Posts Tagged ‘obama mosque’

Considering the long list of infamies performed on us since the last ‘lection, I’m frankly a little surprised that the conservative talkers have latched onto this Mosque mess, Ground Zero, 911 stuff with the tenacity of a weasel on a chicken neck.

It is a fact that there are people with very strong opinions on the subject, but for the most part, I doubt it’s front and center in most folks lives in the Estados Unidos.

On the other hand, it is front and center for some over in the old country. To back up my assertion, I went and did my research after I wrote the previous sentence. Let’s have a look, shall we….

From the imperious pages of Asharq Al-Awsat…

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Asharq Al-Awsat
The leading Arabic international paper
Asharq Al-Awsat is the world’s premier pan-Arab daily newspaper, Printed simultaneously on four continents in 12 cities.
Launched in London in 1978, Asharq Al-Awsat has established itself as the decisive publication on pan- Arab and international affairs, offering its reader’s in-depth analysis and exclusive editorials, as well as the most comprehensive coverage of the entire Arab World.

A House of Worship or a Symbol of Destruction?

16/08/2010 By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid he general manager of Al -Arabiya television. Mr. Al Rashed is also the former editor-in-chief of Asharq Al- Awsat, and the leading Arabic weekly magazine, Al Majalla. He is also a senior Columnist in the daily newspapers of Al Madina and Al Bilad. He is a US post-graduate degree in mass communications. He has been a guest on many TV current affairs programs. He is currently based in Dubai.

US President Barack Obama adopted a difficult position when he supported the building of a mosque near ground zero, where 3,000 US citizens died at the hands of Al-Qaeda terrorists on 11 September 2001.

Despite the fact that the president adopted the correct stance in principle, i.e. the principle of freedom of worship, in my opinion he adopted an unnecessary and unimportant stance, even as far as Muslims are concerned. The mosque is not an issue for Muslims, and they are not bothered by its construction.

This reminds us of another principled stance Obama took when he insisted on putting the Guantanamo prisoners accused of belonging to Al-Qaeda on trial before civilian courts, and on closing down the military prison. It is true that this stance deserves appreciation. However, the fact is that he fought a battle that does not concern Muslims across the world, because there are tens of thousands of Muslims – similar to those accused of extremism – who are imprisoned in worse conditions in Muslim countries.

Muslims do not aspire for a mosque next to the 11 September cemetery, and are not bothered with Bin Ladin’s cook being put on trial in a civilian court. Muslims have issues that encroach upon the destinies of nations; these issues are the cause of isolation and calamity, such as the establishment of the State of Palestine. For Obama to focus his energy and efforts, and fight for the establishment of peace in the Middle East is more important and more valuable than a mosque in New York.

The fact is that building a mosque next to the site of the World Trade Center Twin Towers, which were destroyed during the 11 September attacks, is a strange story. This is because the mosque is not an issue for Muslims, and they have not heard of it until the shouting became loud between the supporters and the objectors, which is mostly an argument between non-Muslim US citizens!

Neither did the Muslims ask for a single building, nor do the angry Muslims want the mosque. This is one of the few times when the two opposing sides are in agreement. Nevertheless, the dispute has escalated, and has reached the front pages of the press and the major television programs, demonstrations have been staged in the streets, and large posters have been hung on buses roaming the streets of New York calling for preventing the building of the mosque and reminding the people of the 11 September crime. It really is a strange battle!

I cannot imagine that Muslims want a mosque on this particular site, because it will be turned into an arena for promoters of hatred, and a symbol of those who committed the crime. At the same time, there are no practicing Muslims in the district who need a place of worship, because it is indeed a commercial district. Is there a side that is committed to this mosque? The fact is that in the news reports there are names linked to this project that costs 100 million dollars!

The sides enthusiastic for building the mosque might be building companies, architect houses, or politicized groups that want suitable investments?! I do not know whether the building applicant wants a mosque whose aim is reconciliation, or he is an investor who wants quick profits. This is because the idea of the mosque specifically next to the destruction is not at all a clever deed. 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.

What the US citizens do not understand is that the battle against the 11 September terrorists is a Muslim battle, and not theirs, and this battle still is ablaze in more than 20 Muslim countries. Some Muslims will consider that building a mosque on this site immortalizes and commemorates what was done by the terrorists who committed their crime in the name of Islam. I do not think that the majority of Muslims want to build a symbol or a worship place that tomorrow might become a place about which the terrorists and their Muslim followers boast, and which will become a shrine for Islam haters whose aim is to turn the public opinion against Islam. This is what has started to happen now; they claim that there is a mosque being built over the corpses of 3,000 killed US citizens, who were buried alive by people chanting God is great, which is the same call that will be heard from the mosque.

It is the wrong battle, because originally there was no mosque in order to rebuild it, and there are no practicing Muslims who want a place in which to worship.

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So, basically, Muslims, while properly worshipful, as the should be, of President Obama, have better things to do than worry with this silly NY Ground Zero Mosque. Hear hear! As the man says, this is one of those crazy times when the argument is strictly between Americans. The Muslims, that the argument is about, are sitting on the sidelines drinking green tea, watching the ball being swatted back and forth. Mostly, they just wish the whole thing would go away. They don’t think they have a dervish in the fight.

Actually, foreign Muslims have a lot more to worry with than new Mosques in NY. They worry with things like…survival. Being killed by themselves. Sneaky mean Jewish folks doing a conspiracy. Little things like that.

Therefore, I stand corrected. My original statement said, “On the other hand, it is front and center for some over in the old country.” Looks like I was completely wrong.

