Sunday, July 25, 2010

GROUND ZERO FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS

By now you most certainly heard the debate over the proposed Cordoba Mosque near Ground Zero, the site of the tragic events of 9/11. You have certainly heard the calls to disallow its presence so close to a reminder of the threat of global Islamic radicalism. You most certainly have heard the ignorant blathering of the bonehead from Wasilla, Sarah Palin as she brutalised the English language while calling on peaceful Muslims to please "repudiate" their desire to establish their mosque so close to ground zero.
As understandable as it would be to blame the entire Muslim faith for the attack on the World Trade Center, as understandable as it would be to hate everyone sharing a common religion with the perpetrators; deep in our hearts, we know it was from a small band of animalistic criminals, and not a united effort from their religious leaders and followers. We realize that they no more represented their religion than Timothy McVeigh represented Catholicism.....and we do not stop the building of Catholic churches next to the site of that bloody act of terrorism either.
Am I for the building of the mosque? Absolutely. It goes to the main tenets upon which this country was founded...freedom of religion. For it? I am an ardent supporter of it. We need to insure this mosque is built, we need the world to know that we are a free society, an intelligent society, and not the mindless sheep that largely make up the Muslim world in the middle east. We need to begin to build monuments on ground zero, and monuments around ground zero, and the Cordoba mosque should be one of them......a testament to our freedoms......freedom of religion and religious tolerance.
If we let these blocking efforts succeed, if we let these hatemongers succeed, if we let the vicious act of madmen let us change what we are, and what we believe, then they win. Don't let them win. We need this mosque as much as the Muslims do. We need a mosque, a church, a synagogue and a temple surrounding ground zero. We need to retain the core beliefs this country was founded on. We need to point to this mosque with pride; as much a testament of who we are as it will be yet another defeat of the hatred and bigotry spewed forth by Ms. Palin and her irk. They say they want to take their country back....truth is, they want to change this country in ways that would make the framers of our constitution sickened. Don't let them win.
You may not like every component necessary in order to make this gigantic sausage we call democracy, but it doesn't mean you get to choose the ingredients. It's called freedom.......get over it. Freedoms do not change with what calms you, or upsets you. Freedoms are freedoms. Don't like it? Move to China and see what upsets you.
And that is the world...the "World According to Kimba." Thanks for reading.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey big brother. I feel bad to be the one to break it to you. The world is filled with hypocrisy and it doesn’t seem to be limited to just a single faith. Your article reminds me of a past conversation with a Muslim friend who has great difficulty reconciling the actions of a few with the faith he holds very dearly. I don’t have to go very far to sympathize with him. A recent article in the LA Times quoted a Baptist Pastor in Temecula who opposes a mosque nearby (07-18-10) with unbelievable statements; anything but reflective of my Christian understanding. Then you have the George Tillers of the world. The proximity of this proposed mosque could just become a stirring reminder of a faith perverted and may encourage others stand-up for their deeply held beliefs. Scott

Papa Giorgio said...

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Scott and Big Brother,

I hate to break it to you... but, Islam needs more tolerance, not more mosques. And a quick note. Timothy McVeigh repudiated any religion -- Although, he did converts to Islam briefly (Two Liberal Myths Made Short Order Of). And a few, in a conservative estimate, is 10% of the Muslim faith. Leading to 100-million extremists bent on destroying America and-or Israel. Scott.

The question becomes this. What would it take to get you, Kimba, to see this Mosque is funded by terrorists or interests that fund terror (either through $$ or doctrine). It would be like the Christian Identity people blowing up the Mosque on the Mount in Israel, and then funding with all cash and the same doctrine that led to its destruction behind it. (*Speaking calmly and in a monotone fashion, but sternly through a Vuvuzela*) THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE IN THIS ANALOGY. For instance:

Imam Feisal Rauf, the central figure in the coterie planning a huge mosque just off Ground Zero, is a full-throated champion of the very same Muslim theologians and jurists identified in a landmark NYPD report as central to promoting the Islamic religious bigotry that fuels modern jihad terrorism.

This fact alone should compel Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg to withdraw their support for the proposed mosque.

In August 2007, the NYPD released “Radicalization in the West — The Homegrown Threat.” This landmark 90-page report looked at the threat that had become apparent since 9/11, analyzing the roots of recent terror plots in the United States, from Lackawanna, NY, to Portland, Ore., to Fort Dix, NJ.

The report noted that Saudi “Wahhabi” scholars feed the jihadist ideology, legitimizing an “extreme intolerance” toward non-Muslims, especially Jews, Christians and Hindus. In particular, the analysts noted that the “journey” of radicalization that produces homegrown jihadis often begins in a Wahhabi mosque.

The term “Wahhabi” refers to the 18th century founder of this austere Islamic tradition, Muhammad bin Abdul al-Wahhab, who claimed inspiration from 14th century jurist Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah.

