Awesome: Giant Mosque/Islamic Community Center Going Up Near Ground Zero

Of course it's to promote peace and tolerance and not serve as some sort of stealth victory monument or anything.

"This is a place which is 600 feet from where almost 3,000 people were torn to pieces by Islamic extremists," said Debra Burlingame, whose brother died in the attack on the Pentagon that day.

"I think that it is incredibly insensitive and audacious really for them to build a mosque, not only on that site, but to do it specifically so that they could be in proximity to where that atrocity happened," said Burlingame, who is co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America.

The 13-story mosque and cultural center will be built on the site of a four-story building that was a Burlington Coat Factory retail store until 9/11, when part of a plane's landing gear crashed through the roof. The building, which will be razed, currently houses a mosque.

...Though the Cordoba Initiative's website calls part of the $100 million-plus project a mosque, its founder, Imam Rauf, says the project is not a mosque but a community center for all faiths that will include recreational facilities, a prayer space and a 500-seat theater that can be a part of the neighborhood's trendy Tribeca Film Festival.

Rauf insists the effort is meant to help heal the wounds of 9/11, "We've approached the community because we want this to be an example of how we are cooperating with the members of the community, not only to provide services but also to build a new discourse on how Muslims and non-Muslims can cooperate together to push back against the voices of extremism."

But Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, says there are more productive ways to fight Islamic extremism.

"Even when they have the resources, they are using it for a place of worship, a cultural center for organizations," he said. They are not using it for a counterterrorism research center.

"They are not using it to lead the war like Americans need to see us do and they are wasting our resources, not to mention that being close to the hallowed ground that is so sensitive in the souls of the families of 9/11. I think it is extremely poor judgment."

Here's an idea, if Rauf is so interested in trying to "push back against the voices of extremism", why doesn't he open his mosque/community center in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan? Those are the places where this alleged hijacking of Islam is taking place. Go there and show the people running the Islamic purity police or the madrassas the error of their ways. Help to bring them into the 21st century world where people are supposed to respect one another and coexist.

The very fact that there were not riots and wanton killing of Muslims after 9/11 or any of the other Islamic attacks here shows we Americans pretty much have this tolerance thing covered. If Rauf is so damn worried about the future go where the next set of killers are and put them on the right path. Allow me to offer Rauf a bit of assistance in this noble mission...they aren't in lower Manhattan and they aren't learning about Islam as a tile in some post-modern American mosaic.

I'm rather fed up with the assumption that it America that needs to be reached out to, that it's American that must accept others. We get it, we do it.

Ground Zero is sufficient testament to the influence of Islam in the modern world, we don't need a mega-mosque next door to remind us.

Speaking of which...Lt. Col Allen West (USA Ret.) and candidate for Congress, was asked at a symposium awhile back about the nature of the enemy we face. While others on the panel stammered, Col. West got right to it: It's the Islam, stupid.

posted by DrewM. at 01:55 PM

| Access Comments