FOX NEWS: Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf blames election season for opposition
Showing posts with label mosque construction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mosque construction. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
ASSOCIATED PRESS: NEW YORK — Adnan Zulfiqar, a graduate student, former U.S. Senate aide and American-born son of Pakistani immigrants, will soon give the first khutbah, or sermon, of the fall semester at the University of Pennsylvania. His topic has presented itself in the daily headlines and blog posts over the disputed mosque near ground zero.
What else could he choose, he says, after a summer remembered not for its reasoned debate, but for epithets, smears, even violence? >>> Rachel Zoll | Sunday, August 29, 2010
TORONTO SUN: The swirling controversy over the Ground Zero mosque obscures what should be obvious, at least since 9/11, about the behavioural pattern of radical Islamists engaged in stealth jihad, or “lawfare,” to advance their strategic interest of securing concessions by Western governments for Sharia.
In generating this controversy, and then pushing hard on it by insisting on the constitutionally protected right of freedom of religion to build this mosque in the vicinity of Ground Zero in New York City, Islamists behind the project have masterfully succeeded in greatly dividing Americans as the ninth anniversary of 9/11 approaches.
What we are witnessing here is radical Islamists once again, as in the Danish cartoon controversy — or the controversy surrounding the wearing by some Muslim women of niqabs or full-face coverings, or the push for censorship on grounds of hate speech — taking hold of the legal-political framework of liberal democracy to secure grounds for their anti-liberal agenda of advancing acceptance of Sharia in the West.
Through indiscriminate violence, radical Islamists have succeeded to define Islam in terms of Sharia — Islamic law constructed more than a millennium ago by legal scholars that is, putting it mildly, entirely obsolete in the context of modern philosophy, science, democracy, gender equity and individual rights and freedom — and jihad, or sanctioning of violence, in the name of religion.
Mosques for radical Islamists are centres for preaching, recruiting, fundraising, networking and engaging in the political work of advancing their strategic interests.
Once it becomes clear who the people are behind the Ground Zero mosque — variously known as the Cordoba House or Park51, which Stephen Schwartz of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, D.C., among others, has been painstakingly assembling for Americans to judge for themselves — then there should be no mistaking about its political nature disguised as religion.
Feisal Rauf, wearing the title of Imam or a Muslim religious leader, is deeply embedded in the global Islamist network of activists and organizations. >>> Salim Mansur, Agence QMI | Saturday, August 28, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Mayor Bloomberg was raised Jewish, but hasn't been known for wearing his religion on his sleeve. His defense of the Islamic Cultural Center and Mosque near Ground Zero shows that he's more passionate defending freedom of religion, than he has been in displaying his religiosity.
If Michael Bloomberg has been giving away these vast sums of money, he may well provide the money for the mega-mosque! That could well be his way of trying to affect a reconciliation of the Jews with the Islamic world. – © Mark
Friday, August 27, 2010
HT: No Mosque at Ground Zero >>>
Thursday, August 26, 2010
FRANCE 24: Feisal Abdul Rauf is widely known as a moderate Islamic cleric, but also as someone who once accused the US of complicity in the 9/11 attacks. Now he's sparked a virulent debate over religious freedom in the US.
PROGRAMME ALERT: Watch the FRANCE 24 debate on the Islamic Centre near Ground Zero tonight at 7:10pm Paris time (GMT+1)
Feisal Abdul Rauf is the soft-spoken yet determined Muslim cleric who is the driving force behind plans to build a controversial Islamic centre two blocks away from the Ground Zero site in Lower Manhattan. Although the Egyptian-born imam is a leader in inter-faith dialogue, he has also sparked a virulent debate over religious freedom in the United States.
The proposed Islamic facility in lower Manhattan known as the “Ground Zero Mosque” is neither a mosque nor located at Ground Zero. Yet those semantic shortcomings have done little to cool what is now a raging debate across the United States about religious freedom and the place of Islam in American society.
