PrairiePundit

Image via Wikipedia Washington Times: ... New York lawyer Dudley Gaffin has contacted officials about the Saudi royal family 's interest in moving the ground zero mosque to the shuttered St. Vincent’s Hospital site in the West Village , the New York Post and other news organizations reported Sunday. According to Mr. Gaffin, the king wants to save the hospital, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, and provide an alternative location for the mosque, which has been the subject of protests for months. ... That is a wise move on the Kings part and the developers should embrace this deal. It would solve the problem of opposition and financing. Related articles 'Ground Zero' Mosque May Move to New Location (foxnews.com) Manhattan Lawyer Proposes New Mosque Move Idea (newyork.cbslocal.com) King Abdullah Looking To Buy St Vincent's, And Move Park51 There? (huffingtonpost.com)

Image via Wikipedia Kyle-Anne Shiver: From the Daily Beast today, we learn that the Ground Zero mosque developers, who still owe more than $200,000 in back taxes , have jumped the funding shark. Evidently, those Saudi millions have failed to come through as planned and the mosque developers have applied for a federal grant to get their “cultural bridge” out of the water. The mosque developers, having at last report only about $20,000 in their bank account , have applied for — stop the presses — five million taxpayer dollars . The grant money, if approved, will come from a special fund set aside for rebuilding the area around the Islamist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. And, of course, there are no restrictions on religious organizations applying for the taxpayer funding. The only requirement imposed by federal bureaucrats is that the structure, when complete, have some space allocated for non-religious purposes. The Ground Zero...

The NY Times has a three internet page profile of Atlas Shrugs ' Pam Geller that is pretty interesting.  My only complaint is its failure to identify Charles Johnson as an apostate to the conservative cause.  I have always thought Pam was one of the more interesting people in the war against Islamic radicals.  The story is an interesting read. Update:   Pam is critical of the piece. Related articles Pamela Geller, on drawing attention to that whole Park 51 saga (shortformblog.com) New York Times Profiles Pamela Geller (littlegreenfootballs.com) Beckel to Geller: You're a Woman, You Better Be Careful (newsbusters.org) Money Rocks "Ground Zero Mosque" Debate Devolves Into Finger-Pointing, Insults (mediaite.com) Atlas Shrugged, Hayek Wept (theatlantic.com)

BBC: A court in India has said that a disputed holy site in Ayodhya should be split between Hindus and Muslims, but both sides plan to appeal. In a majority verdict, judges gave control of the main disputed section, where a mosque was torn down in 1992, to Hindus. Other parts of the site will be controlled by Muslims and a Hindu sect. The destruction of the mosque by Hindu extremists led to widespread rioting in which some 2,000 people died. It was some of the worst religious violence since the partition of India in 1947. Officials urged both sides to remain calm and respect the Allahabad High Court's verdict. Hindus claim the site of the Babri Masjid is the birthplace of their deity, Ram, and want to build a temple there. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has appealed for calm. In a statement, he said: "My appeal to all sections of the people is to maintain peace and tranquility and to show respect for all religions and religious beliefs in the highest traditions ...

Michael Goodwin: ... Growing out of the fetid swamps of moral equivalence, where extremism is in the eye of the beholder, the gathering illustrates how a preposterous sense of victimization is now the driving force behind the mosque. The initial vow that the facility would help heal the breach of 9/11 has vanished. Instead of the interfaith bridge, developers and supporters delivered a superhighway of grievance and false claims of discrimination. In a flash, the mosque has gone from a plan to assertions of legal right and absolute moral authority. To merely question it is to be a bigot. It must be built or the whole country will be labeled anti-Islam. And you know what that means — kaboom! They threaten violence, and we're accused of being intolerant. ... Goodwin is a voice of sanity in a liberal wonderland that insults the rest of us and our intelligence.

Michael Goodwin: There's a story about a Mideast zookeeper who insists he can get the lion and lamb to lie down together each night. An incredulous visitor asks how. Easy, the zookeeper says. I just bring in a new lamb each morning. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf reminds me of the zookeeper. I'm not sure if he would get the joke, or even realize it is a joke. And that's the problem. It's also getting too late to care. If we still have to guess at his true sympathies, he forfeits any claim to our trust. His public comments sometimes favor the lion and sometimes the lamb, depending on the audience and his mood. Even when he's on his best behavior, as he was yesterday at the Council on Foreign Relations, he raises more suspicions about himself and his plan to put a mosque near Ground Zero. He talks about "amplifying moderates" and stopping extremists from "hijacking the discourse," but he has refused to call Hamas a terror organization and sai...

