The fear behind the Muslim center at Ground Zero
Monday, August 2, 2010
By Megan Sweas
Comments (61)
The big interfaith news of the weekend was not good: The Anti-Defamation League announced that it is against a proposed Muslim center two blocks from Ground Zero.
The ADL, which fights anti-Semitism, is being accused of hypocrisy for the decision, but it says it is taking sides with families who lost loved ones on 9/11. "Their anguish entitles them to positions that others would categorize as irrational or bigoted," National Director Abraham H. Foxman told the New York Times.
The NYT, along with a number of media outlets, misidentifies the center as a mosque in the headline, though the story clarifies its purpose: "Oz Sultan, the programming director for the center, said the complex was based on Jewish community centers and Y.M.C.A.'s in Manhattan. It is to have a board composed of Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders and is intended to create a national model of moderate Islam."
But this story isn't just about this one center. Americans seem to be afraid of Muslims gathering throughout the country, as we can see in the Tennessee official's comments on Islam in response to a question about a proposed mosque that he was asked on the campaign trail.
In Infidel (which I just finished last week), former Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali describes the problem of government-funded Muslim community centers and schools in Holland. These centers promoted fundamentalist Islam. Her response: cut funding to all religious centers and schools-Muslim, Catholic, or Protestant.
While that makes complete sense to us in the U.S. (people fighting for government assistance for Catholic schools might want to think about this), the point is that Hirsi Ali rejects all religion, not just Islam. Christopher Hitchens writes the forward to her book.
One of the top blog commentaries on Google about this center near ground zero comes from an atheist, blaming 9/11 on religion as a whole.
What are our options? We can reject Islam and try to convert a billion people to Christianity (not likely, especially if we make them hate us, as a Christian responding to the Tennessee case said). We can reject all religion and try to convert the whole world to atheism (even less likely). Both of these would likely beget more violence and maintain the "clash of civilization" mentality.
Or we can support those Muslims working for moderation and dialogue. There are moderate Muslims on YouTube and Malaysian TV. We've asked them to stand up against terrorism, but then we aren't standing behind them.
What better way to stand up to terror, though, than building a place of dialogue and community close to (but not on) the place that extremists made their statement? Than saying that we refuse to let you define Islam?
Posted in: In preview mode
Ground Zero Mosque, camel sales & rag recycling center
By Camel Deli (not verified) on Tuesday, August 24, 2010IN CASE YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS.
READ CAREFULLY...........
This is so "Unbelievable"....
In Houston, Texas
Harwin Central Mall: The very first store that you come to
when you walk from the lobby of the building
into the shopping area
Had this sign posted on their door.
The shop is run by Muslims.
Feel free to share this with others.
In case you are not able to read the sign below,
it says
"We will be closed
on Friday, September 11, 2009
to commemorate the martyrdom
of Imam Ali"
Imam Ali flew one of the planes into the twin towers.
Nice huh?
Try telling me we're not in a
Religious war!
THIS HAS NOT BEEN AROUND....SO MAKE SURE IT DOES!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
b.s.
By Anonymous (not verified) on Tuesday, August 24, 2010The Imam in the sign was not a 9/11 attacker. He was not on the planes. He died in 661 AD. on the 21st day of Ramadan of that year which in 2009 fell on Sept. 11.
The implication of this post and the one it duplicates is pure bigoted b.s. Anyone who believes it reveals a gullibility and lack of intelligence that is frighteningly common.
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/houston-mall-sign.shtml
http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/785-terrorists-at-the-mal...
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/photos/martyr.asp
This took me about five minutes to check.
Important news update about Ground Zero Mosque
By Eminem-Recovery in stores now (not verified) on Wednesday, August 18, 2010While I recognize the diversity of opinions on this forum (including my own, which often fall far outside "the norm"), I hope everyone will at least be willing to seek the objective truth regarding this (and all) subjects.
Here is an important new headline on Yahoo news today.
'Ground Zero Mosque' Imam Helped FBI With Counterterrorism Efforts
Sorry Eminem - radical Imams
By Jerry D (not verified) on Wednesday, August 18, 2010Thanks for your honest dialouge but the linked Huffington Post thinly disguised "news story" is an advocacy piece for the ground zero mosque. Imam Rauf has made more comments blaming America for Osama Bin Laden and refusing to name Hamas as a terrorist organization. Bush was also criticized for ties to so-called moderates. (These "moderates" will make abstract statements against terrorism against innoncents, but never condemn specifics because killing non-Muslims in jihad is not the killing of innocents to them.)
Are there good Muslims: Yes! Here are some accurately identifying that the mosque as a provocation.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Mischief+Manhattan/3370303/story.html
As Bret Stephens notes, the N.Y. Times and NBC news stories about two prior "moderate" Muslim initiatives have later turned out to have been headed by a terrorist Imam and a radical Muslim who beheaded his wife.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870486860457543321424785286...
Mosque @ The Vatican, Amestey for everyone!
By Crocket (not verified) on Monday, August 16, 2010The Roman Catholic Church is against Arizona's SB-1070. So there shouldn't be a problem if me and many American "illegal aliens" put a strip club in the Vatican! Amestey for EVERYONE! Lets let GAYS have citizenship rights in the Holy See!
Just because you have "the right" to do something doesn't make it "right." The Roman Catholic Church pushes illegal immigration for other nations. But keeps it "character" at The Vatican? Hypocritical...YES! One day when the Muslims grow stronger in Europe, and The Vatican may be the next conquest for Muslim Radicals. Let's make The Holy See a Mosque? Or the downfall of the Vatican will be though the "socal progresses" who infect the chruch. Maby the next Pope will be a radical!
