From the Huffington Post:
A new survey from the Democratic-affiliated firm Public Policy Polling finds that more Republicans support constructing a strip club than a mosque near Ground Zero.
Just 4 percent of Republican respondents said they support building a mosque two blocks from the site, whereas 21 percent said they would be fine with a strip club. Forty-nine percent of Democrats said they supported the mosque and 33 for the strip club. Among Independents, it was 34 percent for the mosque and 28 percent for the strip club.
Weird, eh? Can the kooky Republicans get any crazier or more Islamophobic? The HuffPo report contains the following quote from Ibrahim Hooper, from the Council on American-Islamic Relations:
This shows the extent and impact of the recent rise in anti-Islam rhetoric in our society that people would rather have some kind of establishment perpetuating immoral behavior over a house of worship [run] by people who are trying to promote morality and ethics and righteous behavior.
Oh, and for those of you haven’t been following this story that closely, and might be wondering why pollsters even posed a “mosque v strip club” question, here’s some background from the HuffPo report:
During the debate over whether to build a planned Islamic cultural center near the memorial site, many media outlets noted that the “sacred” ground surrounding the area is home to all sorts of less-than-sacred outlets.
“In a walk of the streets within three blocks of Ground Zero, the Daily News counted 17 pizza shops, 18 bank branches, 11 bars, 10 shoe stores and 17 separate salons where a girl can get her lady parts groomed,” reported the paper in August. It also pointed to a strip club called “Pussycat Lounge” just two blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood, as well as a place called “Thunder Lingerie”.
On a side note, it is worth pointing out that what is being built near Ground Zero by the Cordoba Initiative is not a “mosque“, as I made clear in this piece. But why let little things like FACTS get in the way of prejudice, bigotry and fear-mongering?
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