The man behind the New York project prefers to describe the new complex in lower Manhattan in far more benign terms. Rauf, who is widely known as a leading moderate cleric, chose the name “Project Park 51” – a reference to the building’s address – as a means to downplay the religious symbolism of the proposed facility. While the new complex will, in fact, have a mosque, Rauf contends that it will not be the main focus. Instead, “Project Park 51” will serve as an Islamic cultural centre with sports, childcare and library facilities among other amenities. Nonetheless, those subtleties have not made their way into the broader debate that is now becoming a critical issue in the upcoming mid-term elections in the United States. >>> Céline Curiol | Vendredi 26 Août 2010
MAIL ONLINE: A cab driver has been stabbed in New York after telling his passenger that he was Muslim.
Ahmed H Sharif was slashed in the face and neck after the passenger, 21-year-old Michael Enright, allegedly attacked him.
The attack came as tensions over plans to build a mosque at Ground Zero are threatening to spill over into the streets of New York.
Sharif picked up Enright at about 6pm on Tuesday evening at East 24th Street and Second Avenue, police spokeswoman Deputy Inspector Kim Royster said.
Sharif - who is originally from Bangladesh - told authorities that during the trip Enright asked him whether he's Muslim.
When he said yes, Enright allegedly uttered an Arabic greeting and told Sharif: 'Consider this a checkpoint'.
Enright then pulled out a weapon - believed to be a folding tool with a knife blade called a Leatherman - and attacked Sharif, Royster said.
Sharif was seriously wounded in the neck and suffered cuts to his forearms, his face and one hand while trying to fend off Enright, prosecutor James Zeleta said.
Sharif tried to lock Enright inside the cab and drive to a police station, police said. New York cab driver stabbed after saying he was Muslim as Ground Zero mosque tensions threaten to spill over >>> Mail Foreign Service | Thursday, August 26, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: Campaigners say Ground Zero mosque plans led to taxi murder attempt: Campaigners against plans to build a mosque near the Ground Zero site condemned the project for stoking tensions they claim led to the attempted murder of a Muslim taxi driver. >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Donnerstag, August 26, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Mayor Michael Bloomberg delivered an impassioned speech on religious freedom at a Ramadan dinner at Gracie Mansion Tuesday night. Video courtesy of Fox News.
* This man is living in a world of his own, he’s living in cloud cuckoo land! – Mark
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Even as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg firmly rejected calls for the relocation of a planned Muslim community center and mosque near ground zero, signs of growing division emerged on Tuesday within the political establishment in Manhattan, as the powerful speaker of the State Assembly expressed forceful opposition to the plan.
Breaking his silence on the issue, the speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Democrat whose district includes ground zero, said the organizers’ honorable goal of healing post-Sept. 11 wounds and building bridges among faiths had instead provoked bitter fighting and raw emotions that could not be ignored.
“I think the sponsors,” Mr. Silver said at City Hall, “should take into very serious consideration the kind of turmoil that’s been created and look to compromise.”
Such a compromise, he added, would mean finding “a suitable place that doesn’t create the kind of controversy” engendered by the Park51 plan.
The opposition from Mr. Silver, a religious Jew who commands considerable influence in the city’s Democratic political world, is largely symbolic, because the city has already given its approval. But it fueled creeping doubts about the viability of the center, which faces a raft of obstacles, like paltry fund-raising, on top of the public outcry.
Mr. Silver’s remarks came on the same day that Mr. Bloomberg, the center’s most visible supporter, delivered a carefully prepared answer to the emerging voices calling for a compromise.
Speaking at a traditional dinner at Gracie Mansion as part of Ramadan, the mayor sought to tamp down the opposition and regain control over a national debate that has escalated by the day, starting as a local zoning dispute and becoming a referendum on the limits of religious tolerance in an age of terrorism.
Mr. Bloomberg, flanked by the center’s developer and the wife of its imam, said he understood the impulse to find a different location, in the hope of ending the controversy.
“But it won’t,” the mayor said. “The question will then become, ‘How big should the ‘no-mosque zone’ around the World Trade Center be?’ ” >>> Michael Barbaro | Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: BEIRUT: The heated debate across America over the construction of the so-called ''ground zero mosque'' is reverberating across the world, with the potential to create serious diplomatic problems for the US.
Many Muslims abroad are upset by the debate, largely conducted by non-Muslims, which has grown so loud as to become a topic of discussion from Baghdad to Berlin.