Someday the things forced on Amiercan's will be forced on the Holy See in Rome. Pope Benidict is a universalist, more than a one-world govenment type. He's interested in contacting extratrestals. If you have a "one-world-gov" it's easier to see how things fit. Pope Benidict thinks "he speaks for human kind." Erase all borders, and there you have it! My country that matters to me, means nothing to him! Dispite the Amercian's who gave thier lives in WWII, so he can preach "peace, love, & borderless anarchy."
Mosque at Ground Zero
By otl560 (not verified) on Sunday, August 15, 2010I'm so very happy that Americans, especially Americans living outside of NYC are supporting the Cordoba Initiative (the building of a 13 story mosque). Why not build a mosque less than 2 blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center buildings, the place where over 3,000 men, women and children lost their lives on that fateful day? Why shouldn't foreigners build a shrine on that hallowed site less than 9 years after the events that changed the face of the world? We should build a shrine to the brave Japanese zero pilots on top of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor in our spirit of ecumenism, brotherhood and political correctness. I do not find fault with Muslims building mosques in America, but the insensitivity of building a mosque so close to Ground Zero only 8 years, and 11 months after that horrifying day is mind boggling. I have a number of Muslim friends and most of them agree that the building of this mosque is too close and too soon after the events of 9-11. The fact that the Imam of the mosque will not reveal the source of the funds that will be used to build this mosque is unsettling. Also calling this project the Cordoba Initiative is again very unsettling (Google Cordoba,Spain and read about the Muslim victory over Christians that occurred there). Our obsession with political correctness will destroy America, or as an imam said in Central Park several years ago during a demonstration against the USA, "we will use your own laws and freedoms to destroy you".
Muslim countries severely restrict church construction
By Anonymous (not verified) on Tuesday, August 10, 2010Look into the restrictions on Christian church construction in Muslim countries. Generally, Christians are not allowed to build new churches, but only repair the ones they have. If they apply for a repair permit for a church, government authorities often use that as an excuse to condemn the structure and tear the church down. A new church was built in Qatar recently, but this is an anomaly.
By the way, to another poster, Lincoln's birthday USED to be a federal holiday, but it was combined with Washington's birthday to create Presidents Day in order to make room on the calendar for M.L. King Day. It was not suppressed as a federal holiday due to race hatred in the south. You are misinformed.
Lincoln's Birthday was never a federal holiday
By Anonymous (not verified) on Tuesday, August 10, 2010http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%27s_Birthday
"Many states that had formerly observed Lincoln's birthday have created a joint holiday to honor both Lincoln and George Washington...There has never been an annual Federal holiday honoring Lincoln."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington%27s_Birthday
"Although Lincoln's birthday...was never a federal holiday, approximately a dozen state governments have...renamed their Washington's Birthday observances as "Presidents' Day", "Washington and Lincoln Day", or other such designations. However, "Presidents' Day" is not always an all-inclusive term...Alabama uniquely observes the day as "Washington and Jefferson Day", even though Thomas Jefferson's birthday is in April."
http://www.miketodd.net/encyc/ushols.htm
"Although this was a commonly recognized holiday from 1866, it was never a federal holiday...it was never given "federal" status."
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/02/12/south-totally-blanks-on-lincolns...
"Of the 11 states that seceded during the Civil War, only Alabama and Louisiana have special efforts to recognize the (200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth)...In Virginia...lawmakers voted down creation of a bicentennial commission...Robert Lamb of Richmond, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, argued the state shouldn't celebrate a president who "sent armies into Virginia to lay waste to our land."
Far Beyond Ground Zero
By Anonymous (not verified) on Sunday, August 8, 2010The AP just came out with this story.
Far from ground zero, opponents fight new mosques
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100808/ap_on_re_us/us_mosque_opposition
Apparently it doesn't matter where Muslims want to build, local Christians don't want them.
At one site in Tennessee they siced dogs on Muslims at prayer services and spray painted "Not Welcome" on a construction sign before ripping it apart.
They say that any new Islamic center will be used to support and train militants to overthrow the United States.
Wearing a "Vote for Jesus" T-shirt and showing his deep understanding of world religions one 76 year-old Tennessean said, "They are not a religion. They are a political, militaristic group".
Let's see, political, militaristic group seeking to overthrow the United States...
That was Tennessee and other Southern states from 1861 to 1865, right?
Six hundred feet from the World Trade Center or six million, some Americans don't want any Muslim anything anywhere near them.
How is this different from the anti-Catholic bigotry our immigrant ancestors suffered? How as Catholics can we condone it?
Read the torrent of hate in the comments section after the article. It's disgusting. It makes me sad that this country is still so full of stupid bigoted fools.
Tactics of the Left
By Jerry D (not verified) on Monday, August 9, 2010The poster above, who has good intentions, ignores the main subject, then tries to link opponents on the main subject to unrelated subjects, and calls post opposing to the ground zero mega mosques "a torrent of hate" without providing examples.
It is a lot easier, rather than addressing the points conservatives make in the posts below, to yell "greedy, xenophobic, racist, sexist, hateful, etc!" Conservatives are EVIL! Their intentions are EVIL! The poster does not have the charity to grant that any conservative has a principled position while I grant the poster above, while wildly lacking clarity, has the principled position of desiring to protect good muslims.
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