Walid Shoebat wants us to listen to what Imam Rauf says in Arabic,
H/t Stacy.
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Today’s “WTF?” moment belongs to Russell Simmons
We certainly shouldn’t, Russell, since that was Muslims, too. Andrew McCarthy will tell you all you need to know (and more!) about the attack.
If Russell had in mind the Oklahoma City bombing and mispoke, he should also be advised that Timothy McVeigh was not a Christian terrorist. Indeed, McVeigh was “an avowed agnostic“.
Hat tip: First saw the link at Ace’s, who posted it in his Email Response to a Rightie Suggesting We Support the Ground Zero Mosque.
And two more things:
1. Contrary to what AP would like to believe, The Ground Zero Mosque actually is at Ground Zero. On September 11, 2001, this part of the JetBombs fell on the Burlington Coat Factory building:
This part of the planes that crashed on the World Trade Center buildings actually fell on the Burlington Coat Factory building and damaged it.
In a conversation this morning with Jeff Dunetz, we both discussed whether the building has been checked for human remains that scattered all through the neighborhood, and whether any would be found in a search. I don’t know the answer to that.
Also at Ground Zero was St Nicholas Church, which has been denied permission to rebuild.
2. The Mosque is intended to be a magnet center for Muslims and Sharia – particularly in its location at the financial center, as a vehicle for Sharia finance; The area is already served by two other mosques. How many Muslims are in the area now? Sultan Knish did the numbers:
Imam Rauf and his media defenders have compared this to building a Jewish community center. But there are over 25,000 Jewish household in Lower Manhattan, or almost 20 percent of the population. There is no statistically significant Muslim population in the area. The 2000 census showed 3,522 people living in the Ground Zero mosque zip code, 375 of whom identified as Asian. Considering the proximity of Chinatown, it’s likely that they actually are Asian, as opposed to Pakistani or Bangladeshi. (And the director of Al Arabiya has confirmed that: “there are no practicing Muslims in the area who need a place to worship“.) What the census numbers also show is that the mosque is being built in an area with a small residential population, that is heavily commercial, with far more offices than homes. Even if everyone living in that zip code were a Muslim, Rauf would still be proposing to spend nearly 30,000 dollars per Muslim on the mosque. But since they are not Muslims, what Rauf is proposing is a 100 million dollar expansion in an area whose Muslims are outside commuters and generally use basement and storefront mosques.
Building a 100 million dollar facility for Muslims that most of them can only use on their lunch break or briefly after work, before they go home to Brooklyn or New Jersey, is not about serving the community. It’s about making a statement. There would be no way to raise that kind of money otherwise. Rauf is not building a facility that local Muslims need. His flock comes from different boroughs and states entirely. They hang around Lower Manhattan as part of the Hallal Mafia, peddling unhygienic burned food from carts, or in storefronts selling cheap knockoffs of brand name merchandise, pirated DVD’s and used clothes below Broadway. Some of them work as financial analysts helping Wall Street get the whole Sharia Finance thing right.
There might be a call for a 100 million dollar facility aimed at Muslims in Jersey City or off Atlantic Avenue, but no need or use for it near Ground Zero. There is no reason to build a Mosque there, except to make a statement. Rauf admitted as much early on, billing the mosque as part of a campaign of tolerance or healing. knowing that most liberals would not look past such euphemisms and enthusiastically embrace the project to showcase their vaunted tolerance, and rejection of “right wing extremists”. That Rauf himself is quite the extremist has not interested them at all. The same Time Magazine which wrings its hands over the “politicization” of Ground Zero has whitewashed Rauf and his own plans to politicize the site. Just as the rest of the media has ignored the inconsistencies in Rauf’s changing story, questions about where the money is coming from, and the most elementary question– who actually needs the Ground Zero Mosque.
In today’s news, Iran cash might fund Ground Zero mosque, as the developers of the Ground Zero mosque are refusing to flat out reject Iranian funds for the project.
Russell won’t blame the Christians for that, we hope.
(post re-edited to include several omitted paragraphs and links)
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And now Bloomberg does Sharia?
Emerging Corruption has the details:
Ground Zero Mosque Madness: NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s Bloomberg LLC expanding its financial center to a regional hub in Dubai
Bloomberg LLC sells its terminals from seven regional hubs: London, Sao Paolo, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney but the Dubai regional center will allow Bloomberg access to Islamic sharia based banking and monetary systems by developing a sharia compliant finance portal.
According to the regional head of Bloomberg LLC’s Middle East and South Asia centers, Max Linnington, “The region for us has seen explosive growth. For example, last year in the UAE, we grew our core business by 61 per cent. And already this year, we exceeded what we achieved in all of last year in the UAE. So we are selling a lot of Bloomberg terminals, basically.”
Linnington went on to add, “Particularly since the meltdown of the western capitalist system, there has been an increasingly large focus on the virtues of Islamic finance. Today, there is no one single provider of information that caters to the Islamic finance market. So by Bloomberg being here, we are in the process of building out an Islamic finance product. We are very confident that we can build a product that meets the needs of the market right now.”
