Aug 15 2010
Ground Zero Mosque – Fugeddabowdit
President Obama surely stepped into another firestorm, foot firmly planted in his mouth. If anyone still doubts our inexperienced young President is still woefully tone deaf and unable to go from campaigning to leading, the example of the mosque at ground zero is the example that should remove all doubt.
The White House on Saturday struggled to tamp down the controversy over President Barack Obama’s statements about a mosque near Ground Zero — insisting Obama wasn’t backing off remarks Friday night where he offered support for a project that has infuriated some families whose loved ones died in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Obama’s comments placed him in the middle of the controversy over a Muslim group’s plans for a mosque near the site of the 2001 attack — and in turn, transformed an emotion-laden local dispute in New York into a nationwide debate overnight.
A few things must be said about American ethics and its Constitution before we get to the issue of the Ground Zero Mosque (GZM). First, this country protects the rights of free speech and religion. Any group, if they can afford the cost, can have a place of worship at Ground Zero. Second, each of us are considered innocent of any crime or potential crime until proven guilty in a court of law. These bedrock tenants of America made her the shining city on the hill which have drawn people from all over this planet to exist in her glorious embrace of personal freedom!
We cannot and will not sacrifice these God given rights on the alter of fear and paranoia. We don’t need to throw dispersions at a religion or an Imam to make the case why there should not be a GZM.
With that said, the flip side of this issue is one of respect and of hallowed ground. Muslims do not need a mosque at ground zero. Given their views on building places of infidel worship on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem or infidel places of worship in Mecca, they are more than aware of the concept of hollowed ground. While they might be able do a thing, it is best they do not in this instance. Many times the ability to do something does not mean it is a good idea or right. Anyone can pick their nose in the middle of the street, but it does one’s reputation no good in the end to exercise that ‘right’.
The only reason I can see to push the GZM is to create a backlash – which they are doing quite nicely, though it is still a political one at the moment. At best it is a blind act of ignorance – though I sorely doubt it. Either way it is having the desired effect. It is ripping open old wounds of 9-11, attempting to pit this nation against a religion that too often calls for this nation’s destruction. Given the backdrop of economic pain, emotions are raw and could become violent. That alone is a good enough reason to stop the GZM.
But there are better rationales available to us. Ground Zero should be considered national hallowed ground and barred from any and all houses of worship. The separation of Church and state makes sense in this instance, since people of all races, creeds, religions and many nationalities perished in the act of gruesome cruelty that was 9-11 in New York City. It is not hard to determine that all 9-11 memorials and places of hallowed memorial be neutral to religion.
I will go one step further and say once again, the memorial in Pennsylvania should be adjusted to remove any hints of a natural mosque there. Move the crescent around to point to the North Star, make the crescent a semi-circle. Make a few minor adjustments so the symbolism of memorial cannot be confused with any religion or movement. There should be no doubt these are national memorials, not something co-opted by a few with radical views and agendas.
With the exception of small markers representing the religion of victims next to their names, these places need to be above the religious and social conflicts that created the death and destruction they represent for history.
It is a simple act of zoning to make sure, within the few blocks of utter destruction that hit us on 9-11, no place of worship is built. There can be a mosque just outside or down the street from ground zero – but no religion should try to claim that ground. Move the mosque down a street where it can stand separate from ground zero.
Update: Not surprisingly Sarah Palin seems to be on the same wavelength as me on this dangerous issue.
You hit the nail on the head in the first paragraph – Obama has just blown it (again) and for democrats across the country, this mistake may be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back as far as voters are concerned.
Look only at the politics of this issue, and it’s easy to see what a blunder has just been made. The construction of this mosque is widely unpopular across almost all socioeconomic groups, and especially in the heartland of the country. What’s worse, it’s seen as un-American. (forget the academic debate as to whether it is or isn’t, that is the political reality today) It’s yet another example where an elite (Bloomberg, etc) is attempting to force hated ideas down the throats of the ignorant peasants who toil under their rule.