What I’m right about, though, is that this really looks like the old Obama Rope-A-Dope, or Glenn Beck’s watching one hand doing tricks while the other one is the one really tricking you. A deception. A sneak. Of course, President Obama, may he be worshiped and blessed 72 times, didn’t stick his ample foot into his mouth on purpose, but while we’re all out here chasing our tails over this goofy Mosque, there’s no telling what rude and corruptible meanness he’s been up to.

What’s way more scary than a Ramadan Imam calling for prayer four times a day with his souped up 13 story amp in downtown NY is the mischief our democrat pals are up to while we’re studying Mosques.

It’s best that the Mosque thing just blows over. The Muslims want it over. The majority of Americans want it over. (Correction…Americans want it several streets over and away from Ground Zero.)  We have bigger fish to fry. The fish we must battle to fry are the carping democrats and their sissy Republican accomplices.  Come November, the call won’t be to Mosque, it will be to the voting booth to fire some misbehaving democrats. Then we can all go to Mosque and thank God.

Dan Rather, famous defunct CBS Newsman, once made the comment that defined his life and gave courage to us all. While it has been much re-quoted, do you know where it came from? His imperious words ring down to this very day with new meaning and promise, as we attempt to fathom what motivates President Obama…

June 1, 1983, Wednesday Late City Final Edition, NY Times
Dan Rather defended the accusations linking a doctor to an insurance-fraud scheme in a controversial segment of ”60 Minutes,” testifying today in a slander suit against CBS. He noted that…

”If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you’ve got a duck.”

Hear hear Mr. Rather! We couldn’t agree more! Hear hear! Harrumph!

My friends. Do you recall that when Rush Limbaugh made his famous statement that he “Hoped Obama fails,” he brought down the very fires of hell upon himself from a wrathful press. Do you recall that even you were shocked?

I was shocked, and that’s saying something. But just like you, I got over it quickly. Now, the validity of  those words delivered by Mr. Rush On Facebook himself is beyond question.

We all hoped he would fail, even as we have watched him succeed beyond the wildest imaginings of Lucifer on his throne.

Also, do you recall that when some questioned Mr. Obama’s religious preferences, they were castigated and threatened with immediate expulsion from the very human race?

Looking back, do you have a sense that our favorite talkers made much of an issue about Obama and his Muslim tendencies? The answer is no. It was downplayed, ignored, or downright dismissed by everyone with a microphone. And for good reason too. To even hint that Obama has Muslim longings was and still is seen as being somehow bad flavor.

I have never addressed this issue myself. It’s something we all see, but shy away from. In the end, what difference does it make, we think to ourselves.

Friends, may I call you a friend? President Obama’s outreach to the Muslin community is unprecedented. It is so unprecedented that it curdles the imagination.

And you know, it might not be so bad, if he hadn’t shown his butt to Israel at the same time. When you put this together, something stinks.

Quoth Obama’s teleprompter, Friday night on 13th of August, “Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground,” Obama said at a White House dinner celebrating the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. “But let me be clear: as a citizen and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”

These words he spoke at the well known Iftar celebration at the White House…

According to the NY Times, “In hosting the iftar, Mr. Obama was following a White House tradition that, while sporadic, dates to Thomas Jefferson, who held a sunset dinner for the first Muslim ambassador to the United States. President George W. Bush hosted iftars annually.”

Well ding dong! Much good Mr. Jefferson’s manners and charity did. Much of the Muslim world hates our guts!

Where did those sillys at the NY Times dig that up? Sounds a little iffy to me, not to besmirch the excellent reportage of the NY Times. Someone needs to check up on this, Mr. Glenn Beck.

Let me be very clear here. To Americans, this is not a religious issue. Americans have spent untold amounts of treasure and thousands of lives fighting for the rights of Muslims around the world. To volunteer to go, risking the possibility to die for strangers in a strange land says a lot about Americans.

More, many courageous men and women, who just happen to be Muslim have risked, and lost their lives in one way or the other here and abroad in the fight against radicalism. Because of the nature of the fight, we’ll never know their names or their stories.

Indeed, the protection and defense of the homeland could not be successfully waged without the help and cooperation of courageous American Muslims willing to come forward with vital information, because they believe it is the right and just thing to do.

The issue is NOT religion. Americans simply don’t think that way. The issue is the handling of the whole issue. America should tell the story, at every opportunity, of how we have helped Muslims. President Obama should tell the story of sacrifice of the American nation for beleaguered peoples worldwide, and done it with no expectation of reward. Americans are defenders…not conquerors.

Frankly, given a choice, American soldiers would rather be sent “over there” to throw candy instead of hand grenades. If a third choice were available, they would even more wish to just stay home.

Instead, we have a PC guilt trip put on us by our own government, as if we have been bad. The whole situation is upside down.

When the majority of people in New York don’t, quite understandably, want a Mosque being built in the shadow of the remains of the World Trade Center, the polite thing to do would be to say Ok, and move it on down the street with only thanks and praise from Americans. But that’s not what’s going to happen. It’s going to fought by people with political agendas and made to look like another case of American religious and racial intolerance. And it will have international, detrimental, and possibly deadly implications.

Regardless, if Obama is our first Muslim president, defined by his deeds, rather than his oath, he should step forward and declare it.

You know, there are some Christians and Jews who are Christians and Jews, but don’t have it stamped on their ID card. Yet, if asked, they’ll happily tell you that they are a Christian, or a Jew, or a Catholic. You don’t have to be a card carrying religionist to be one, you know.

Just fess up. We won’t think any less of you than we already do. Promise!

In summation, Obama’s faith choices aren’t important. However, his actions, dictated by his belief system is important, when it serves to the detriment of the nation. When you overlay his fascination with all things Middle East and Muslim on your view of the man, many of his whimsical dictates become very clear indeed. See, Muslim On The Moon.