Mosque vs. Tennessee Community

Mosque in Tennessee faces opposition
Never say that Americans lack bigotry. They can be just as bigoted as anyone in the world. In that sense, Americans are pretty much are like everybody else, regardless of color, creed or national background.
In this case, a Tennessee community took umbrage at group of Muslims in their community building a mosque to hold their prayer services in. The county officials went along with majority in the county and did all sorts of things to block the mosque.
I think it was pretty stupid of them, but I have known plenty of local government officials who, to put it generously, were not the brightest bulb around.
So what should we make of this? Well, I could point out that in places like Saudi Arabia and other countries, people of minority faith also are prohibited from building their own houses of worship, but then, America is supposed to be better than that.
Yes, we are supposed to be better than that, but then again we are only human, so we are reduced to just trying to be better than that. Still, I can think of any number of issues on which some Americans are just out there with their prejudices. Of course, if you call them on it, they go: “What? Who me? There isn’t a prejudiced bone in my body!”
And they would be full of bovine scatology. We are all prejudiced to one degree or another, only some are more than others. We just don’t want to admit it.
I admit it. Won’t tell you what my prejudices are, but I have them, and I suspect that anyone reading this, if they are honest with themselves, would admit they have prejudices.
Now, I can understand why these “Christians” in Tennessee might be a bit apprehensive around Muslims setting up shop in their community. I mean we are fed our daily ration in the news everyday about Muslim violence. It is not that we don’t have our own violence, but if I wanted to I could cite several stories in the current news cycle that would illustrate Muslim violence, whether it is Muslim v. Muslim, Muslim v. Jew, or just Muslim v. infidels in general. It is not a pretty picture and unfortunately paints the entire faith with an image of violence. So, it is not surprising, that the people in this Tennessee community are a bit chary of having an obvious rallying point for “those people.”
The thing is that not all Muslims are Jihadis, just as not all Americans are religious bigots or racial bigots. (It seems most are financial bigots, however)
So, for a nation that once prided itself on its religious tolerance (which was less than legend would have you believe), this is a sad chapter and a classic example of the millennia-old NIMBYism that infects just about all of humanity.
Note: NIMBYism is an acronym: Not In My BackYard. In other words, you can do what you want near somebody else, just don’t do it around me.