Brava to Governor Palin for standing up and speaking out against this profoundly insensitive and egregious attack on the American heart. Obama has sealed his fate and shown himself to the American people.
Worse still for his party, but good for the American people, every Democrat now has to come out from his or her hiding place and state a position on Ground Zero mega mosque.
Mr. President, should they or should they not build a mosque steps away from where radical Islamists killed 3000 people? Please tell us your position. We all know that they have the right to do it, but should they? And, no, this is not above your pay grade. If those who wish to build this Ground Zero mosque are sincerely interested in encouraging positive "cross-cultural engagement" and dialogue to show a moderate and tolerant face of Islam, then why haven't they recognized that the decision to build a mosque at this particular location is doing just the opposite? Mr. President, why aren't you encouraging the mosque developers to accept Governor Paterson's generous offer of assistance in finding a new location for the mosque on state land if they move it away from Ground Zero? Why haven't they jumped at this offer? Why are they apparently so set on building a mosque steps from what you have described, in agreement with me, as "hallowed ground"? I believe these are legitimate questions to ask.
Other Republican leaders:
John Boehner, the Ohio Republican who is the House minority leader, said: ”The decision to build this mosque so close to the site of ground zero is deeply troubling, as is the president’s decision to endorse it.”
“The American people certainly don’t support it,” Mr. Boehner said.
Representative Peter King, a New York Republican, said that while the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque, doing so needlessly offends too many people.
“President Obama is wrong,” Mr. King said. “It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero. While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much. The right and moral thing for President Obama to have done was to urge Muslim leaders to respect the families of those who died and move their mosque away from Ground Zero. Unfortunately the president caved into political correctness."
Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker, also condemned the proposed mosque and the President’s comments.
“There is nothing surprising in the president’s continued pandering to radical Islam,” he said. “What he said last night is untrue and in accurate. The fact is this is not about religious liberty.”
Mr. Gingrich said the proposed mosque would be a symbol of Muslim “triumphalism” and that building the mosque near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks “would be like putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Museum.”
“It’s profoundly and terribly wrong,” he said.
Islamic supremacist mosques: a primer for protest
Emboldened by their man in the White House, the Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood front the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), is ratcheting up their offensive on patriotic Americans who dare to challenge Islamic supremacism and the creeping Sharia (Islamic law) into secular American life.
On Thursday, CAIR published an Action Alert entitled “Action: Report Harassment by Anti-Mosque Protesters.” In it, CAIR (which the Justice Department named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation jihad terror funding case in 2007) calls on Muslims in the United States to “report any harassment of worshippers attending Jummah prayers tomorrow and throughout the month of Ramadan.”
CAIR is using the Goebbels (Hitler’s propaganda minister) method to construct false narratives and bogeymen. There is no harassment.
This is all part of CAIR’s attempt to create from a whole cloth yet again a narrative of victimhood regarding Muslims in the U.S., when it is their Islamic machine that relentlessly smears, demonizes, attacks, and attempts to destroy those who are fighting for basic human rights for all.
The Alert claims that there has been “general Islamophobic hysteria generated in recent months by anti-mosque and anti-Islam extremists” and notes that “on September 11, extremist groups plan to hold a rally in New York in opposition to a planned Muslim community center in that city. The keynote speaker at the rally will be anti-Islam extremist Dutch politician Geert Wilders.” (Actually Wilders will be among a number of prominent speakers, including former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, journalist Andrew Breitbart, 9/11 family members, and others.) CAIR also refers to protests against mosques taking place in Texas, California, and elsewhere.
The vicious CAIR operatives warn Muslims about harassment at anti-mosque protests. The Hamas-linked group tells its minions to be alert and contact police and CAIR “if protesters go beyond the constitutionally-protected right to free speech in a public area -- for example, if protesters trespass on mosque property or physically harass worshippers.”
This is a lie. This does not happen. The only protesters who are ever harassed, victimized or physically assaulted are supporters of Israel, who have been brutalized many times at pro-Israel rallies. There is plenty of evidence and documentation of that.
We have witnessed a number of “recent attacks on mosques” that turned out to have been perpetrated by Muslims.