…
Some Muslims say it is a bad idea to construct the building so close to the site of the Twin Towers, whose destruction on September 11, 2001, at the hands of 19 Muslim extremists is etched into the minds of people all over the world.
''Building a mosque there will increase hatred between Muslims and non-Muslims in the west,'' said Gamal Awad, a professor at Cairo's Al-Azhar University. ''It will further connect Islam with a horrible event.''
…
>>> Borzou Daragahi | Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
THE TELEGRAPH: The wife of the imam behind the proposed Islamic cultural centre near the Ground Zero site of the September 11th terrorist attacks has compared the treatment of Muslims in America to discrimination against Jews.
"This is like a metastasized anti-Semitism," said Daisy Khan, wife of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. "That's what we feel right now. It's not even Islamophobia, it's beyond Islamophobia - it's hate of Muslims. And we are deeply concerned."
Miss Khan, whose husband is travelling outside the United States on a tour partly funded by the US State Department, insisted that the centre - now being called Park51 - would be built as planned despite fierce opposition from many New Yorkers and calls for an alternative site to be considered.
"Of course, it has to go ahead," she told ABC News. "There's so much at stake." >>> Toby Harnden in Washington | Monday, August 23, 2010
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: The imam behind the plan to build a mosque near Ground Zero surfaced yesterday far from the controversy -- in Bahrain, where he's on a U.S. taxpayer-funded trip to the Middle East to spread good will, The New York Post reported Saturday. Video Courtesy of Fox News.
MAIL ONLINE: Hundreds of protesters rallied near the site of a proposed mosque and Muslim community centre near Ground Zero in New York yesterday.
A crowd of demonstrators against the project stood behind police barricades three blocks from the World Trade Center site.
Bruce Springsteen's anti-war song Born In The USA blared over loudspeakers as patriotic mosque opponents chanted, 'No mosque, no way!
Brooklyn plumber Steve Ayling says the people who want to build the project are the same ones who 'took down the twin towers.'
Nearby, several hundred people who support the mosque chanted: 'Muslims are welcome here. We say no to racist fear.'
The proposed £70million mosque has ignighted furious debate. (+ video) >>> Mail Foreign Service | Moonday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
ASSOCIATED PRESS: MANAMA, Bahrain — The imam spearheading plans for an Islamic center near the New York site of the Sept. 11 attacks says America's sweeping constitutional rights are more in line with Islamic principles than the limits imposed by some Muslim nations.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf told the Al Wasat newspaper in Bahrain that the freedoms enshrined by the U.S. Constitution also reflect true Muslim values. >>> AP | Sunday, August 22, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
MAIL ONLINE: The growing movement against the building of a mosque near Ground Zero has gained another prominent supporter: the first Muslim Miss USA.
Rima Fakih, 24, the daughter of Lebanese immigrants and a Muslim, criticised the location of the planned £70 million Islamic Cultural Center planned just two blocks away from Ground Zero.
'It shouldn't be so close to the World Trade Center,' Fakih, 24, told Inside Edition during a break from the Miss Universe pageant preparations in Las Vegas.
'We should be more concerned with the tragedy than religion.'
After wading into the highly-charged political issue, the Michigan-born Fakih then went on to support President Obama's statement on the constitutional rights of religious freedom.
'I totally agree with President Obama with (that) statement,' said Fakih.
Meanwhile growing number of New York construction workers are vowing not to work on the mosque planned near Ground Zero, according to the New York Daily News.
'It's a very touchy thing because they want to do this on sacred ground,' said Dave Kaiser, 38, a blaster who is working to rebuild the World Trade Center site.
The grass-roots movement is gaining momentum on the Internet, says the Daily News. One construction worker created the Hard Hat Pledge on his blog and asked others to vow not to work on the project if it stays in its current location.
'Thousands of people are signing up from all over the country,' said creator Andy Sullivan, a construction worker from Brooklyn.
'People who sell glass, steel, lumber, insurance. They are all refusing to do work if they build there. >>> Mail Foreign Correspondent | Saturday, August 21, 2010
CANADA FREE PRESS: Since the very first mention of the erection of a Muslim Mosque almost on top of the ground desecrated by Muslims in an attack to destroy Amerrica’s financial capabilities by fire-bombing the World Trade Center’s two skyscraper buildings, Obama and his favorite people on earth, the Muslims, have been lying about their plans for the new edifice.