It is about 15 minutes long, but it is a well crafted speech.   "New York should never become New Mecca."

Amir Taheri: ... In fact, the proposed structure is known in Islamic history as a rabat -- literally a connector. The first rabat appeared at the time of the Prophet. The Prophet imposed his rule on parts of Arabia through a series of ghazvas, or razzias (the origin of the English word "raid"). The ghazva was designed to terrorize the infidels, convince them that their civilization was doomed and force them to submit to Islamic rule. Those who participated in the ghazva were known as the ghazis, or raiders. After each ghazva, the Prophet ordered the creation of a rabat -- or a point of contact at the heart of the infidel territory raided. The rabat consisted of an area for prayer, a section for the raiders to eat and rest and facilities to train and prepare for future razzias. Later Muslim rulers used the tactic of ghazva to conquer territory in the Persian and Byzantine empires. After each raid, they built a rabat to prepare for the next razzia. It is no coinciden...

This family member makes a case against the mosque suggesting a better place would be the Middle East where there si a real need for people to learn tolerance.

Power Line looks at an interview with the Ground Zero imam where "Feisal Abdul Rauf claimed that U.S. national security depends on the building of the Ground Zero Mosque." What he is really saying is that if he does not get his way, his followers around the world will throw a collective tantrum and try to kill Americans. Such emotional immaturity should not be rewarded or we will only get more of it. Rauf's suggestion comes as the US military and the President showed similar concerns about a reaction to a guy burning a Koran. We should not give into this kind of infantile blackmail.

John Rosenberg: In a recent editorial the New York Times found it “appalling” that, according to a poll it had commissioned, over two-thirds of New Yorkers were no better than all the bigoted and benighted Americans living in the hinterlands west of the Hudson in their lack of immunity “to suspicion and to a sadly wary misunderstanding of Muslim-Americans.” One example that shocked and saddened the Times is that when respondents were asked “whether they thought Muslim-Americans were ‘more sympathetic to terrorists’ than other citizens, 33% said yes, a discouraging figure.” I must say that I find that 33% figure surprising. I thought it would have been higher, since by now many New Yorkers are aware of the comments of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. He refuses to describe Hamas as a terrorist organization (nor can other “moderate” imams). He thinks that U.S. policies were an “accessory” to 9/11, “that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al-Qaeda has on its hands of i...

Washington Post: Most Americans say the planned Muslim community center and place of worship should not be built in Lower Manhattan, with the sensitive locale being their overwhelming objection, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Two-thirds of those polled object to the prospective Cordoba House complex near the site of the former twin towers, including a slim majority who express strongly negative views. Eighty-two percent of those who oppose the construction say it's because of the location, although 14 percent (9 percent of all Americans) say they would oppose such building anywhere in the country. The new results come alongside increasingly critical public views of Islam: 49 percent of all Americans say they have generally unfavorable opinions of Islam, compared with 37 percent who say they have favorable ones. That's the most negative split on the question in Post-ABC polls dating to October 2001. ... I have less respect for Islam than I did before t...

Image via Wikipedia Josh Shahryar: Iran managed to hold its annual anti-Israel Quds Day rallies this year in relative peace, as the opposition stayed away from the streets. Thousands of hard-line supporters of the Iranian government flocked to the streets of the capital Tehran and elsewhere in the country to denounce Israel, and to demand that Jews leave the Middle East. The numbers were a far cry from the rallies in past years that attracted millions, a good indicator of the government’s waning popularity. ... This is a good example of what a bigot really is. He marches to demand "that Jews leave the Middle East." This is not a march about building a new 13 story synagogue in downtown Tehran. It is a march about building anything within Israel. This is from the same government that thinks the Ground Zero mosque should be built. It points out the absurdity of branding US citizens bigots because they object to the location of a mosque near the site of the worse mas...

It is a very good rant.

