No One Ever Accused Them Of Being Geniuses

It's been a while since I wrote about the (Non)Ground Zero (Non)Mosque figuring the story about the religious intolerance of those opposing the Park51 Project had mercifully faded into a well deserved obscurity.

Never underestimate the power of the righteous intolerant however, especially those who don't track down their facts.

Take a look at this from December 14, 2010:

One of the people promoting the movie is Andy Sullivan, a former professional karate fighter who's worked in the construction business for 30 years. He's even helped build two mosques, he said.

"I got plenty of Muslim friends," he said. "My kids grow up half a block from a mosque in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. That's a very, very huge populace of Muslims, in Bay Ridge. As a matter of fact, they call it Bay-root, now," he said, with a laugh.

But he was outraged at the proposed location for Park51 and said many Muslims he knows are also against the project. In recent months he organized a boycott by construction workers, who said they wouldn't work on the site. He also organized a boycott of celebrities who've endorsed the project, including John Cusack, Mayor Bloomberg, Stephen Colbert and Justin Bieber, who Sullivan claims gave the go-ahead to Park 51 in an interview with Tiger Beat magazine. Sullivan sayid regardless of Bieber's not-so-advanced age, his children will no longer attend Bieber's concerts.

"Are my two kids going to derail the Bieber machine?" asked Sullivan. "I don't think so. But it hurts. He said something that clearly hurt my kids, and hurt me. So, if you're gonna say statements that hurt, be prepared. There's gonna be fallout.

JUSTIN BIEBER?? TIGER BEAT?? What did the little Cah-NAYD-jen say about the NGZ NM?

Salon.com has the story from here:

Intrigued by the idea that Bieber would weigh in on one of the most polarizing political issues of the day, I began looking for his interview with Tiger Beat.

The magazine does cover Bieber obsessively ("Justin Bieber Dodges Dating Selena Gomez Question!" and "Did Justin Bieber Grow a Mustache?" are two recent features). But I couldn't find any sign of an interview on Park51.

So nothing from Tiger beat. So where did Bieber offend Andy the builder?

Here. It's a parody site called Celebjihad:

Justin Bieber has weighed on the controversy surrounding the so-called “Ground Zero” Mosque. In an interview with Tiger Beat, the pop sensation stressed that freedom of religion is what makes America great, and went on to say that those who oppose the Mosque are motivated by bigotry.

“Muslims should be allowed to build a mosque anywhere they want,” the singer said. “Coming from Canada, I’m not used to this level of intolerance, eh.”

Bieber went on to say that Muslims are “super cool,” Christians are “lame-o-rama,” and that the mosque will help “start a dialogue” with all religions about which Justin Bieber song is the most awesome.

“I was like seven when September 11th went down, and frankly I’m surprised people are still going on about it. Move on, already!”

Added the singer, “Everyone needs to just chillax and dance!”

It was posted in August. And how do we know it's a joke? As if the "- eh." at the end of one quotation didn't give it away (or the "chillax and dance" for that matter), Salon has the the site's disclaimer:

CelebJihad.com is a satirical website containing published rumors, speculation, assumptions, opinions, fiction as well as factual information

As well as a confirmation from the the proprietor of Celebjihad.

Didn't Andy ("I got plenty of Muslim friends") Sullivan even bother to track down the "source" of his being offended?

A level-headed rational person would have. But then again, no one ever accused the religiously intolerant of being level-headed or rational.

Let's just move on and chillax and dance already!

Happy New Year, everyone.