No Mosque at Ground Zero

Message from Frank Gaffney: The Center for Security Policy today unveiled a powerful 1-minute video opposing the construction of a 13-story, $100 million mega-mosque near the hallowed ground of the World Trade Center. The Twin Towers were destroyed on 9/11 by adherents to the barbaric, supremacist and totalitarian program authoritative Islam calls "Shariah." And the imam who is promoting this mosque has publicly declared that he seeks to "bring Shariah to America."

As the ad makes clear, Shariah's followers have long built mosques on the most sacred sites of those they have conquered -- for example, on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, at Constantinople/Istanbul's St. Sophia Basilica and in Cordoba, Spain, the capital of the occupying Moors' Muslim kingdom.

A growing chorus of New Yorkers and other Americans -- including, notably, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin -- have expressed outrage at the prospect of a similar, permanent beachhead for Shariah being use to defile Ground Zero, and symbolize America's defeat at the hands of her enemies. We say, "No Mosque at Ground Zero."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkMolLriAkQ

usma1958-forum: Some random thoughts on the Cordoba "house".

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/08/fitzgerald-islams-double-faced-triumphalism-destruction-and-mosque-building.html
Words aside, even the mosque's scheduled opening date-9/11/2011-has two
aspects: to Americans, opening the mosque on 9/11 is to proclaim a new
beginning with the Muslim world on the ten-year anniversary of the worst
terror strikes on American soil; however, it just so happens that
Koranic verse 9:111 is one of the loftiest calls for suicidal
jihad-believers are exhorted to "kill and be killed"-and is probably the
reason al-Qaeda originally chose that date to strike.
http://thenationalscene.com/ground-mosque-hidden-meaning-america-islam/
Of course, that Osama bin Laden-slayer of 3,000 Americans and avowed
enemy to the rest-exhibits two faces, one to Americans another to
Muslims, is not surprising. Yet the reader may well be surprised to
discover that the controversial Cordoba Initiative, which plans on
manifesting itself as the largest American mosque, situated atop Ground
Zero-that is, atop the carnage caused by none other than bin Laden-also
has two faces, conveying one thing to Americans, quite another to
Muslims.
The very name of the initiative itself, "Cordoba," offers different
connotations to different people: In the West, the Andalusian city of
Cordoba is regularly touted as the model of medieval Muslim
progressiveness and tolerance for Christians and Jews. To many
Americans, then, the choice to name the mosque "Cordoba" is suggestive
of rapprochement and interfaith dialogue; atop the rubble of 9/11, it
implies "healing"-a new beginning between Muslims and Americans. The
Cordoba Initiative's mission statement certainly suggests as much:

Cordoba Initiative aims to achieve a tipping point in Muslim-West
relations within the next decade, bringing back the atmosphere of
interfaith tolerance and respect that we have longed for since Muslims,
Christians and Jews lived together in harmony and prosperity eight
hundred years ago.

Oddly enough, the so-called "tolerant" era of Cordoba supposedly
occurred during the caliphate of 'Abd al-Rahman III (912-961)-well over
a thousand years ago. "Eight hundred years ago," i.e., around 1200, the
fanatical Almohids-ideological predecessors of al-Qaeda-were ravaging
Cordoba, where "Christians and Jews were given the choice of conversion,
exile, or death."

A Freudian slip on the part of the Cordoba Initiative?

At any rate, the true history of Cordoba, not to mention the whole of
Andalusia, is far less inspiring than what Western academics portray:
the Christian city was conquered by Muslims around 711, its inhabitants
slaughtered or enslaved. The original mosque of Cordoba-the namesake of
the Ground Zero mosque-was built atop, and partly from the materials of,
a Christian church. Modern day Muslims are well aware of all this. Such
is the true-and ominous-legacy of Cordoba.

More pointedly, throughout Islam's history, whenever a region was
conquered, one of the first signs of consolidation was/is the erection
of a mosque atop the sacred sites of the vanquished: the pagan Ka'ba
temple in Arabia was converted into Islam's holiest site, the mosque of
Mecca; the al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site, was built atop
Solomon's temple in Jerusalem; the Umayyad mosque was built atop the
Church of St. John the Baptist; and the Hagia Sophia was converted into
a mosque upon the conquest of Constantinople.