Image via Wikipedia Andrew Bostrum review the actual history of the place that the Ground Zero mosque would be named for and finds it for different from what is suggested by its supporters. ... Reinhart Dozy (1820-1883), the great Orientalist scholar and Islamophile, wrote a four volume magnum opus (published in 1861 and translated into English by Francis Griffin Stokes in 1913) titled Histoire des Musselmans d’Espagne (A History of the Muslims in Spain). Here is Dozy’s historical account of the mid-8th century “conversion” of a Cordoban cathedral to a mosque: All the churches in that city [ Cordoba ] had been destroyed except the cathedral, dedicated to Saint Vincent, but the possession of this fane [church or temple] had been guaranteed by treaty. For several years the treaty was observed; but when the population of Cordova was increased by the arrival of Syrian Arabs [i.e., Muslims], the mosques did not provide sufficient accommodation for the newcomers, and the Syrians consi...

From the LA Times: Imam dismisses Islamic center's foes as 'small, vociferous' group I guess 70 % opposition is just enough for some people.

Michael Goodwin: Now he tells us. According to Mayor Bloomberg, the "yelling and screaming" about the Ground Zero mosque is just "people trying to stir things up to get publicity and trying to polarize people so they can get some votes." He said that on the Jon Stewart show, on Comedy Central. Maybe he was joking. Or maybe he was teeing off on the unwashed masses before jetting off to join President Obama on the golf course. There's nothing like a round with an unpopular president deep in an election season to dispel suspicion that you're playing politics. It's probably a coincidence that Obama and Bloomberg are among the few officials in America defending the mosque, just as they defended holding the 9/11 trial in lower Manhattan. Both see themselves as citizens of the world who ascribe ugly motives to anybody who disagrees with them. It's the "good to be king" syndrome and Bloomberg is no piker, as he showed in his first over...

Tony Harnden: It took a Manhattan taxi driver called Ahmed Sharif to speak out for America, which is being vilified as bigoted and Islamophobic because of the controversy generated by opposition to the so-called "Ground Zero mosque". The United States was his dream country, he enthused, and he loved New York City. "I feel like I belong here. This is the city actually [for] all colours, races, religion, everyone. We live here side by side peacefully." Which was a pretty noble sentiment coming from a man whose throat had been slashed by a drunken, deranged passenger who had inquired whether he was a Muslim before pulling out a knife and shouting "Peace be upon you" in Arabic. As the whole world knows, there is a furore raging over the proposed building of a 15-storey Islamic community centre, containing a mosque, two blocks from Ground Zero, site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda. America's liberal elites have been falling over themselv...

Reuters: The Muslim center planned near the site of the World Trade Center attack could qualify for tax-free financing, a spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu said on Friday, and Liu is willing to consider approving the public subsidy. The Democratic comptroller's spokesman, Scott Sieber, said Liu supported the project. The center has sparked an intense debate over U.S. religious freedoms and the sanctity of the Trade Center site, where nearly 3,000 perished in the September 11, 2001 attack. "If it turns out to be financially feasible and if they can demonstrate an ability to pay off the bonds and comply with the laws concerning tax-exempt financing, we'd certainly consider it," Sieber told Reuters. Spokesmen for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor David Paterson and the Islamic center and were not immediately available. ... The Bloomberg administration may be trying to set records for the most tone deaf in history if it would permit tax free financing for ...

IBD: New dots are emerging from the probe into who's behind the Ground Zero mosque, and the radical Muslim Brotherhood is coming into view. While a couple of U.S. nonprofits — the Cordoba Initiative and its sister, the American Society for Muslim Advancement — are coordinating the New York project, they hardly give the full picture. A Saudi charity has sunk more than $300,000 into ASMA. It's called the Kingdom Foundation — headed by Alwaleed bin Talal, the Saudi prince whose 9/11 relief check was rejected after he blamed the attacks on U.S. foreign policy. Bin Talal is a major financier of Muslim Brotherhood fronts in the U.S. His foundation is run by Saudi hijabi Muna Abu Sulayman, who appears on ASMA's Web site as one of its "Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow." "Her work," according to her official bio, "focuses on increasing understanding between Islam and the West through establishment of academic centers and programs, both in the Middle East a...