So be on guard.
That said, this smear campaign is a call to action. CAIR directs Muslims to “take video and still photographs of the protest and send to CAIR.” Why? Because they want to catch someone doing or saying something, or holding a sign, that they can use to defame the entire protest as “racist,” “bigoted,” “extremist” and the like.
Remember: we are at war. We are fighting for our nation, for our values, for the Constitutional principles of freedom that made America great. We are at war for the freedom of speech, the equality of rights of women, and the freedom of conscience – all of which are denied by Islamic law. We are at war, and CAIR is on the other side. The war of ideas is full on.
We are in a war in the information battlespace. Each and every one of us is a general in this war. Think like one. If you are protesting against the building of a mosque in your area, do not play into the hands of the enemy. Do not give the enemy ammunition. Do not carry inflammatory signs. Do not bring dogs, or pigs, or pork chops, or other things that Muslims find offensive to the mosque site. Stick to the facts. Be righteous. Ask yourself, how will the media and the Islamic supremacists frame this?
This is not kowtowing to Islamic sensibilities. This is fighting to win. Focus on the ties to terror groups and Islamic supremacist groups that mosque organizers almost certainly have. Focus on the links to the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization dedicated to “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within” – most mosques in the U.S. have some Brotherhood links.
Focus on their refusal to condemn jihad terror groups, as they almost certainly will. Focus on their funding, which will almost certainly be questionable. Focus, in short, on the facts, not on emotional or angry appeals or attacks that CAIR will use to shift the focus away from Islamic supremacism and jihad and onto Muslims as the supposed victims of “bigotry.” Remove infiltrators and plants from your protests whose aim is to make you look bad. FDI and SIOA will have a lot of security at the 911 rally to immediately remove infiltrators, agitators and plants.
In other words, fight strategically. Fight smart. Fight so as to win. We are fighting to defend a civilization dedicated to human dignity and human rights. Let us be worthy in the defense of that great civilization.
Now sing the National Anthem one more time…
Previous related: Also see our SIOA primer on how to fight the Islamic supremacist mosque in your town.
SIOA Condemns Obama's Blessing of Ground Zero Mega-Mosque
NEW YORK, Aug. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The human rights organization Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) strongly condemns Barack Obama's blessing of the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque to be built at the hallowed ground of theSeptember 11, 2001 jihad terror attack.
SIOA founder and executive director Pamela Geller said in a statement that Obama "has, in effect, sided with the Islamic jihadists and told the ummah (at an Iftar dinner on the third night of Ramadan) that he believes in and supports what will be understood in the Islamic world as a triumphal mosque on a site of Islamic conquest."
Geller noted that in coming out in favor of the mosque, Obama confused the issue by framing it as one of religious liberty, when no opponent of the mosque is calling for restrictions on anyone's religious freedom; ignored the historical record showing that thousands of mosques have been built over the cherished sites of conquered peoples (notably the Dome of the Rock on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem); and also ignored the clear evidence of the mosque backers' duplicity and refusal to condemn the jihad terrorist group Hamas.
"Obama must know," said Geller, "that this is not about religious liberty. No one has suggested abridging the First Amendment to stop the mosque, and to oppose the Ground Zero mosque is not to oppose the First Amendment. There are hundreds of mosques in New York, thousands in America. This is not a religious issue. This is an issue of national dignity and respect for those who were murdered at that site in the name of Islam. Mutual respect is a two way street."
"We, in the West," Geller continued, "are constantly being told to be sensitive to Islamic sensibilities regarding images of Muhammad and so-called 'blasphemy.' We are told that criticism of jihad violence is 'hate speech.' But where is the reciprocity? Where is the Muslim compassion for the grief and the pain of not just the 9/11 families but of all Americans? Every American was a target that day; the 9/11 families took the hit for us."
The Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI) and SIOA will be hosting a rally against the Ground Zero mega-mosque on September 11 at2pm at Park Place, between Church Street and West Broadway.