BUT – Obama had a perfect opportunity! He wasn’t (until now) tied to any of this, he had no vested interest here! *Any* skillful politician would have taken the lay of the political landscape here (proletariat is surly, big election coming up) and realized that all he had to do is jump with both feet on the populist side of this thing and soak up the adulation, even from those who normally detest him. It would have been his own “Sistah Souljah” moment, and it would have cost him nothing at all politically to have seized it. The opportunity was achingly there, like a big golden apple hanging on a tree in easy reach. One simple statement – “I oppose this construction, and will take actions to see that it is moved elsewhere” and he maybe could have saved 20 or 30 seats in the House, maybe even control.
This is all so obvious that it’s hard to see how Axelrod and Obama’s other advisor’s could have missed this – implying that Obama is just a hard left idealogue who will reflexively take an anti-American position any chance he gets. This supposedly “brilliant” politician truly is just an Emporer with no clothes – he’s totally incompetent at the one thing he’s supposed to be good at!!!
This is how regimes fall – mistake after mistake after mistake. And the more pressure they’re under, the more mistakes they make.
And this roller coaster hasn’t even started that big, hard drop yet. It’s coming.
I’m sure that Obama thinks that this mosque will teach a racist America a lesson it deserves to have forced down it’s throat. But I think it’s Obama who’s going to be taught a lesson.
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It was such a stupid move on Obama’s part, “as President”. Did he have nobody in the office that could see this coming, after all Ramadan has been on the calendar for centuries?
I am convinced, that reading the teleprompter daily, makes you ignorant to all things around you. Obama seems not to have any idea what lies he tells, when, nor what the mode of the country is about anything. He just reads the script … and waves on cue.
Like every two-bit actor does.
I note the lack of press conferences, and the silence, about same, from the media.
# kathie on 15 Aug 2010 at 9:19 am
… Did he have nobody in the office that could see this coming…?
Kathie: That’s quite probably the case. People that arrogant, that full of themselves, tend to avoid negative vibes by simply not allowing anyone with such anywhere near them.
Stupid?!!! Absolutely. But, all too human.
–
I am not surprised at Obama’s comments but what I find more appalling is that the building of this mosque was approved but some Greek or Eastern Orthodox church that was destroyed on 9/11 still awaits reconstruction approval.
[…] Meek eclipses Greene – hotair.com 08/15/2010 And Crist is in trouble. more… Ground Zero Mosque – Fugeddabowdit – strata-sphere.com 08/15/2010 President Obama surely stepped into another firestorm, foot […]
Is this the week?
from debka:
Flap in Jerusalem over Aug. 21 activation of Iran’s first reactor
DEBKAfile Special Report August 14, 2010, 11:40 PM (GMT+02:00)
Tags: Bushehr Israel Russia-Iran
Iran’s first nuclear reactor at Bushehr
The sudden announcement in Moscow and Tehran on Aug. 11 that Russia is set to activate Iran’s first nuclear power reactor by loading the fuel on Aug. 21 has caused a major flap in Israel in view of the military aspects of the plant. debkafile’s military sources report that only last week, high Israeli officials asked Washington for clarifications on the latest intelligence information that Moscow had decided to finally activate the Bushehr reactor after innumerable delays.
The White House called the Kremlin and was assured that President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minster Vladimir Putin stood by their pledge to President Barack Obama that the Russian-built nuclear plant would not go on line this year.
This pledge now proves worthless.Indeed, Rostratom director Sergei Kiryenko will attend the Bushehr launching ceremony.
Jerusalem is also worried by the news that Russia has stationed S-300 anti-missile batteries in Abkhazia on the Black Sea because it ties in with the imminent activation of the Bushehr reactor. It is taken as a signal that Israel’s air route to Iran is hereby closed and Moscow will do its utmost to thwart an Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
John Bolton, former US ambassador to the United Nations and adviser to the Bush administration, defined Moscow’s date for loading nuclear fuel rods into the Iranian reactor as touching off a point of no return. Talking to Fox News Friday, Aug. 11, he said Aug. 21 is a deadline “by which Israel would have to launch an attack on Iran’s Bushehr reactor before it becomes effectively ‘immune’ to assault.”
