The Cordoba Mosque

A fine example of the intellectual and Constitutional confusion that exists about the proposed construction of a mosque at Ground Zero appeared in the August 3rd. edition of the Jewish Journal. It reported that Mr. Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president and founder of "J Street" a left-wing Jewish advocacy group funded in part by George Soros, had remarked: "The principle at stake goes to the heart of American democracy and the value we place on the freedom of religion." Of course, nothing could be farther from the truth. There are already more than a hundred mosques in and around New York and literally thousands more throughout the United States. Building another one so close to Ground Zero is hardly necessary in order to reaffirm "American democracy" or to guarantee "freedom of religion". These were long ago enshrined in the Constitution of the United States and have been well demonstrated in every aspect of the American experiment for over two centuries. This is about Islamic triumphalism. The original Cordoba Mosque was built as a symbol of Islamic dominance over conquered Spain. The one now proposed, and its ground-breaking ceremony to take place on the 10th. anniversary of the deadly attack of 9/11, is nothing more than a celebration of that attack's success.


It is also a good example of one-way multiculturalism, the sacred cow of "enlightened" progressives who worship before the altar of political-correctness, which is more concerned with the prerogatives of the Islamists who wish to kill us than it is about the sensitivities of the 9/11 families, or the dagger plunged into the heart of our republic by the horrific crime of 9/11, or the relentless march of Islamic totalitarianism that now threatens to engulf us all. A good deal of the usual claptrap about "tolerance" has been served up to us by the intellectually fossilized members of the left-wing and its fulsome liberal glitterati. A complete lack of reciprocity from the Muslim world is not something which animates them. No churches or synagogues can be built in Saudi Arabia where the mere possession of the Bible is a criminal offense. The idea that they are cozying up to a group of fascists whose religion encourages them to subjugate women, hang homosexuals, and persecute non-Muslim minorities is lost on them as is Thomas Mann's warning that "Tolerance is a crime when applied to evil".

A letter published on the internet by Mr. Ben-Ami and his supporters stated: "We agree with you that some victims of 9/11 are entitled to “irrational” feelings as a result of their loss,” but being less tolerant will not help us heal, and it is not wise for America to alienate millions of its own citizens, let alone the hundreds of millions of Muslims in countries that Americans visit around the world. Remember, there were Muslim victims on 9/11, too, Muslims that worked in the World Trade Center, or were part of the rescue crews that bravely entered the buildings that day.” This is an extraordinarily bizarre statement even for Mr. Ben-Ami to publish and one that would make Edgar Allan Poe tear up his "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" and start all over again. Why is he so concerned about America alienating hundreds of millions of Muslims when the 9/11 Commission Report clearly stated that the Islamic terrorists had been at war with us for decades but we had not been at war with them? Before George W. Bush was president, before 9/11, before the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq there were over 15 (count them) deadly attacks on American diplomatic and military installations throughout the world each one carried out by Muslim terrorists, not the Red Cross just incase it had escaped Mr. Ben-Ami's attention, and where exactly were all the Muslims rushing to our aid on 9/11? I, for one, did not see any but what I did see were videos of Muslims in various Middle Eastern countries dancing in the streets celebrating our misfortune. Precisely, who is alienating whom?


Even the President of the United States, Professor Obama, with his air of Harvard hauteur, lectured us about our First Amendment rights and how they must be rigorously applied to those seeking to build this insult to the victims of 9/11, their families, and every faithful American. This lecture was his attempt to gain the moral high ground as the sands of decency shifted beneath his feet while he pandered to his Muslim pets. It was revealing to hear President Obama affirm the rights of a religious group to build on their private property although curiously he does not extend this right to Jews building in Jerusalem! There is no Constitutional issue here and the efforts of those to smear the opponents of the Cordoba Mosque as bigots and Islamophobes are as tiresome as they are predictable. Quite simply, the reason this mosque should not be built is the same as why people should not walk down the street disporting their underwear on their heads; it lacks a sense of propriety and respect for the sensibilities of one's neighbors.

There are, however, more compelling reasons against the Cordoba Mosque's construction. Imam Rauf is far from the "moderate" cleric that he is alleged to be by his followers. If he was a "moderate" he would never have considered proposing such an affront to our country in the first place. If he wants to build bridges instead of burning them why will he not accept Governor Patterson's offer of an alternative site? Why is he unwilling to tell us which countries and organizations are supplying the finance for this temple of religious intolerance? In an interview shortly after 9/11 Imam Rauf said that while he did not condone the 9/11 attack, American foreign policy was an accessory to 9/11 and that Osama bin Laden was, in some ways, a creation of the United States....translation: America had it coming. What excuse does he have for his "religion of peace" for the attacks by Islamic terrorists in 2002 in Bali which killed over 200 people and injured 240, or the attack in Madrid in 2004 that killed another 200 and injured over 1800, or the one in 2005 in London that killed 52 and injured 700, or the attack in Mumbai in 2008 that killed over 180 people and injured 300? Why, when asked, did he not condemn Hamas? "I'm not a politician", he responded, another shield behind which Islamic fascists hide as they reject western values.

A good deal more attention ought to be paid to what clerics like Imam Rauf say to their Muslim brethren as opposed to what they say to America and the West. It would soon be discovered that they have turned duplicity into an art form while they rely on our general ignorance of Islam, and the vicious doctrines laced throughout the Koran, in order to induce the kind of narcotic serenity that makes some of us incapable of appreciating our mortal danger.

Imam Rauf, and his wife Daisy Kahn, have been mouthing the usual platitudes about "mutual understanding", "building bridges", and "inter-faith dialogue" along with accusations of bigotry and Islamaphobia. This is the default mode of a fascist ideology with a hair-trigger sensitivity which is always deployed to gain disproportionate concessions as it proceeds with its insinuation of sharia law. A phobia is an irrational fear of one thing or another, but there is nothing irrational about our fear and suspicion of Islam since so many of us are aware of its miserable track record and are actually able to connect the obvious dots between Islam, jihad, sharia law, and the mosques which support and encourage what is not so much a religion as a totalitarian ideology that has spread its cancer to every corner of the globe. The Koran contains over 4000 verses of hatred towards non-Muslims and over 60% of the Koran tells Muslims to hate the infidels and to avoid any association with them. Their holy book, their title deed, the Koran itself is dedicated to hatred towards non-believers. No other religion in the world has a document which shares this distinction but we are always asked to ignore it and to accept that this is not the true nature of Islam. Their constant protestation that theirs is a "religion of peace" is so nonsensical that it slanders nonsense.

Seventy percent of Americans do not want this grotesque monument to Islamic supremacism built where it would overshadow that hallowed ground, that stricken field, that graveyard of our murdered countrymen who were slaughtered one awful September morning. If build it they must then let them build it elsewhere and without trying to insult our intelligence by trying to fool us into thinking that it is an act of contrition symbolizing universal outreach and the brotherhood of man, two concepts which are as alien to them just as their undiminished ambition of a global caliphate, under the gruesome apparatus of sharia law, is to the rest of us.