The confirmed list of speakers includes 9/11 family members; former U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton; former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; the Dutch Parliamentarian and freedom fighter Geert Wilders; Gary Berntsen, a candidate for the U.S. Senate from New York; Jordan Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice, which has filed suit to stop the Ground Zero mega-mosque; Ginny Thomas, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's wife; Michael Grimm, a candidate for Congress from New York's 13th district and a 9/11 first responder; and journalist Andrew Breitbart.
Hosting the rally are Geller, the popular blogger and columnist who publishes the acclaimed AtlasShrugs.com blog; and SIOA associate director Robert Spencer, the bestselling author and director of JihadWatch.org. Geller is the author (with Spencer) ofThe Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America (foreword by Ambassador John Bolton), published by Simon & Schuster.
Free citizens are coming from all over the U.S. to attend the rally. Join the largest Caravan in America coming cross-country to the 9/11 Rally.
SIOA is one of America's foremost organizations defending human rights, religious liberty, and the freedom of speech against Islamic supremacist intimidation and attempts to bring elements of Sharia to the United States.
Join SIOA's Facebook page.
Here is snapshot of Obama last night at the Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan and the Ground Zero mosque with Jane, liberal Jew (aka Jewicidal) and head of a Jewish organization in Chicago, at the Ramadan dinner. What a shonda. Gd forbid she asks Obama what he is doing to address the virulent Islamic antisemitism that is inspiring incitement to Jew hatred and Jewish genocide in Muslim countries and Israel, as well as the slaughter of millions of Jews over a millennium. (photo hat tip Terri)
How about ....."the trains will be leaving the station shortly.........."
Go over to Frontpage Magazine and read Robert Spencer's observations on Obama's gift to Islamic supremacists, the Ground Zero mosque, giving his blessing at an Iftar dinner during Ramadan.
Join us on September 11th at Ground Zero. Take a stand.
One may legitimately wonder how past Ramadans have resulted in any advancement of “opportunity and prosperity for people everywhere.” In reality, it contravenes Islamic law to give zakat, the almsgiving that is one of the pillars of Islam and is required of every Muslim, to non-Muslims. That’s why it is easy to find Western governmental agencies and Christian charitable organizations busy building and staffing schools and hospitals in impoverished parts of Africa and Asia, but oil-rich Muslim countries have never undertaken similar endeavors. With the sharp divide in Islam between believers and unbelievers, such that Muslims are commanded to be “merciful to one another, but ruthless to the unbelievers” (Qur’an 48:29), there simply is no basis in Islamic law for the idea that Islam fosters the advance of “opportunity and prosperity for people everywhere.”
Heedless, however, of the inaccuracy of his words, Obama charged ahead and compounded it. Ramadan’s rituals of fasting and prayer, he said, “remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings.”
Here again, one wonders how the designation of non-Muslims as “the most vile of created beings” (Qur’an 98:6) advances human dignity, much less tolerance or justice. The command that Muslims must fight against Jews and Christians until they pay a religion-based poll tax, jizya, “with willing submission and feel themselves subdued” (Qur’an 9:29) likewise seems to militate against the idea of universal human dignity that Obama professes to have discovered in Islam.
Yet still his flights of fancy weren’t over. “Ramadan,” he claimed, “is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality.” Diversity? While it is undoubtedly true that people of all races and nations have embraced Islam, when they do so, they at least partially Arabize. Islam is an Arabic religion; the Qur’an, as it tells us about itself repeatedly, is an “Arabic Qur’an.” Muslims must pray in Arabic, and recite the Qur’an in Arabic, whether they’re weathermen from Minnesota or fishermen from Indonesia. Conversion to Islam led a black American to change his name to Muhammad Ali, a name he undoubtedly shares with innumerable Arabs, Pakistanis, Afghans, and others. A recent meeting of Southeast Asian dignitaries showed participants with names indigenous to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and the other countries in the region. Only the Indonesian participant had a name that had nothing to do with the indigenous culture of the country of his birth, and everything to do with Arabia. What’s more, throughout Islamic history Arabs have claimed for themselves a privileged position within the Islamic community, and have regarded non-Arab Muslims as second-class. Racial equality? Not by a long shot.