Indeed it’ll meet the needs of the Sharia market right now.
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Obama: Non, je ne regrette rien VIDEO
Pelosi wants to investigate the Ground Zero mosque opposition UPDATED
Not the funding sources (one doesn’t just come up with $100,000,000 out of the blue, outside of Nancy’s world), not the whereabouts of the traveling Imam, not even the destinations to which his taxpayer-bankrolled tickets will take him (to use Claudia Rosett’s phrase) or who approved his trip at the State Department. No.
Rep. Pelosi calls for investigation of WTC mosque opposition (emphasis added)
“There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some. And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded,” she said
Nice Deb has the audio,
Dan Blatt wonders Has Nancy Pelosi Read the First Amendment?
Now, an investigation of a political protest movement may pass constitutional muster, but it certainly smacks of authoritarianism. An investigation does not mean she favors abridging freedom or speech or curtailing “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” which is what opponents of the “Ground Zero Mosque” have been doing. But, she sure doesn’t seem comfortable with it.
Why, may I ask, does she need to know how this is being “ginned up”? Why can’t she jut take issue with their arguments without casting aspersions at their motives?
Wonder if she also wants to investigate her Senate counterpart, Harry Reid who thinks the mosque should be built elsewhere? Guess she’ll also be calling for an investigation of Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid, director of Al-Arabiya TV who wrote that the “last thing Muslims want today is to build just a religious center out of defiance to the others, or a symbolic mosque that people visit as a museum next to a cemetery.“
My sense is that an investigation will find that opposition to the mosque hasn’t been ginned up (as Mrs. Pelosi might put it) by some dark and sinister (in Pelosi speak, read conservative) forces, but is merely the grassroots opposition of a good number of Americans who don’t think it appropriate to build such a center so close to Ground Zero site, as Charles Krauthammer so eloquently put it, “of the greatest mass murder in American history — perpetrated by Muslims of a particular Islamist orthodoxy in whose cause they died and in whose name they killed.“
It’s not just that, a number of opponents (of the mosque) have raised questions about its funding, the leader of the project, even the rationale behind its name. Their opposition is not based on animosity against Islam per se, but based on serious questions about the project’s purpose.
Particularly when the project is named Cordoba Initiative.
UPDATE
Whoa! – I almost missed this, but Gates of Vienna has the link,
Ground Zero Mosque’s Hidden Websites: Follow the Shariah
Do the math. The 15 floors planned for the Ground Zero Mosque just don’t add up.
…
Why don’t the 15 floors add up? How many floors does Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf need for the mosque portion of this triumphal Islamic command center planned for the two building sites at 45-47 Park Place in New York City? Think about it: maybe 2 floors for the mosque itself and related offices. A 3rd floor for the swimming pool, a 4th for the 500 seat auditorium, a 5th for the halal restaurant and halal culinary school, a 6th for the art studios, the childcare center and library, a 7th for the gym and basketball court. Add an 8th floor for miscellaneous storage and offices. And then add a 9th floor for the September 11 memorial, an after-thought that was recently added to the Imam’s plan, although that may in fact be more of a room off to one side than a whole floor.That leaves six mystery floors empty – or dedicated to other activities. Six floors – that’s a lot of offices, a lot of employees, maybe more than half of the 150 full-time and 500 part-time jobs the Imam says he’ll bring to Lower Manhattan. What are Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s plans for those six mystery floors?
Follow the Shariah Index Project to solve the puzzle of the 6 mystery floors: We found two hidden websites with copiously deleted information, all about the Imam’s Cordoba Institute Shariah Index Project. For reference, here’s the Imam’s most recent hidden website (also available here as a pdf). And here’s the Imam’s earlier hidden website (also available here as a pdf). The information on those websites – information that the Imam tried to hide with a new whitewashed version – suggests that the six mystery floors of the Ground Zero Mosque will be dedicated to the Imam’s long-term goal: the Shariah Index Project, designed to benchmark Shariah compliance, to distribute Shariah propaganda, and to enforce Shariah law in America and worldwide.
Drawing from those hidden webpages and other sites, we’ve constructed a timeline for the Shariah Index Project and a partial list of Rauf’s partners in the Project. In Part 2, we’ll reveal the disturbing background and views of those partners. And in Part 3, we’ll present the bottom line – how this all ties together as a historic Islamist effort to market and to enforce Shariah in America, starting from Ground Zero.
Numbered Documents, for everyone’s convenience! Below, from the hidden websites, is the evidence Rauf tried to cover-up. We’ve even numbered the Shariah Index Project documents he mentioned, to make it easy for the Imam and his staff – for example, Courtney Erwin, attorney and director of the Shariah Index Project and corporate contact for the Cordoba Institute – to provide copies to the American public.
Go read it all.
If Nancy wants an investigation, she ought to start there.