At least two of Imam Rauf’s books, a 2000 treatise on Islamic law and his 2004 “What’s Right with Islam,” laud the implementation of sharia — including within America — and the “rejuvenating” Islamic religious spirit of Ibn Taymiyyah and al-Wahhab.

He also lionizes as two ostensible “modernists” Jamal al-Dinal-Afghani (d. 1897), and his student Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905). In fact, both defended the Wahhabis, praised the salutary influence of Ibn Taymiyyah and promoted the pretense that sha ria — despite its permanent advocacy of jihad and dehumanizing injunctions on non-Muslims and women — was somehow compatible with Western concepts of human rights, as in our own Bill of Rights.


Please read it all


...[cont]...

Papa Giorgio said...

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And from Pamela Geller comes this link to an article:

Hossein Mahallati remains an enthusiastic supporter of Rauf's Ground Zero enterprise, especially since an Egyptian property developer, Sharif El-Gamal, who appears to be the real leader of the effort, using Rauf as his public face, put up $4.85 million in cash to purchase the location. El-Gamal is chief executive officer of Soho Properties, Inc., a commercial real estate investment firm he founded in 2003. His partner is Nour Mousa, another guiding figure in the Ground Zero mosque effort and the nephew of Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League. Amr Moussa was the first major Arab leader to go to Gaza and affirm support for Hamas, in mid-June, after the recent blockade-running assault.

El-Gamal has kept a low profile in the dispute over the appearance of an Islamic institution near Ground Zero, although last week he appeared before a hearing of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to announce that Cordoba House will now be known as Park51. He and Rauf have both taken to downplaying the religious character of the proposal, preferring that the building be called a "community center."

So far, then, the Ground Zero Islamic facility rests on a support network linked to the anti-Jewish Mahathir and the Perdana-supported Gaza raiders, some notable servants of the Iranian clerical dictatorship, and an Egyptian property developer associated with the pro-Hamas chief of the Arab League.

Please read it all

She ends her post by saying this: "Hundreds of millions slaughtered........ is not my idea of positive social change -- unless you are an Islamic supremacist." It is amazing that you Kimba would draw quicker lines to the Bush family and Wahhabist ties via the oil industry and ignore this "gift horse" staring you right in the face.

We are all for religious tolerance, but this is not that. So again the question you should ask yourself is, "what type of and amount of evidence would get me to change my mind on this particular Mosque?" I think any sane man would have that criteria met.


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Papa Giorgio said...

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A better analogy:

"Having a mosque at Ground Zero would be the equivalent of having a Japanese Shinto shrine built next to the USS Arizona. Do the followers of Shinto have a right to have a shrine in Honolulu? Yes. In close proximity to the USS Arizona? No. I am well aware that many Japanese did not support the attack on Pearl Harbor and in fact, Japanese-Americans in a Nisei battalion composed the most decorated combat unit in the American armed forces in WWII, as they demonstrated their patriotism, even while many of their family members were shamefully placed in internment camps in the United States. That still does not negate the fact that it would be inappropriate to have a Japanese shrine in close proximity to the USS Arizona. It is similarly inappropriate to put a mosque in close proximity to Ground Zero."

(Source: Washington Post)

Do not forget that this Mosque was considered the most moderate in all of Britain. May I recommend going to my blog Religio-Political Talk and playing with the video links under my "Islam" expandable tag and taking some time out of your daily lives with those videos and educate yourselves a bit beyond KOS or Osama bin Olbermann.

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Kim said...

I do visit your blog from time to time. All I am saying is we cannot become a nation of religious tolerance based on where you worship, or establish zoning laws on religions we may disagree with.

Yes, if you follow the money trails it is troubling. If you follow the money, it will almost always lead you to Saudi Arabia and now apparently Pakistan....a nation that takes our money.

And I have watched the documentary (I wish I remembered the name of it) which takes a mathematical approach to the world map and the explosion of immigration and birth rates of the Moslim world in all regions of the globe.

Mathematically, it is only a matter of a few generations where they will be a huge contingent in most European countries as well as North and South America. They are exceeding our birth rates exponentially and the numbers do become scary.

Having said all of that, I thought what my little brother wrote was on point and made me proud...for his beliefs as well as obvious superior writing skills to mine.

The moral question is how are you willing to shape / limit our freedoms and democracy to suit your comfort level as a nation free to worship whomever you please free of governmental contradiction....will all citizens have to be subjects of the King ala pre-revolutionary war England, and forced to worship the church of England? Will we have a national language and religion? Will we continue to be the free nation the framers had in mind, or will we let our fears dictate the
religious tolerance / freedom of religion tenets of our nation?

Papa Giorgio said...

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All that (above) has nothing to do with the Ground Zero Mosque. Its the pitchforking of straw-men.

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Kim said...

here is your bottom line...we are a free society and for all of the rhetoric, you cannot stop the building of the mosque, unless you can somehow talk them out of doing it.