Above photo: A piece of the landing gear that crashed into the building of the proposed Ground Zero mega mosque. The only reason that building was sold for only 4.87 millions dollars (to an NYC waiter, Sharif El-Gamal) for such a distressed price was because of the damage from the 911 attack. That building is a war memorial, a piece of American history. The 911 attack on America continues unabated.
Carl Paladino is saying all the right things.
PALADINO TO CONGRESS: ACT ON GROUND ZERO MOSQUE NOW
NY Governor candidate calls upon Congress to declare district a War Memorial
(BUFFALO, NY) - After President Barack Obama announced his support for the Ground Zero Mosque at a Ramadan celebration tonight, Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino, a Republican candidate for Governor of New York, called upon the United States Congress to declare the World Trade Center district of New York City a War Memorial. The federal government designation would help stop the construction of a Victory Mosque at the site where radical Islamists declared war on America and killed thousands of innocent civilians.
"Now we know exactly what President Obama thinks of the families left behind by the murderous attack on America not ten years ago," Paladino said. "The Ground Zero Mosque is an insult to all Americans and a slap in the face to the surviving families of those murdered in cold blood on September 11th and all the American and allied men and women killed and maimed in the ensuing wars."
"The Ground Zero Mosque is not about freedom of religion, as President Obama claims. It's about the murderous ideology behind the attacks on our country and the fanatics our troops are fighting every day in the Middle East," Paladino said. "New York's Congressional delegation must move immediately to sponsor and pass a law that declares the entire World Trade Center district a War Memorial where one group of Americans may not move to insult another class of citizens."
Continue reading "NY Governor Candidate Paladino: "Declare Ground Zero District a War Memorial"" »
Hypocrite or dhimmi? No matter. Bottom line is that there is no logical or good reason that the city of New York should be turning himself inside out to help erect a 15-story shrine to the very ideology that inspired the bloodiest and most brutal attack ever on American soil.
Over at the Opinionator (hat tip Pamela Hall)
Connecticut
11:12 am
dwak
August 11, 2010 3:02 PM Our organization asked Mayor Bloomberg's office to offer a little bit of assistance from the city in helping us develop a broadcast and support center for the securities research industry in a landmark property in Lower Manhattan, 23 Wall Street - a landmark property right across the street from the NYSE that already has an auditorium, and Mayor Bloomberg's office would not even answer. Would not even answer. That property is apparently owned by the "Angolan National Oil Company", whoever they really are. We even reached out to labor interests to get their support - offering up a clear indication that we would solicit bids on what would have been very significant electrical contracting work for the center from union contractors. Not promising to go union, but promising to look at their proposals. They would not answer either. Would not even answer.
Today, we are trying to get a modest amount of funding for educational and communications type events relating to the securities and financial industry from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. They won't answer either. Won't even answer.
Why is it that the city and state stand on their heads to support a mosque, but when it comes to doing some small things to assist the securities industry - no, forget it.
Something is seriously wrong there in Lower Manhattan, and also in Albany, not to mention Washington. You're not supposed to be supporting mosque-building but turn your backs on the securities industry, in Lower Manhattan, the Wall Street area.
In our current proposal, before the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation - we even specifically included a chunk of benefits for university graduate students in finance and business, why not ---- who would be given an allocation of free tickets to the events based primarily on grade point average. How awful. People would be going to events to hear speakers on finance and business and have a modest food and beverage networking segment afterward. How awful. And the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation won't even answer. Won't even answer. But Bloomberg and Paterson - wow, they really go to bat for the mosque.
Matt Lechner - CFP, CRPS, FRM
Chairman - WSSIG, the Wall Street Special Interest Group
"We should also examine the foreign policies of the U.S. to make sure that we occupy the moral high ground in these conflicts. In particular, we have to examine some of the root causes of this terrorist activity." -- then-State Senator Obama's post 911 attack remarks
Obama came out for the Islamic supremacist mosque at the hallowed ground of 911 attack. He has, in effect, sided with the Islamic jihadists and told the ummah (at an Iftar dinner on the third night of Ramadan, of course) that he believes in and supports a triumphal mosque on the cherished site of Islamic conquest.
If you had any doubt who Obama stood with on 911, there can be no doubt in our minds now.
