Why are opponents to the planned Lower Manhattan Muslim community center (or, as they call it, the Ground Zero Mosque) asking children to boycott Justin Bieber? Because that Canadian jerk weighed in on the controversy in the well-known political journal Tiger Beat. Apparently Andy Sullivan, one of the most vocal opponents to the Park51 project, saw a snippet of the interview on the Internet, and ordered his children to stop loving the Bieber with all of the power in their tiny, fiery hearts. “I informed them, ‘Hey guys, guess what? Justin Bieber spoke out for the ground zero mosque,’” Sullivan told Salon. “My little girl took down his poster and said she didn’t want to have nothing to do with him anymore. These are my kids. They’re living this thing.” Sullivan’s allies started a Facebook group to encourage more children to do the same.
Salon went through Tiger Beat to try to find the quote but had no luck. The only mention of the interview online was from the website CelebJihad.com. Here’s part of the story:
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.
Now, that is ridiculous. What good would a dialogue between religions about the most awesome Justin Bieber song do? It would only last as long as it takes to say “‘Cause shorty is an eenie meenie mine mo lova,” and then all the religions would go right home to start trash-talking one another behind their backs all over again!
Mosque foes launch Bieber boycott [Salon]
Related: New York’s 2010 profile of Justin Bieber [NYM]
