Get facts straight on Muslim center
There are (at least) two areas of confusion regarding the proposed Muslim Community Center in lower Manhattan.
It is not a mosque any more than a YMCA is a church or a JCC is a synagogue. It is a community center with swimming pool, fitness rooms, etc. I'm sure there will be a room for worship, just as there are in most hospitals, community centers, military stations and the Pentagon, but that is a far cry from a mosque.
The sponsor is a Sufi. The Sufi are a group heavy into meditation, mysticism, and of course, meditative dancing. There is no evidence I know of that any Sufi were ever involved in terrorism. They have been victimized by both Shiite and Sunni and had no connection with 9/11.
Of course, very few Shiite or Sunni were involved in or sympathetic to the atrocity of 9/11.
Those who mis-characterize this center are unwittingly helping out the people who actually are terrorists and their supporters by buttressing their false arguments that we are an arrogant, intolerant people who are enemies of Islam.
Such foolishness, by providing support to terrorist recruiting, actually endangers the lives of our service members and the safety of our communities.
Foster Brown
Oneonta
Animal dumping is wrong, cruel
'Tis the season of annual animal dumping.
Those of you who do it know who you are. Wouldn't it be kinder to put the animal to sleep or how about a bullet?
Instead you have them run around scared with nothing to eat and no idea where they are.
Of course I always end up with one of them.
If they are lucky, I find them a home.
All of you who do this, remember one thing, what goes around comes around. In the end, there is a place for people like you, and it isn't heaven.
Janet Whelan
Mount Vision
