I must warn you in advance that this entry is going to be a rant, so read on at your own risk.

I am really annoyed at the public furor taking place over a Moslem group wanting to build a multi-story mosque within sight of “Ground Zero,” which is where the World Trade Towers collapsed. This is nothing but blatant bigotry against Moslems, which is disgraceful in a country which claims to be tolerant but whose populace often shows itself to be both selfish and narrow-minded.

And what does it say when major political leaders such as Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin are in the forefront of the anti-Moslem bigotry? Both those two politicians have millions of supporters as well, which seems to me an indication of the widespread and blatant bigotry in this country.

The majority of people causing the ruckus are Christians, which is even more hypocritical since the history of Christianity is filled with more intolerance and violence than any other religion. Almost as soon as Christianity became the dominant religion in the Roman Empire, its leaders persecuted all heretics who did not accept the “official” beliefs. It was very common in those years for the church hierarchy to pronounce death sentences upon heretics and nonbelievers and raise armies to destroy them wholesale.

And consider the Inquisition and the Crusades, both of which were the opposite of Christ's teachings. The Fourth Crusade even sacked the city of Constantinople which was actually a Christian city but which had the misfortune of being an Eastern Orthodox rather than Roman Catholic city.

And what about the terrorism in Northern Ireland between Catholics and Protestants, both supposedly Christians? Or right-wing supremacist groups in this country who oppose non-whites, non-Christians and even Southern Europeans who are Christians, but Catholics rather than Protestants.

It is pure hypocrisy that any Christians would distrust or denigrate the majority of Moslems because of some fringe groups of terrorists. I know many Moslems and they are every bit as devout and good people as those of any other religion. In the face of such hypocrisy and bigotry, I am almost ashamed to be a Christian, and ashamed to be an American. Perhaps I should take it a step further though and just be ashamed to be a human.