These people have gotten accustomed to good, honest and hard-working Americans bending over backwards to accommodate their repulsive and insanely demanding dictates on how WE should behave toward THEM in OUR country.
Since Barack Hussein Obama usurped our presidency by failing to provide LEGITIMATE proof of his “natural born residency” the Islamic faith followers have considered America to be THEIR country. Obama has practically said so in many instances, particularly in speeches given in foreign countries alluding to “America being a Muslim country and not Christian.”
I don’t know about you, but I have had it up to here with this sort of balderdash and outright lies coming from the man who is pretending to be our leader. He is not a leader; he is a follower; a follower of a foreign religious faith that has as its primary goal the total destruction of the United States of America.
Barack Hussein Obama is the biggest enemy we have in this country. And he is slowly and deceitfully building an army of Muslim followers who will one day swoop down on us and try to physically destroy us and what we have held dear for over 234 years.
The sad part of this whole scenario is the fact that millions, yes I said millions, of deluded American citizens think that Obama is actually good for this country. He still polls about FORTY percent of our people as believing he is doing a good job as president. Where are their brains? These gullible fools will be rudely awakened one day to the truth; but it will be too late at that point to save them and us. >>> Jerry McConnell | Saturday, August 21, 2010
CANADA FREE PRESS: Obama Akbar: The media is all worked up over a poll that shows the majority of Americans don’t think Obama is a Christians [sic] and nearly a 1/4 of Americans think that Obama is a Muslim. Naturally the “mainstream” conservative blogs are embarrassed by these results. Politico is calling it a new Birtherism. Left unasked is the question of why people might think that. >>> Daniel Greenfield | Saturday, August 21, 2010
BIG JOURNALISM: Stop the presses! This just in: The Associated Press “standards center” has issued a “staff advisory” on covering what is to be known from here on out as “the New York City mosque.” From now on, the AP “staff” – and, therefore, everybody who still actually reads newspapers that still actually use the wire service’s copy – is supposed to conform to what amounts to the Muslim Brotherhood narrative about the Islamic cultural center formerly known as the “Ground Zero mosque.”
AP’s Deputy Managing Editor for Standards and Production, Tom Kent, sent this “guidance” out to his colleagues, with inputs from Chad Roedemeier in the New York bureau and Terry Hunt in Washington: “We should continue to avoid the phrase ‘Ground Zero mosque’ or ‘mosque at Ground Zero’ on all platforms. (We’ve very rarely used this wording, except in slugs, though we sometimes see other news sources using the term.) The site of the proposed Islamic center and mosque is not at Ground Zero, but two blocks away in a busy commercial area. We should continue to say it’s “near” Ground Zero, or two blocks away.”
Interestingly, among those who formerly used the now-proscribed descriptor “Ground Zero mosque” is none other than Feisal Abdul Rauf, its imam and chief promoter. He called it that even though the proposed venue has always been two blocks away from the World Trade Center site.
Perhaps Rauf used this moniker because his planned location for the mosque was part of the real estate attacked and damaged on 9/11 – the home of the Burlington Coat Factory until it was struck by a landing gear from a plane that struck one of the Twin Towers. Perhaps he used that term to brand his “Cordoba House” because body parts from the victims of those attacks have been found all over Lower Manhattan, including the old Burlington factory area, making it part of the hallowed ground.
Or perhaps, Imam Rauf called his project the Ground Zero mosque because he wanted to associate his 15-story, $100 million complex as closely as possible to the location where nearly 3,000 Americans and other innocent people – precisely because they were murdered there by people who wanted, as he does, to “bring shariah to America.”
The last explanation would certainly conform to the triumphalist past practice of adherents to shariah, the barbaric, totalitarian political program that masquerades as a religion. Indeed, there is a tradition of constructing mosques at the site of previous Islamic conquests for example in Jerusalem, Istanbul and Cordoba, Spain. Yes, it was for Cordoba – where a Catholic church was converted into the world’s third largest mosque by the Moorish conquerors of Spain – that Rauf wanted initially to name his Ground Zero mosque. Read on and comment >>> Frank Gaffney | Friday, August 20, 2010
HT: Jihad Watch >>>
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