Michael Moore's Idea for the NY Islamic Center
BLITZER: Michael Moore is no stranger to controversy and he doesn't hold back. How he feels about the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero in New York City is no exception. The filmmaker has taken an uncompromising position on how that project should be handled. Joining us now from Miami, the documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. Michael, thanks very much for coming in.</s>MICHAEL MOORE, FILMMAKER: Thanks for having me, Blitz. I appreciate it. I can call you Blitz, right?</s>BLITZER: You can call me Blitz, you can call me Wolf, whatever you want. That's fine.</s>MOORE: All right. Thank you.</s>BLITZER: Let's talk -- let's talk a little bit about this latest -- this latest article or blog that you wrote because it sort of jumped out at me. You said you don't want the Islamic cultural center to be built near Ground Zero, you want it to be built on Ground Zero. Tell us why.</s>MOORE: Well, I'm just so offended by the bullying that's been taking place, picking on people who make up a very small percentage of our population and treating them as if they're not Americans. And they have every right to be in, near, around, at Ground Zero as anyone else. And I think -- I just got to thinking that, you know, the America that I believe in is an America that is generous of spirit and not one that wants to attack people because of their religious faith. And I personally feel very bad that these 19 murderers of 9/11 who killed 3,000 people were able to hijack a religion, did something what they said was in the name of Islam, and have made life very difficult for everybody else who is a member of this faith. And I thought what better way could we, those of us who are not of the Islamic faith, do to show our fellow Muslim Americans that we so understand that these murderers hijacked their religion from them, than to help restore the good name of their faith right there, right there at Ground Zero. I mean, I frankly...</s>BLITZER: Let me just...</s>MOORE: I believe that there -- yes.</s>BLITZER: I was just going to say, let me -- let me interrupt for a moment because, as you know, a lot of Americans think that they have every right to build the cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero, but they don't think it's necessarily appropriate. A brand-new Quinnipiac University poll, for example, asked, "Is it appropriate to build a mosque and Islamic center near Ground Zero?" And 28 percent said yes, 63 percent said no. Why do Americans -- why are they so opposed to this idea of building this mosque and cultural center near, not on Ground Zero, but even near Ground Zero?</s>MOORE: Yes, even near it. Yes, I think it's because we're -- we're a little slow on the uptake sometimes. Those are pretty much the exact numbers of the people at the beginning of the Iraq war of 28 percent, 30 percent opposed it, and about 70 percent were in favor of it. We always seem to get it wrong at first. Whether that was with slavery, killing Indians, women not voting. We're not very good at the beginning of these things. We're really great, though, as we move along. We live in a nation where, sadly, people listen to things; they get afraid very easily. We have 40 million adult Americans who are functional illiterates, which means they can't read and write above the fourth grade level. So that's the America we live in, and sometimes we have to put up with that. But everybody, regardless of their level of ignorance, I believe at their core is good and has a good heart and, if presented with the truth, and the truth is, is that -- that Muslim Americans are Americans the same as every other American.</s>BLITZER: And what do you say, Michael -- what do you say, Michael, to a family member of someone who was killed at Ground Zero who says, "You know, I don't really think this is appropriate"? Look in the camera and tell us what you would say to that family member.</s>MOORE: I would say that I completely understand how you feel. If a member of my family was murdered, I live in a nation where they would not allow me to sit on the jury. Yet common sense KIND OF says to me, but who better to judge those who took my family member's life than the family itself to get retribution? But we don't have a system like that, do we? The reason we don't is because -- is because we have to separate the emotion from it, because sometimes, if we just let emotion take over and run things, the wrong decisions get made. I went to mass yesterday, Wolf. Do you think I'm a pedophile sympathizer? Should I be judged because some priests committed a crime against children? Do you think less of me because of that, or because Timothy McVeigh was a Catholic and blew up the Oklahoma City building? Should a Catholic Church not be allowed anywhere near the Oklahoma City building, because he was Catholic? I've got to tell you, I remember the very first presidential election I remember -- I was 6 years old -- John Kennedy versus Richard Nixon. And I remember, 6 years old, hearing all this stuff about, if Kennedy was elected, the pope was going to run the country. And I remember feeling like there was something wrong, there was something bad about -- why was I bad because I was Catholic? And -- and this is our history, and we have got to stop this. And -- and those of us who are part of the majority have to always stand up for the minority when they're being bullied by people who are using this issue for their own political gain.</s>BLITZER: What did you think of the way the president, the commanding general in Afghanistan, General Petraeus, the news media, for that matter, handled the whole issue of that -- of that pastor in Florida who said he was going to burn a couple hundred copies of the Koran?</s>MOORE: Well, it's never good to have our general saying that we're afraid of anything. I mean, I just -- I got a whole other thing about that. That could -- we could take another show on that. I just think when you're talking about burning the Koran, let me just point out again to my fellow Americans, 80 percent of whom don't have a passport and never leave the country, never see the rest of the world, don't know anything about what's going on -- you know, I've had had the good fortune to be able to get out of here and see a bit of this planet we live on. The Koran has 25 different mentions of Jesus in that holy book, 25. They consider Jesus a messenger of God. Why would you burn a book that beautifully mentions Jesus at least two dozen times? I mean, how many Americans even know -- even know that? It really is just -- I just -- it just seems so crazy to me. I'm just -- I fed up with it. And I just felt like I had to take a stand and say something about this. You know, Arabs and Muslims, you know, they're 0.6 percent of our population. Whenever the angry mob turns on a small group, it's best to know that when they're done with that group, they're of to the next small group. So everybody should think about that, because we all belong to our own ethnic groups that either came to this country by choice or whose ancestors were brought here by force as slaves or who were here originally as Native Americans. That's the melting pot of who we are. And we should always stand up against the angry mob when they're trying to take away a basic inherent right of anybody in this country.</s>BLITZER: Michael Moore, there's so many other issues that I want to get into, but that will have to wait for another day. Thanks, as usual, for coming in, really appreciate it.</s>MOORE: Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it here. Appreciate it.</s>BLITZER: A wrestling match over taxes. Is the House Republican leader about to cry "uncle"? And Barbara Starr took you on the journey home with wounded troops. Now she shows you how they're recovering together.