Some final thoughts on the history of Cordoba and the ominous parallels
it bodes for America: though many Christian regions were conquered by
Islam prior to Cordoba, its conquest signified the first time a truly
"Western" region was conquered by the sword of Islam. It was also used
as a base to launch further attacks into the heart of Europe (until
decisively beaten at the Battle of Tours), just as, perhaps, the largest
mosque in America will be used as a base to subvert the rest of the
United States. And, the sacking of the original Cordoba was facilitated
by an insider traitor-a warning to the U.S., which seems to have no end
of traitors and willing lackeys.

Such, then, is the dual significance of the Cordoba Initiative: What
appears to many Americans as a gesture of peace and interfaith dialogue,
is to Muslims allusive of Islamist conquest and consolidation; mosques,
which Americans assume are Muslim counterparts to Christian
churches-that is, places where altruistic Muslims congregate and pray
for world peace and harmony-are symbols of domination and centers of
radicalization; the numbers of the opening date, 9/11/11, appear to
Americans as commemorative of a new beginning, whereas the Koranic
significance of those numbers is suicidal jihad. Of course, the two
faces of the Cordoba House should not be surprising considering that the
man behind the initiative, Feisal Abdul Rauf, also has two faces.

Going along with the historic analogy, there is one bit of good news: As
opposed to the vast majority of onetime Western/Christian nations
annexed by Islam, Cordoba, Spain did ultimately manage to overthrow the
Islamic yoke. Though only after some 700 years of occupation.

Obama backs controversial New York mosque project

President Barack Obama Friday said "As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country"
Ross Colvin and Jeff Mason, Reuters · Friday, Aug. 13, 2010

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday backed construction of a proposed mosque and Muslim cultural center near the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York — a project opposed by U.S. conservatives and many New Yorkers.

“As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country,” Obama said to applause at an event attended by diplomats from Islamic countries and members of the U.S. Muslim community.

“That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances,” he said, weighing in for the first time in a national debate that has grown increasingly heated in recent weeks.

Earlier this month a New York city agency cleared the way for construction of the community center, which will include a prayer room, two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attacks, popularly known as “Ground Zero.”

“This is America and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable,” said Obama, who has made improving ties between the United States and the Muslim world a cornerstone of his foreign policy.

Obama was speaking during an Iftar dinner he hosted at the White House. Iftar is the evening meal when Muslims break their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

About 2,750 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks, when al Qaeda hijackers crashed two passenger planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The attacks deeply traumatized Americans and sparked the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the Bush administration’s “war on terror.”

Many families of those killed in the attacks have mounted an emotional campaign to block the community center, calling it provocative and a betrayal of the memory of the victims.

Conservative politicians such as former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich, a Republican former Speaker of the House of Representatives, also have called for the project to be scrapped.

Mark Williams, a spokesman for the conservative Tea Party political movement, said the center would be used for “terrorists to worship their monkey god.”

In his remarks on Friday, Obama preached the need for religious tolerance and noted that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution had established the freedom of religion, “and that right has been upheld ever since.”

The president also stressed that al Qaeda was not synonymous with Islam.

“Al Qaeda’s cause is not Islam — it is a gross distortion of Islam,” he said. “These are not religious leaders — these are terrorists who murder innocent men, women and children.”

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has firmly supported the community center project as have many religious organizations in the city. However, 53% of New Yorkers oppose it, according to a Marist Poll this week.

The Cordoba House community center is the brainchild of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who told Reuters in an interview last month that he had modeled it on the Young Men’s Christian Association.

Now simply called the Y, YMCA facilities across the United States offer exercise classes, education and community activities.

The city agency’s Aug. 3 ruling is expected to clear the way for construction of Cordoba House, which will include a 500-seat auditorium, art exhibition spaces and a swimming pool as part of a 13-story complex.

Since coming into office, Obama, a Democrat, has worked to reach out to Muslims, many of whom felt targeted by the “war on terror” and by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In a speech in Cairo in June 2009, Obama called for a “new beginning” in ties between the United States and Muslims, saying extremists had exploited tensions between Muslims and the West and that Islam was not part of the problem.

© Thomson Reuters 2010



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