybe next year, after 15,000 more rapes, they'll get a new and improved report.

I basically picked these issues off the top of my head and kept it to 3 for the sake of brevity. The real list is a whollleee lot longer. To make a massive understatement, people are not being very kind to one another. Whether its the grieving widow of a fireman in New York, a motherless child in Juarez, Israelis fearing for their lives, or girls living in the Congo with the fear and shame of rape...People are having a hard time out there. So, although what Imam Rauf is doing kinda boils my blood, I do my best to look at the situation with a little perspective. I wanna save my righteous fury for things that REALLY count, and I'm just not sure that the Ground Zero mosque is one of them. As always, I could be wrong.


Here are a few resources if you want to know more about these issues:

• Fact Sheet: Femicide in Juarez - National Organization for Women 
• Amnesty International USA: Juarez and Chihuahua 
• Council on Foreign Relations: Iran's Nuclear Program 
• BBC Q&A: Iran and the Nuclear Issue 
• Enough Project: Conflict Minerals
• The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo - A Documentary 
• Amnesty International USA: DRC