Once they are loaded, he warned, “an attack risks spreading radiation in the air and perhaps in the water of the Persian Gulf.”
Bolton gave Israel no more than a week to destroy Iran’s nuclear program. “If they’re going to do it, that’s all the window they have,” he said, noting that Israel attacked the Iraqi Osirak reactor in 1981 and the nuclear plant Syria was building in 2007, before the fuel rods were in place.
The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi said Friday, Aug. 13, “The process of loading fresh fuel into the reactor building would begin on Aug. 21. Then the reactor will be officially classified as a nuclear energy installation. The testing phase will be complete and the physical launch begin.”
According to debkafile’s military sources, the Bushehr reactor billed as a peaceful project is in fact integral to Iran’s military program because the fuel rods powering it can also produce weapons-grade plutonium. Attached to the main plant too are a number of smaller facilities connected to the weapons program.
An earlier report in the Atlantic magazine estimated that the chances of a military strike against Iran in the next 12 months are “better than 50%.” It is the result of extensive research for the magazine by Middle East expert Jeffrey Goldberg. After interviewing some 40 current and past Israeli decision makers and as many American and Arab officials, Goldberg expects Israel to launch an attack with the next few months, possibly supported by the US and UK.
But that was before the rescheduled Bushehr launching. Bolton has since made a point of narrowing the window of months to days.
Well said AJ.
What I haven’t heard is how insensitive those wanting to build are being to those with legitimate feelings against it. It would seem to be on par with the intolerance that has come to stereotype this religion. We hear more whining when a town wants to put a nativity scene to celebrate the birth of Jesus under the misinterpretation of separation of church and state. The idea is the protection of religion from the state not the state from religion. The fact that religion will influence how the state operates was a given. The fact that this nation was formed by people of predominately Judeo-Christian beliefs is a fact and should be understood by anyone wishing to come live here. I would certainly have that small amount of courtesy if I decided to better myself in say Saudi Arabia.
What is equally appalling is listening to the political types saying how it will be a place and symbol of healing; like all NYers will be flocking there after work to sing kumbaya. That type of silly talk warrants a few good slaps in the mouth — if Bloomberg were a real Nyer he wouldn’t spout such gibberish but that shows the dumbing powers of wealth.
AJ
Simply have Congress declare Ground Zero a National Historic Battlefield.
National Historic Battlefields can be designated with varying zones of influence of specified effects, one of which could include “offense to the survivors.”
Religious facilities could be put in the same category of relative undesirability as a porn store, with previously existing religious facilities being grandfathered in, including replacement of those destroyed in the attack such as the Episcopal church. That sort of clause is “secularly neutral” on its face but just happens to exclude Muslim mosques.
Of Course, Obama and Bloomberg would appoint Islamist Imans and anti-Semitic leftists to the National Historic Battlefields board and they would cause no end of mischief.
You would have to include a “No Anti-Semites may be appointed to the board” clause in the enabling legislation that defines “disqualifying anti-Semitic” by a list of actions and and associations whose list starts with, say, belonging to, attending or contributing to organizations that deny or call for the destruction of Israel.
Creating such a list and putting it into law would be a very useful precedent for any number of things later.
>This is all so obvious that it’s hard to see how Axelrod
>and Obama’s other advisor’s could have missed this –
>implying that Obama is just a hard left idealogue who
>will reflexively take an anti-American position any
>chance he gets. This supposedly “brilliant†politician
>truly is just an Emporer with no clothes – he’s totally
>incompetent at the one thing he’s supposed to be
>good at!!!
AJ,
It’s all outside their collective frame of reference.
They have all lived in the Hyde Park hothouse so long they don’t know what normal America is…and they don’t want to learn, either.
Did you all see the article by Andy McCarthy about AIG being…SHARIA COMPLIANT! It’s over at national review online. It is a MUST read and send around to everyone.
Also, Harvard has sold all of its Israel holdings according to an article at Lucianne.com. Hmmmm………sharia compliant now?
It apparently is happening all over the country…financial jihad is what it is being called.