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Ground Zero Mosque Speech

Thesis Statements

  1. In the speech, “Ground Zero Mosque” by Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg falsely draws a connection between the denial of landmark status to honoring the freedom of religion. (Open Thesis)
  2. The owners of the mosque and community center should respect the decision by the City’s Landmark Preservation Commission because the owners were never denied the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their religion.

Evidence

  1. In the speech, Bloomberg says “The decision was based solely on the fact that there was little architectural significance to the building. But with our without designation, there is nothing in the law that would prevent the owners from opening a mosque with the existing building.” This piece of evidence would be valuable to include in an argument because it would allow the reader to see author conceding to a very valid point, which invokes logos and ultimately will make the argument more convincing.
  2. Whether or not a building is architecturally significant, it should not have a role on determining whether or not people can practice a religion. This is underlying idea behind America: that freedom, including religions freedom is protected by the government. The decision of denial of landmark status by the City’s Landmark Preservation Commission therefore does not violate any constitutional rights that the people of the United States have. This evidence uses the fundamental idea of what freedom means in America to convince the audience that religious freedom is not being violated. Additionally, by explicitly mentioning the names of the organizations and countries, it builds ethos and credibility as they are often looked up to.

Counter Claims

  1. Though it is ethical to provide assistance for people that are often oppressed because of their religious views or background, the law and the government should not be the ones instituting these means of assistance as their responsibility is to ensure that rules and laws are being met, and to ultimately show no favoritism towards a specific religion.
  2. What if it is strictly important within the religion to have architecturally significant landmarks? Though a religion may find it important and significant for a building to be recognized as architecturally significant, because of the generally accepted definition of what it means to hold architectural significance, it still would not be logical to change the definition simply because a religion says to do so.

RAPS Rhetorical Devices

  1. Bloomberg’s literary allusion towards the law and constitution backs his argument that “the government has no right whatsoever to deny that [freedom of religion]” and “we should never allow [denial of building of religious places] it to happen here”
  2. In the “Ground Zero Mosque” speech, Bloomberg appeals to his audience’s sense of unity, claiming “Whether your parents were born here, or you cam here yesterday, you are a New Yorker” and “The mosque will help to bring our City even closer together and help repudiate the false and repugnant idea that the attacks of 9/11”
  3. In “Ground Zero Mosque”, Bloomberg’s patriotic tone actively encourages his audience to move on from their past and to continue building a successful future acknowledging that, “On that day 3,000 people were killed because some murderous fanatics didn’t want us to enjoy the freedom to profess our own faith” and that “We honor their lives [lost] by defending those rights - and the freedoms that the terrorists attacked”