NYC Landmarks Board Vote To Clear Way For Ground Zero Mosque

Of course they did.

After a protracted battle that set off a national debate over the freedom of religion, a Muslim center and mosque to be built two blocks from ground zero surmounted a final hurdle on Tuesday.

The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 9-0 against granting historic protection to the building at 45-47 Park Place in Lower Manhattan, where the $100 million center would be built.

That decision clears the way for the construction of Park51, a tower of as many as 15 stories that will house a mosque, a 500-seat auditorium, and a pool. Its leaders say it will be modeled on the Y.M.C.A. and Jewish Community Center in Manhattan.

It's been amazing watching the liberal punditry prance and preen over this issue. I imagine more than one arm has been broken by a smug columnist trying to pat themselves on the back for their exquisite moral superiority and tolerance.
It's fits nicely with the goal of far too many people, not just liberals (hello, George W. Bush! Ok, not the best example), who want to not only divorce the connection between Islam and the terrorists we have been fighting for almost a decade but also to stigmatize anyone who dares to point out this most inconvenient of truths.

Anyone who believes that this project is simply a harmless community project designed to build bridges between Muslims and non-Muslims is either a fool or a useful idiot.

If you really want to reach out to others, one of the first rules is you don't do it in a way that is provocative and insulting to the people you allegedly are trying to come together with. Very often activists hide their activism in the gauzy, politically correct language of 'out reach' and 'tolerance' but their actions are anything but.

Picking the location of Islamic terror's greatest victory on US soil as a place for 'community out reach' is nothing but a slap in the face. Of course good liberals who are always quick to find fault with the US and to revel when our President apologizes for our supposed shortcomings are all to happy to say, "Thank you sir! May I please have another?"

When it comes to outreach and inter-faith harmony, wouldn't the organizers of this center be better off putting their efforts into getting their coreligionists around the world to put some work towards that goal?

How about we end the ban on non-Muslims entering Mecca? Or maybe not make it illegal for Christians to do missionary work in Muslim nations?

I'm not advocating that we sink to the level of these backward nations. No one is denying the organizers of the Ground Zero mosque project have a legal right to do what they are doing. I'm simply saying, if you're goal is to really enhance understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims, there are a lot better ways to do it and places more in need of it than the area around the World Trade Center.

Now, if you're goal is to do something else, like take a victory lap....well, they couldn't have picked a better location.

Added: Two plead guilty in plan to attack JFK Airport.

It's just a reminder that NYC has been under repeated attack by Islamic inspired terrorists for well over a 10 years and yet there's been no hunting down of Muslims, no burning down their places of worship, nothing but a constant fretting over a backlash that never actually comes. Yet, it's NYC that needs lessons in tolerance from the Cordoba House organizers and the liberal chattering class.

JFK story via Gabe.

posted by DrewM. at 11:22 AM

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