#obama #muslim #islam #terrorists A senior US Democrat has distanced himself from Barack Obama, the US president, over plans to build a mosque and Muslim cultural centre near the site of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York.
The office of Harry Reid, the majority leader in the US senate, weighed in on the issue on Monday, saying the centre should be built elsewhere. "The first amendment (of the US constitution) protects freedom of religion. Senator Reid respects that but thinks the mosque should be built someplace else," Reid's spokesman said.
The project's backers vowed on Monday to press ahead with their plans to build the Cordoba Initiative Mosque and Cultural Centre, denying a report in Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, that they were going to scrap the $100m project. Sharif El-Gamal, the owner of the building where the centre would be located, said the report that Cordoba House would be relocated further from Ground Zero, was false.
Haaretz had reported that leaders agreed to abandon the site to prevent an escalation of anti-Muslim sentiment.
The project, planned near what has become known as Ground Zero, has emerged as an emotional issue, with opponents saying the location of the centre is insensitive to the memory of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the September 11 attacks. Some of the victims' relatives, however, are in favour.
Obama gave his support to the mosque during an annual White House dinner marking the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, weighing in on the controversy for the first time. "That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community centre on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable," Obama added.
Obama has tried to reach out to the global Muslim community since taking office, and the more than 100 guests at Friday's dinner included ambassadors and officials from numerous Muslim nations, including Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.
"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.
The Cordoba Initiative, the group behind the project, describes it as a Muslim-themed community centre with a view of making it a hub for interfaith interaction, as well as a place for Muslims to bridge some of their faith's own schisms.
Source: Al Jazeera
Córdoba, Spain was captured in 711 by a Muslim army: in 716 it became a provincial capital, depending from the Caliphate of Damascus; in Arabic it was known as (Qur?uba). In May 766, it was elected as capital of the independent Muslim emirate of al-Andalus, later a Caliphate itself. During the caliphate apogee (1000 AD), Córdoba had a population of roughly 400,000 inhabitants, though estimates range between 250,000 and 500,000. In the 10th-11th centuries Córdoba was one of the most advanced cities in the world, as well as a great cultural, political, financial and economic centre. The Great Mosque of Córdoba dates back to this time; under caliph Al-Hakam II Córdoba received what was then the largest library in the world, housing from 400,000 to 1,000,000 volumes
Source: wapedia
Many consider Cordoba (Qur?uba) to be the greatest example of Islamic society in all history. Some believe the Cordoba Initiative is the latest attempt to be the new greatest example of Islamic society in all history.
Regardless whether the Imam and backers of the Cordoba Initiative Mosque and Cultural Centre are truly moderate Muslims that want to live in peace with Christians and Jews, many Muslims will use the Center as a symbol of the success of 9-11 and the true meaning of the Cordoba Initiative.
The picture shows the construction area of ground zero and the location of the mosque in red in the lower right of the picture.
And a prayer room in the Pentagon is NOT the same as a Mosque next to ground zero.
Update: Liberals and some Muslims are pointing to the time when Muslim Cordoba was a place where Muslims, Jews and Christians supposedly lived together in peace.
Do most Muslims believe that is what the Cordoba Initiative means or do they believe the Cordoba Initiative looks to the Almohad Dynasty for Cordoba and the Ground Zero Mosque?
The Almohads, who had taken control of the Almoravids' Maghribi and Andalusian territories by 1147, far surpassed the Almoravids in fundamentalist outlook, and they treated the dhimmis (non-Muslims) harshly. Faced with the choice of either death or conversion, most Jews and Christians emigrated.
And liberals are trying to get people to stop using the term “Ground Zero Mosque” and get people to use the term “NYC Muslim Cultural Center near where the World Trade Center towers collapsed”.
Finally, liberals say 9/11 was bad but they say we asked for 9/11 with our terrible pre-9/11 treatment of the Arab world.
Some Muslims don’t need an excuse for killing a non-Muslim.
A dhimmi is a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia law. Dhimma provides rights of residence in return for taxes. Dhimmi have fewer legal and social rights than Muslims, but more rights than other non-Muslims. The largest school of Islamic legal thought now applies the term (Dhimmi) to all non-Muslims living in Islamic lands outside the sacred area surrounding Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Update 2: Someone did a google search on “What are the consequences to a Muslim if he attends Christian services ?”
In democracies like the US and Iraq, nothing happens (most of the times).
Last Christmas in Iraq, Sunni and Shia Imams attended a Christmas Mass to show support of their Christian brothers.
On the other hand in the US, it is not the government or non-Muslims that they have to worry about. Just ask Rifqa Bary. She fled to Florida to avoid an honor killing for becoming a Christian. In some Muslim countries, just possessing a Bible is a death sentence.
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So in other words you have absolutely no idea of what the intentions and motives of those behind the "Cordoba initiative" are other than what you surmise from your own prejudices? The initiative could be motivated by a desire for interfaith dialogue of a peaceful nature or it could be a "conquest Mosque" in the vein of the one built in Jerusalem 2080 years ago in a completely different era, an era in which the beliefs and social structures of the time would be completely alien to modern man. Based on these choices your perceptual filter, which is obviously clouded with fear, automatically chooses the less likely but much more worrisome option and then you accept it as a certainty without even a hint of doubt. The lack of self awareness in your black/white stereotypical fear based analysis is mind numbing. The fact that this particular type of self deluded certainty based on nothing but speculation appears to becoming more common is worrisome. Hopefully it is a transient condition linked to uncertainty about the current and possibly future state of the economy and sanity will return once the waves and possibly tidal waves of economic turbulence wash by.
ReplyDeleteNow that you mind is numbed, let me reawaken you.
ReplyDeleteActual motives don't matter in today's society.
It is the perceived motives that matter. Location has nothing to do with a "desire for interfaith dialogue of a peaceful nature", but it has everything to do with the perception of a conquest mosque. I say let them build a mosque, but make it clear that what it's goals are. Make it clear in words & actions. By actions I mean location. If you're worried about "separation of church and state [bunk]" then make there be a radius around the site where no religious buildings can be built.
Someone flying a plane can have the best intentions of landing safely, but gravity is still absolute. There is no question of intention after the fact, just a question of consequence. This is the issue at stake.