Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Questions and Answers Concerning the Ground Zero "Victory" Mosque

Is this whole Ground Zero mosque business just press spin?

I don’t think so. We are never free of partisan spin and I expect I expect where it exists it falls along the general lines we always see. But, all in all, I don’t think it is covered enough in the press, though I am hearing about it more and more. No matter how you spin it, at the vortex is a proposed 13 story mosque at the site of the 9/11 bombings (two blocks away), built by the Cordoba Group (Cordoba having an aggressive meaning for Islam [just Google it]). It smacks of a holy site built on the grounds of a perceived victory over America. Even IF the builders don't see it that way it will still serve that purpose for the radicals.

Isn’t freedom of religion at stake here?

All things being equal, freedom of religion is strong argument right up to the point where a radical religious movement blows up the twin towers and plunges the globe into open conflict. Then, things get a little dicey. If Christians had flown planes into the towers in the name of the evangelical church, guess who would be under extreme scrutiny today by EVERYONE? In fact, if a strongly conservative Christian religious church wanted to build near the site it probably would be opposed! Christians have freedom of religion but I was part of a group of Christians who were not allowed to sing a Christian song at the Lincoln memorial. On the news this morning was a report of a group who were asked to stop singing the national anthem at the Lincoln Memorial.

Perhaps this is more about property rights than it is religious freedom.

Perhaps. However, if the Muslims sponsoring this project really want to bring people together and foster peace, let them do it a few blocks further away to prove their motives.

Is this really a monument to an Islamic victory; a holy site?

If this is not a monument to Islam, then why be adamant about building it there? If it is just another mosque going up, then that in itself is an even stronger reason to stop it because the site does mean something to Americans. Not only that, but the proposed 9/11/2011 groundbreaking is conspicuous.

I think every place in the city where the debris fell should be considered a protected area. This would not keep normal building from happening but it could stop projects that keep the conflict going. Carl Paladino, Republican candidate for governor of New York said, “As Governor I will use the power of eminent domain to stop this Mosque and make the site a war memorial instead of a monument to those who attacked our country.” Thank you!

Shouldn’t we be tolerant?

Do you think the Islamic nations are going to welcome Christians now? Has anybody seen signs of an Islamic/Christian love fest going on anywhere in an Islamic state? So, if every now and then, Americans want to pause and say to the other nations of the world, “Slow down, we’d like to retain our identity please.” I think they could cut us some slack!

Why do you say that Islam is a Trojan horse?

As I wrote a few weeks ago, there are statistics that tell us what happens as the Muslim population increases in a non-Muslim country such as the U.S.

At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs.

From 5% on, they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population. For example, they will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves -- along with threats for failure to comply. At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves (within their ghettos) under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islamists is to establish Sharia law over the entire world.

When Muslims approach 10% of the population, they tend to increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions. In Paris , we are already seeing car-burnings. Any non-Muslim action offends Islam, and results in uprisings and threats, such as in Amsterdam , with opposition to Mohammed cartoons and films about Islam.

Now, I heard an interesting statistic a couple of weeks ago: that there are one million Muslims in the New York Metro area. Now, my understanding is that there are eight million people in NYC, but 19 million in the larger area. My question is how many Muslims are there in New York City? I wonder what the percentage is to the population as a whole. Further, I wonder if we will see some of the behavior that happens at the 5-10% level sooner here in our own back yard.

Some encouraging news: Construction workers and others are boycotting the plan and Republican gubernatorial candidate Paladino is speaking up, and Bill Reilly predicts that the Mosque will not be built because no construction company in the city will take it.

In many ways, this is a test of nationalism. Can a nation still rise up and do what is best for its own safety, security, and patriotism, or is it forced to bow to global pressure?

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