ShareThisDear Mayor Bloomberg
A few questions you might want to ask before approving a mosque for Ground Zero.
Your Honor: In regard to the proposal to build an Islamic center at the site of the 9/11/01 terrorist attack in Manhattan, I commend you for saying: "Everything the United States stands for and New York stands for is tolerance and openness, and I think it's a great message for the world..." But I would urge you to question whether this project truly represents that idea -- or whether it undermines it.
Start with this: Before this project is approved, surely you should know who will be picking up the more than $100 million tab. Would you not be distressed were it later to be revealed that funds had been contributed by people who finance terrorism?
You'll recall that, after the 9/11 attacks, your predecessor, Mayor Rudy Giuliani turned down a $10 million check from a Saudi prince who had said that America shares blame for the atrocity. Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the Islamic center project, has said that U.S. policies "were an accessory to the crime that happened." How is that any different?
By the way, the Saudi royal family embraces Wahhabism, an interpretation of Islam that cannot be said to value "tolerance and openness." Among other things, in Saudi Arabia non-Muslim houses of worship are prohibited and "infidels" -- people like you and me -- may not set foot in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina upon pain of death. Newt Gingrich has called on Abdul Rauf to state clearly that he disagrees with such policies. Is that not a reasonable request?
I have an additional suggestion: If this project -- also called the "Cordoba Initiative"-- is really to be a 13-story home for "multi-faith collaboration," should it not contain a synagogue and a church as well as a mosque?
I would recommend putting each on a different floor. On the highest floor, let's put the church since Christians founded this great nation of ours. One floor down, let's put a synagogue, since Jews were among the earliest immigrants to find religious freedom in America. And one floor further down, we'd have the mosque, a place for a newer generation of immigrants to gather and worship freely.
Here's my guess: Abdul Rauf will find it blasphemous that you want this center to give equal status to Christianity and Judaism. And he will see putting a church and synagogue on higher floors as symbolizing more than equality.
A little relevant history: Islam began, proudly, as a warriors' religion. Beginning in the 7th century, Islamic armies burst out of Arabia and conquered much of the known world. Among their practices: to raze the houses of worship of those they defeated and build mosques upon the ruins. This was a way of sending a message.
The al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is built on the site where the First and Second Temples of the Jewish people once stood. When Muslim armies conquered the ancient Christian capital of Constantinople, later to be re-named Istanbul, they turned the St. Sophia Basilica into a mosque.
As for the allusion to Cordoba: Proponents of this project say they mean to hearken back to a time when Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in relative tranquility under the rule of a Muslim caliph. But others believe it is intended to refer to the mosque built atop the remains of a church in Cordoba after Soldiers of Allah conquered Spain.
Prior to 9/11, most of us viewed the World Trade Center as simply an office building. But to the terrorists waging war against us, their supporters, enablers and apologists, the Twin Towers were a great Cathedral of Capitalism. That is what they believe they destroyed that day. To them, an Islamic center built on this site would commemorate their victory in what they regard as a historic battle.
Mayor Bloomberg, you are the custodian of hallowed ground. We all want you to govern wisely on this sensitive issue. It is my sincere hope that, by writing you this letter, I can help you do that.
Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism and Islamism. E-mail him at cliff(at)defenddemocracy.org.)
Column
Bin Laden and 19 Arab hijackers are not the perpetrators of 9/11
American patriots disagree with you on who was responsible for 9/11 -- http://patriotsquestion911.com/
Do your homework. Examine the material at http://www.twf.org
Founder, The Wisdom Fund
Here's whats wrong with Cliff May's story
First, it's not a mosque, it has a prayer room. Obviously by your biased anti-Muslim rant, you may not know the difference.
Second, please show me how something on Park pl is on ground zero? Cliff, do you know it has been used as a Muslim prayer area since before 9/11. Where has your outrage been the last 9 years?
Third, your defamation of the Muslims in your rant is akin to the Nazi interpretation of Jewish history. Is Christianity a warrior religion for the crusades, is it a racist religion because American slavery and killing of the Native Americans? What about the inquisition, Salem witch trials. By the way, the Jewish temple was gone long before the Muslims got there. Cliff, do you know that converting the Sophia basilica into a mosque is still controversial to Muslims? In fact, this was explicitly forbidden by the first caliphs when the Muslims ruled Palestine.
We must call out these bigots like Cliff May, expose them for the hatred they spew.
Ground Zero Imam: ‘I Don’t Believe in Religious Dialogue’
is Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf — founder of the hugely controversial Ground Zero mosque — lying to the American public and his fellow New Yorkers?
Exclusive new translations from Arabic websites reveal Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf seriously misleads New Yorkers about his intention to infiltrate Sharia law through his Ground Zero mosque.
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/ground-zero-imam-i-dont-believe-in-religious-dialogue/?singlepage=true
The Facts
An inconvenient fact is that the Cordoba building is being built nearly three blocks from ground zero, not on top of the ruins.
Another truth is that we created Al-Qaeda, and we supported dictators across the globe when it suited us (Saddam, Pinochet, Videla, Suharto, The Shah, Batista, Kamirov... the list goes on). Thus our own policies and actions of the past are partly to blame for the 9/11 Tragedy. It's sad, but the truth is irrefutable.
As for imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, just because someone speaks the truth, does not make the tragedy and the lives lost any less horrendous. Speaking the truth, no matter how un-PC, also does not make one a terrorist. Mr. Rauf spoke the truth. The only reason people are upset is because he's a Muslim religious official and they think he hates America and our freedoms...
Which brings me to this: the 9/11 plane hijackers and their backers were not after us for our "freedom", that reasoning is jingoist and manipulative. People, no matter how insane, do not act suicidal in a vacuum. We - the great United States of America - were doing some things in the world that we should not have been doing, and it was affecting their lives, and making an already desperate bunch all the more desperate.
That's really all there is to it. Just a bunch of loud mouth uber-nationalists from the rural states. New Yorkers support the construction of the mosque, Jews support the mosque. The only people you're hearing from are the ignorant hicks of the world.
So which will it be America? Prejudice or tolerance? This is what's to be decided in the coming elections, and the outlook is grim.