I believe he planned it all along. He waited until Ramadan. Symbolic. He has now turned our Ground Zero protest on 911 into a mega-event. The very idea of a 15-story mega-mosque on hallowed ground in indecent, offensive and outrageous. If Imam Rauf and his wife Daisy really wanted to "reach out" and "heal," they would give the $120 million to the first responders suffering from exposure to the toxic environment at Ground Zero after Muslim terrorists brought down the World Trade Center and slaughtered 3,000 Americans.
Is the president incapable of common decency?
Obama knows this is not about religious liberty. No one has suggested abridging the first amendment to stop the mosque. There are hundreds of mosques in New York, thousands in America. This is not a religious issue. This is a national security issue.
Once again, Obama puts himself directly at odds with the majority of the American people, as is his way and the hallmark of his presidency. This is all explained in detail in my book.
Obama Defends Ground Zero Mosque Plan MSNBC
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday endorsed plans for a Muslim mosque two blocks from ground zero in New York City, declaring that "Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country."
In remarks prepared for delivery at a White House dinner celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Obama said all Americans have the right to worship as they choose.
"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances, Obama said. "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable."
Obama emphasized the point as New York City is immersed in a deeply sensitive debate about whether a mosque should be built near the site of the World Trade Center's twin towers.
It was the president's first remarks about the mosque controversy. The White House previously called the matter solely a local one.
At the dinner attended by two Muslim-American congressmen, Obama acknowledged that hot-fire emotions the planned mosque and cultural center have stoked.
"Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground," the president said.
He just became a one-term president. The field is wide open for 2012.
Related: Obama Ramadanadingdong
Related: Obama's US Treasury Department Pushing Zakat (Islamic Donations)
911 Ground Zero Mosque Rally: Bolton, Gingrich, Wilders, Thomas, Berntsen
UPDATE: AP reports, Obama "harkens":
Obama elevated it to a presidential issue Friday without equivocation.
While insisting that the place where the twin towers once stood was indeed "hallowed ground," Obama said that the proper way to honor it was to apply American values.
"Our capacity to show not merely tolerance, but respect towards those who are different from us — and that way of life, that quintessentially American creed, stands in stark contrast to the nihilism of those who attacked us on that September morning, and who continue to plot against us today," he said.
Obama harkened back to earlier times when the building of synagogues or Catholic churches also met with opposition. "But time and again, the American people have demonstrated that we can work through these issues, and stay true to our core values and emerge stronger for it," he said. "So it must be and will be today."
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent who has been a strong supporter of the mosque, welcomed Obama's words as a "clarion defense of the freedom of religion."
But some Republicans were quick to pounce.
"President Obama is wrong," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. "It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero. While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much."
Entering the highly charged election-year debate, Obama surely knew that his words would not only make headlines but be heard by Muslims worldwide. The president has made it a point to reach out to the global Muslim community, and the over 100 guests at Friday's dinner included ambassadors and officials from numerous Muslim nations, including Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Seated around candlelit tables, they listened closely as Obama spoke, then stood and applauded when the president finished his remarks.
While his pronouncement concerning the mosque might find favor in the Muslim world, Obama's stance runs counter to the opinions of the majority of Americans, according to polls. A CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week found that nearly 70 percent of Americans opposed the mosque plan while just 29 percent approved. A number of Democratic politicians have shied away from the controversy.
911 WTC families
Ambassador John Bolton
Newt Gingrich
Geert Wilders, Dutch Parliamentarian
NY Senator Candidate Gary Berntsen
Jordan Sekulow (ACLJ)
Ginny Thomas (Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's wife)
Pete King (invited)
Michael Grimm Staten Island House of Representatives, 911 First Responder
Andrew Breitbart
Ilario Pantano, North Carolina Congressional Candidate
Join the largest Caravan in America coming cross-country to 9-11 Rally.
For those of you who do not use Facebook and want to join a carpool and the Caravan, send your info to starsandstripescaravan@yahoo.com. Give your name/email/state & city you are coming from. Include how many seats you need. Also let them know if you can help with gas/food etc… One of the admins of their group will post your need/ ability to help and get back to you.
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