Quick question 1: Who hired the Democrats to do PR work for the Muslims?
Quick question 2: In the 1400 years of the Islamic faith did Muslims ever need anyone -- let alone a group of goat-rodeo-herding Democrats -- to secure them their religious freedom?
Quick question 3: Don't Democrats already have enough to do, worry about, talk about, and/or fix right now than to be worried about getting the Muslim's proverbial back on the mosque "issue?"
Democrats have mid-term elections this Fall. Obama's numbers are getting lower by the hour. The economy is teetering on the brink. We've officially ended "combat" in Iraq yet thousands of our troops remain there as sitting ducks. Afghanistan is a downright debacle. Our infrastructure, schools, and healthcare system are in shambles...etc.
Yes, the list of complex issues facing this country and its "leaders" is long and dismal. Yet it would seem that Democrats prefer to only comment about the more simplistic wisdom of building a mosque in downtown Manhattan. Fancy that.
Admittedly, Republicans are damn good at creating false flags; sitting back and watching Democrats swallow the bait and chase their own tales ad infinitum while Rome burns is how the Republicans win most elections. But this time around, do Democrats really have the luxury of reaching for the ripe red herring served up on the Republican's shiny platter? I don't think so.
Let's cut to the chase. Here are two cold facts as to why mosques in general (and located anywhere) should make anyone and everyone nervous. First, they can serve as a convenient venue for radical groups like al-Qaeda to recruit potential terrorists. And second, they can also serve as a potential conduit for funding terrorist activities.
Yet has any Republican used these facts as to why he or she is against the mosque in lower Manhattan? Likewise, has any Democrat discussed these facts and appropriately dismissed them because they don't pertain to this particular Imam and his mosque? Has anyone asked the Director of the FBI, Treasury's TFFC, NYC's JTTF, or NYPD's Counter Terrorism Division what he thinks? What are the statistics? Where's the empirical (not emotional) evidence as to any real risk posed by this mosque?
To me, first and foremost, it should always come down to a question of national security: Are lives genuinely in danger by placing a mosque in downtown Manhattan?
Sadly, nobody seems to be asking or answering that question.
The Republicans' shameless hypocrisy of race-baiting under the guise of national security is laughable given the fact that if Republicans really gave a damn about keeping downtown Manhattan safe they'd have insisted that Senator Susan Collins drop her obstructionist wand last month when chemical and water treatment plant security legislation was up for a vote in the Senate. But they didn't.
Now, thanks to Senator Collins and her Republican cohorts, the Kuehne Chemical Plant in South Kearny, NJ (along with more than one hundred other plants across the country) remain woefully unsafe--placing millions, including those in lower Manhattan, instantly at risk should any type of accident or terrorist attack take place. Picture lungs melting just like the steel in the Twin Towers on 9/11. Not a pretty picture.
Next, we have the breathless Democrats, with Constitution gripped tightly in hand, who remain simplistically concerned with their vexing need to stamp out the growing anti-Muslim sentiment (only) they perceive as dangerously sweeping across our country. They're riding to the rescue of the Muslims!
But how about riding to the rescue of Americans who have real tangible problems, are actually desperately seeking help and have nobody getting their backs?
Now admittedly, Democrats are correct in their sensing of an undercurrent of growing emotion washing across the U.S. It's just not any emotion directed towards Muslims. It's the subtle slow burn of despondency, growing frustration, and downright anger about the absolute vacuum of genuine, solid, clear, and unabated leadership -- Republican or Democrat -- plaguing this country.
That's the growing wave of rage they all should be worrying about.
It does not pass the smell test that organizations tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas sponsored and distributed a version of Rauf's book -- "What's Right With Islam is What's Right With America" – under the provocative Islamic title of "A Call to Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America Post-9/11."
Dawa means to invite non-Muslims to accept the truth of Islam. Muslims are free to proselytize in Lower Manhattan and the American people are free to object to the very real possibility that this center could be funded by a person or persons who backed the 9/11 attacks.
If the organizers truly wanted to build bridges, they could show their good will by proactively opening their books, instead of writing off all the justifiable concerns as politically motivated.
This is not about religion. The whole rationale for trying the 9/11 conspirators in criminal court is that they are criminals. Does anyone seriously doubt that the thugs who financed them are still bent on mayhem and dream of turning the US Constitution to rubble as well?
As the Twin Towers Alliance piece on "A More Perfect Union" (www.twintowersalliance.com/petition/union) points out: "The current 'Ground Zero Mosque' controversy is a prime example of how our society seems to have abandoned the quest for a meeting of minds, let alone a joining of hearts, in favor of bashing the opposition into submission. If we do not arrest that trend, the outlook for the Divided States of America is not bright."
An entire generation has been raised watching the anything goes “food-fight†that has filled the airwaves since the 1990s. Lincoln said that “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.†The surest way to do that is the partisan bickering that erodes our unity.
What we fight about is far less significant than how we fight. We will always see things differently from our unique vantage points. That should be the basis of our strength. To villify differing points of view makes a mockery of the country we inherited. The Bin Ladens of the world are counting on us to forget that “United We Stand, Divided We Fall†is written in our DNA.
It is the complete lack of thought behind the challenges to the center which make so clear the anti-muslim bias behind them.
Also, she flashes her bigotry by falsely implying that democrats should only steer clear of this issue becuase Muslim community is not part of America.
The Republicans live for distractions this. Ignore the big stuff and play up the little stuff. The press rides merrily along. Unfortunately, ignoring it as Kerry did with the Swift Boaters proved a disaster for the Dems.
Ultimately, the problems lie mainly with what's being covered on the cable news channels. And that ain't much. Thanks for the heads-up on the chemical and water treatment plant security legislation. Now that's something I'll have to read about. Maybe Huffington Post should have featured the article below more prominently:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-radford/a-firefighter-speaks-out_b_657297.html
Loved your book, btw.
But you are absolutely right about how the larger issues continue to be ignored because our eyes are on the shiny, noisy stuff....just like kittens. The challenge given to Barack Obama was to at least TRY to focus on the big stuff and exert a little common sense. It hasn't happened.
There is nothing about building a 13 story community center near Ground Zero that makes recruiting dangerous. It is not a taller building than its surrounding so it would not provide some kind of military advantage. And given that it will be a magnet for attention, it is probably the single worst place that Muslims could choose to do their fundraising and recruiting from. And given that the Imam has a history of opposing such activity it seems unlikely on ideological grounds as well.
The 9/11 attack was not planned blocks from Ground Zero. It was planned in Hamburg.
There has been some discussion on the right about the dangers that this mosque would present. But there has not been much discussion anywhere else primarily because there are none. It is hard to say too much about the issue besides the fact that it is completely inane to think that the purpose of a high profile community center/with a prayer room is to do terrorist recruiting.