Bonus link:
Who’s writing the Tweets? (h/t Drudge, as if he needs my traffic)
UPDATE 2
In case you’re wondering what the hey Nancy was talking about when she wondered off to “Treasure Island”, Michelle Malkin has the details:
Pelosi and the Treasure Island land grab
Pelosi has used her power to push the crony-infested project for years. She pushed aggressively for legislative language that would have forced the military to fork over high-value property at no cost to local communities. And as the Washington Times recounted last fall, she presided over a “den of corruption” to secure the coveted property
That’s only the start. Go read the rest.
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You know the Ground Zero mosque is a bad idea when…
the director-general of Al-Arabiya TV comes out saying that The Majority of Muslims Do Not Want or Need a Mosque Near Ground Zero (emphasis added)
“The [Ground Zero] mosque… is a strange affair, because it is not an issue [that concerns] the Muslims. [In fact,] we never even heard of it until it became the focus of vociferous arguments between supporters and objectors, most of them non-Muslim Americans!…
“The Muslims never asked for this [mosque], and even the angry Muslims do not want it. This is one of the few times when the two opposing sides are in agreement. Nevertheless, the dispute flared up. It made the front pages of newspapers and [featured on] the major television programs. Demonstrations were held in the streets, and large posters were plastered on New York buses, demanding that the construction of the mosque be prevented and reminding everyone of the 9/11 crime. This really is a strange battle!
“I can’t imagine that Muslims [actually] want a mosque at this particular location, because it will become an arena for the promoters of hatred, and a monument to those who committed the crime. Moreover, there are no practicing Muslims in the area who need a place to worship, because it is a commercial district. Is there anyone who is [really] eager [to build] this mosque?…
Bill Kristol hopes this is The Beginning of the End of the Ground Zero Mosque
A column in a leading Arabic-language daily should lead even liberals to throw in the towel.
his practical case against building the mosque is irrefutable. It should lead well-meaning liberals to join with us dastardly conservatives (well, it would be too painful for them to join with us—they can simply act in parallel, on their own, while continuing to denounce us) in calling for the organizers to shelve the plans for a mosque at this site. Or will the organizers pull the plug even before their supporters get around to urging them to do so?
Kristol probably overestimates the IQ of the “well meaning liberals”, and probably also of the people at the State Department who are bankrolling with taxpayer money the travels of Imam Feisal.
But I certainly hope Kristol is right.
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The trouble with Harry
Reid breaks with Obama, opposes mosque near Ground Zero
Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid is breaking ranks with President Obama over the issue of the proposed construction of a controversial Islamic center and mosque just blocks away from Ground Zero.
“The First Amendment protects freedom of religion,” spokesman Jim Manley said in a statement. “Sen. Reid respects that but thinks that the mosque should be built some place else.
Harry couldn’t help himself and had to blame, who else, the Republicans, even when it is his own lack of leadership that can not gather enough Democrat votes in his Democrat-controlled Senate
If the Republicans are being sincere, they would help us pass this long overdue bill to help the first responders whose health and livelihoods have been devastated because of their bravery on 911, rather than continuing to block this much-needed legislation.”
But I digress.
Allahpundit comments,
I know national polls show voters (including a majority of Democrats) overwhelmingly against the mosque but I’m still surprised that he went this route. He’ll be absolutely obliterated by the left for it. They’ll turn out for him anyway, I assume, in the interest of electing Anyone But Angle, but he’s going to take an unholy beating in the meantime. Consider this a parting gift to him from Obama, whose agenda has already placed Reid on the brink of electoral destruction: Had Barry O simply stayed away from this subject and continued with the lame but smart talking point about not interfering in local issues, Reid probably could have ducked it. Instead he spoke up and nationalized it, and now Democrats everywhere will have to decide whether to walk the plank or save themselves. Good work, champ.
Over at Haaretz, they were saying that
Insiders say Muslim spiritual leaders behind the controversial initiative are considering giving up on the former World Trade Center location, in a gesture of appeasement.
but the Park51 spokesman tweeted,
There is no truth to the Haaretz story. It is wholly incorrect. We will be publishing a press release regarding this shortly.
Another one of their tweets was even more direct,
On a side note, if Haaretz likes publishing fables, perhaps they could go back to the Yiddish ones with parables
The road to moderation and tolerance runs directly through Jew-baiting.
In the meantime, does anyone know where in the world is Imam Feisal? Did he start his tour yet? I want to know where my tax dollars are going.
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“The ultimate destination of multiculturalism is platitudinous stupidity”
“The ultimate destination of multiculturalism is platitudinous stupidity.”
Indeed it is, but there are many stops along the way; Here is one (h/t Larwyn):
Aerial photo of World Trade Center Ground Zero following Sept. 11 attacks. Red square to right of Ground Zero marks former Burlington Coat Factory and proposed location of Cordoba House.
Having said, “Let me be clear,” Obama is now backtracking – Good luck with that one. Compounding insult with cynicism and cowardice is probably not a winning strategy.
A backpedaling fail, if ever there was one.
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