Excellent editorial by NRO editors this morning, strongly condemning the proposed construction of a "community center" (mosque) in Manhattan, two blocks from Ground Zero. Those who support the project reject arguments against it, not surprisingly casting opponents as either intolerant or xenophobic. Perhaps this is true of some, or a few. But what I'm hearing from those who are sounding the alarm about this project, is that we have every reason to be quite concerned about a) who is funding this project, and b) the motives behind the project. By reminding readers that the Islamic cleric who is spearheading the project, Feisal Abdul Rauf, wrote a book titled, A Call to Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America Post 9-11., and that the word "dawa" means Islamic proselytyzing, the editors make it clear this is not about "religious tolerance" but about something far more insidious.
Barack Obama has been strangely mum on the issue. His press secretary says Obama won't get involved in a "local issue." Since when did "local issue" stop B.O. from opining? There was that little local incident at Harvard, about which Obama had quite the say. And the other local issue in Arizona. Lawsuit, anyone? "Ground Zero," it seems to me, doesn't "belong" to New York. As the NRO editors rightly point out, it is "the gravesite of 3,000 Americans who died at the hands of Islamist radicals" in the single-worst attack on American soil in our history. That block belongs to Americans. I agree with the editors: for shame on those politicians and city planners and leaders for promoting this project.
Not at Ground Zero
(NRO editorial, August 4, 2010)
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