Oh, so simple…

How easy it would have been.  Assuming the builders of the “Cordoba House” Mosque and training center overshadowing Ground Zero really are sincere peace-seekers, they could easily have avoided all the angst and enmity that the project has spawned.

Imagine a truly “multicultural” facility, instead of a totally Islamic Mosque, cultural center, training facility and communications hub; with "multicultural" and a promise of  “space for Christian and Jewish prayer” tossed in late in the game (note that the Quran does not permit “infidels to approach the Mosque”).

A site other than the closest available real estate could have been selected.  There could have been a clear statement of support for America and condemnation of all terrorists.  Why not openly offer the sources of funding to allay fears of extremist infiltration?  Or perhaps show the blueprints, with the equal spaces for non-Muslim use clearly delineated.  What if there was a plaque outside, dedicating the facility to the “2,416 innocent victims and their 403 heroic rescuers murdered by cowardly perverters of Islam”?  Imagine a bronze sculpture in the lobby, depicting a man, woman and child being pulled from wreckage by a FDNY firefighter and a P.A. or NYPD officer.  If this were the case, there would have been no outcry.  People would have lined up to donate and NY construction workers would have fought for space on the building crew.

Instead, the financing is hidden and has still-unclear links to Iran, Hamas and other terrorists.  The Imam says that the U.S. is to blame for its own attack and should adopt Sharia law.  He threatens the U.S. with violence from the anger of “exploding Islam” if the site were changed.  The facility is named “Cordoba House” after an 8^th century, triumph-celebrating Mosque in Spain (Islam has dozens of towers at victory sites).

As a result, Americans, tired of being targets, are enraged at the insults and perceived threat.  American Muslims have fueled violence before.  They groan as their own President endorses the Mosque and hires its Imam to represent their views in other countries and pedal his book*, while spending taxpayer money to build more mosques across the Middle East.   They know about Constitutional Rights of property owners, but exercise their own right to express their opinions, only to be set upon by Leftist politicians and moronic columnists.  Their story is that America is populated by bigots and religious intolerants - - though we welcome legal immigrants, elected a Black President and invented freedom of religion and speech.

One spun-out “pastor” (only 50 followers) intends to throw fuel and Qurans on the fire in protest and will probably cost more Americans their lives.  Every conservative leader and commentator decries this decision.  But there is no comment from the Socialists press and “representatives” or “moderate Muslims” about Christians kidnapped and beheaded for years, or their churches banned from entire countries.  A small arson at a Sufi Mosque in Tennessee, likely set by Shias, is instantly blamed without evidence on Christians.  Mere possession of a Bible is a serious crime in Middle Eastern countries, while there are thousands of unmolested Mosques across the U.S.  American flags are burned and threats are shouted; no change from previous decades.  Evidently, American “property rights” in their minds means only “possession of land for a Mosque” and not “possession of a book for whatever I want” and, right or wrong, transfers to everyone in America.

I pray that sensible and peaceful Muslims will yet prevail and we can welcome a legitimate house of God to some other neighborhood.


*[ED NOTE: Since the publication of this blog, SophosArchaeus has learned that the book written by Imam Rauf in 2004, now titled "What's right with Islam is what's right with America", was originally published in Arabic (in Indonesia) under a slightly different name.  It was originally titled (English translation), "A Call to Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America Post-9/11".  "Dawa" is a complex Islamic term amounting to the tenet that Islam "shall" cover all the Earth, by whatever means.  Proselytism that is green-lighted for lying, threatening and murder, as well as patience and masked stealth, as Progressive Socialists advance.  Here is a little gem that demonstrates DAWA in it's "friendly face": http://www.dawanet.com/methods/publicschool.dawapublic.asp]