There are three generally accepted 9/11 Families organizations; The Families of September 11, the September 11th Families Association, and the September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. All of whom list their organizing body and affiliations with 9/11. Of these three, one has not commented [that I could find], one has taken a neutral stance and the latter has spoken out in support of the center.
Then we have 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America, which doesn't tell you it's organization or affiliation. With it's spokeswomen Debra Burlingame being frequently feted on Fox News, it would appear that she speaks for all 9/11 families, given the context provided by Fox. What Fox also doesn't tell you is that she co-founded Keep America Safe with Liz Cheney.
Almost without exception, every vocal opponent of the Cordoba Center is either a Republican politician, pundit or activist. Now that may not constitute offensive partisan scandal in some people's opinion, but let's look at some other less reported events around the nation.
Temecula, California, has little in common with New York City. But the debate over a new mosque in the sleepy suburban town east of Camp Pendleton echoes many of the themes expressed in the controversy surrounding the Park 51 Islamic center to be built near the World Trade Center site.
In Southern California, the question is whether the Islamic Center of Temecula Valley should be granted a permit to build a mosque on land it owns next to two established churches. The Islamic Center presently holds prayer services in a warehouse next to a pipeline company, down the street from a smog-test station and masonry supply yard. And during Friday prayers on July 30, around 25 local conservative [read-Southwest Riverside County Tea Party] activists stood outside shouting slogans of hate through a bullhorn, carrying signs with messages such as "No More Mosques in America", and brought along several dogs, hoping to offend Muslim sensibilities.
Time
Dogs! Hey guys......1956 called...they want their racist scare tactic back.
Similar events in Murfreesboro, Tennessee
And in Florence, Kentucky
And Sheboygan, Wisconsin
And Staten Island, NY
And let's not forget the Koran burning in Gainesville, Florida
And Miss Geller of recent fame has decided to associate herself with a certain David Yerushalmi, of whom Charles Johnson of LGF details the bio.
This is a good time for some background information on Pamela Geller’s associate David Yerushalmi, who is an advocate for criminalizing Islam
itself and imposing 20-year sentences on practicing Muslims. Yes, really.
He’s not simply anti-Muslim, though; Yerushalmi also wrote a now-infamous article titled “On Race: A Tentative Discussion, Part II,” in which he advocated a return to a pre-Bill of Rights Constitution, and the restriction of voting rights to white male land-owners. Again … yes, really.
Where are the Constitutional Republicans? Why aren't notable conservative's standing up for the principles that they tout as sacrosanct? Why are they not standing against such transparent ignorance? This controversy is manufactured as evidenced by the Republicans who supported the center before they opposed it [read-before the script was disseminated].
Nobody had a problem with Imam Rauf working with the Bush Administration on tax payer funded speaking tours until the script was released. Now that Imam Hussein Obama [h/t Limbuagh] has done the same, Rauf is somehow an extremist bent on subverting the American way of life, despite his longstanding resume of interfaith collaboration and community building. This coincides with the stunning revelation that many oxygen deprived Americans think Obama is a Muslim.
The GOP appears to have a new Southern Strategy, it's the South Shall Rise Again plan...because the Republican Party is surely becoming the Confederate Party.
My Blogging colleague Zandar puts it best:
Capitulating on Park51 is the easy thing to do. Nothing worthwhile in life is ever easy. We are already seeing the results of what will happen no matter what Park51 does or where it is placed: it will not stop those who are the bigots, those who want Islam and their adherents erased from the American landscape, those who see no difference between the people who attacked us on 9/11 and the people who are building Park51 or any mosque in America or any Muslim in America period.
Moving the Park51 project will not slake their anger. Period.
Sometimes, the correct choice is the difficult one: to stand for what is right and just and lawful especially when it is unpopular. It is at this point when standing for the difficult but right position is the most necessary.
Build it. Show those who say that America is full of hate that hate can be conquered through real freedom.
In addition to all of this, the final nail closing the coffin lid on the opposition argument, is that Al Qaeda has a history of attacking Sufi Muslim Mosques, thus making the Cordoba Center a possible target of a terrorist attack.
Two suicide bombers detonated more than 65 pounds of explosives in one of Lahore's iconic cultural landmarks, killing at least 37 people and wounding 175. The attack on the Sufi shrine, locally known as Data Darbar, has sent shockwaves through Pakistan's Sufi community, who have lived in fear of such violence for four years.AOL
Sufism, the mystical strand of Islam, is a largely nonviolent, apolitical religious creed that places an individual's relationship with God above the demands of any single doctrine. It is credited with producing some of Islam's greatest works of art, in poetry, literature and music, as well as some of Islam's leading contributions to science and philosophy.
It is also hated by fundamentalists like the Taliban and al-Qaida.
But when asked why Sufis haven't done more to counter the influence of the fundamentalists, Baig fought back tears and struggled to provide an answer. "We are a quiet people," he said at last. "We spend our days studying and meditating. It is part of our creed not to interfere with the spiritual path an individual has chosen, even if it is leading him to violence. But we are talking more about what we can do. It is on our minds."
It's easy to stand the crazies up as straw men, and subsequently blow them down. It's also easy to make the sweeping generalization that all opponents are crazies.
ReplyDeleteCall me a skeptical opponent... most likely in the 26% uncertain category, but closer to the 54% opposed nationwide. I'm opposed to the building of the NYC mosque because of a lack of information. The naming of the mosque (Cordoba Center) could hearken back to the days of Cordoba, Spain as a cultural, scientific, and economic center of Muslim society at the turn of the last millennium. It could also be symbolic of the conquest of Spain and establishment of an Islamic caliphate in the eighth century, one gateway to the attempted conquest of a predominantly Christian Europe.
The name is but the first in a series of questions that the public needs answered. Where is the mosque funding coming from? As with anything else (including the opposition to the mosque), following the money trail often leads to the typical suspects... so forgive opponents their skepticism until light is shined upon the dark corners of the money trail. Have alternate sites been considered? In Cordoba, Spain, as in Instanbul and Jerusalem, among other conquests, Muslims have a habit of erecting mosques as celebrations of victory. I haven't seen any studies or evidence of why this is the preferred site, or what alternate sites have been considered (even if they have been dismissed as unsuitable).
Funding sources and motivating factors are two of the biggest questions for any enterprise, and it shouldn't be surprising that a failure to satisfactorily answer or even acknowledge them is resulting in resistance. It doesn't matter that the subject is religion; whether this was a corporate effort or political campaign, the same questions would be asked and hopefully answered. Until I know more, put me in the undecided but mildly skeptical camp. I wouldn't be surprised to find most of America surrounding me.
This is Republican machination at it's sickest, the white christian fascists are dominating the Right and will never miss an opportunity to slander Obama as a Secret Muslin.
ReplyDelete