Hopefully, this report is correct
After weeks of heated debate over plans for an Islamic community center near Ground Zero – the site of the 9/11 attacks on New York – it seems Muslim leaders will soon back down, agreeing to move to a new site.
The decision follows a high-profile campaign against the project that included advertisements on New York buses showing images of the burning Twin Towers, an iconic landmark razed when al-Qaida terrorists flew packed passenger planes into them in 2001. The New York Republican party is also said to be planning a hostile television campaign.
Sources in New York said on Monday that Muslim religious and business leaders will announce plans to abandon the project in the next few days.
Obviously, we all know that this will be blamed on the vicious right wing bigots racists neocon Islamaphobes, because the Left and the media preferred to simply look away from, as they have always done, the nature of extremist Islam. (yup, Maha, link below, calls us bullies and thugs. Excitable Charles Johnson, in multiple posts, is calling us hate bloggers.)
The Jawa Report wonders why they would abandon the GZ mosque plans
Could the fact Hamas came out on support of it after Obi One did? Or, the fact GZ Mosque website (Cordoba Initiative) was caught removing Iran connection, etc? Or, taxpayers dollars used for GZ Imam’s bridge building looking to raise funds mission to the ME? Or, Greg Gutfeld’s Islamic friendly gay bar? Or, Ground Zero bus ads?
Also, Big Peace is reporting that the plans to abandon the mosque are incorrect. We will wait and see.
Others: Politics Daily, The Atlantic Online, NY Daily News, The Hill, Commentary, Atlas Shrugs, Pajamas Media, FP Passport, Weasel Zippers, TalkLeft, Red Dog Report, Macsmind, The Mahablog, Hit & Run, Proof Positive, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Jihad Watch and neo-neocon
Just restin’. Pinin’ for Mecca, it is.
Yes, extremist Islam is a nasty thing. I was in lower Manhattan on 9/11/01 and saw for myself what it could do. And if Sunni Muslims were building an Islamic Center with a Wahhabist school in it, I’d say everyone’s concerns were entirely justified, and I’d suspect al Qaeda connections also.
However, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is a Sufi. Wahhabist Sunnies hate Sufis. Sufis in the Middle East are being targeted by Wahhabist Sunnis and other jihadists. Earlier this year, for example, suicide bombers in Pakistan blew up a major Sufi shrine and killed more than 50 Sufi worshipers. And in Iran, the hard core Shia regime has been systematically oppressing Sufis, sometimes subjecting them to mass arrests just because they are Sufis.
Sufism is a very old tradition in Islam that encourages tolerance, open mindedness and a more mystical, less dogmatic approach to the Q’ran. They are the least extreme of all Muslims. To put Sufis into the same box as jihadists really is nothing but vicious right wing bigoted racist neocon Islamaphobism. It’s also really ignorant.
So this whole non-issue is nothing but hysteria. If you’re familiar with the neighborhood, you’d know the bleeping Islamic center wouldn’t even be visible from Ground Zero. All this hysteria is nothing but the extremists of the Right jerking everyone’s chains.
If you’re familiar with the neighborhood, you’d know the bleeping Islamic center wouldn’t even be visible from Ground Zero.
Interesting point of view considering the site is less than 200 yards from the WTC site. You really think that people can’t see 200 yards from a 1000 foot building?
Furthermore, it should be remembered that the Burlington Coat Factory was damaged in the 9/11 attack by a wheel from one of the planes. In other words, the site is not just visible from the site of WTC sttack, it was PART of it.
Tell me Barbara, as the mosque itself does not allow non-Muslims in, and the building is one of “public accomodation,” how is it that you are supporting a group and a building that discriminates on the basis of religion?
You do remember that pesky little 1964 Civil Rights Act, don’t you? The one that the left hated so much?
Here is your chance, Barbara. Here is your chance to say “we won’t allow a group that discriminates to build on this site.”
You won’t, and we all know it.
gitarcarver, great call out, friend! I’ve got to clip your comment for posterity!
Loved it. And, no doubt, Barbara won’t have an answer for it.
There are loads of mosques all over New York City …. they don’t need this one.
I’d like them to show me some tolerance.
A 15-story-high edifice would not be visible from 200 yards away? Wow. Invisiblity. Nice call, barbie!