Moslems Know the Symbolism of the Ground Zero Mosque!!
Pana Nichuirc:

Symbolism is what is at play in the debate over a grand mosque being built near the site of Islamic extremism’s greatest terrorist victory against a democracy. While liberals embrace its construction as symbolic of a democratic society’s tolerance, there is real danger in not understanding the symbolically sinister side of its construction.

As much as we hear about Islamic extremists only representing a small percentage of the Muslim community, it is difficult to forget the images of euphoria in many Muslim countries as news of the 9/11 attacks spread. Thousands of Muslims were seen rejoicing over the violent deaths of more than 3,000 innocent victims. While Islamic extremists had dealt the devastating blow, more than just Islam’s extremists joined in the euphoria over the pain and suffering it inflicted upon non-believers.

At some point after 9/11, cropped photographs of the New York City landscape near the World Trade Center began circulating on the Internet in Muslim circles. Cropped into the photographs were the minarets and domes of numerous mosques dotting the area surrounding the 9/11 site. Many Muslim believers understood the symbolism ~ the assault against a key bastion of the non-believer’s world had started .... the push to place that bastion under Islam’s world Caliphate umbrella by establishing a foothold on territory that 9/11 had made hallowed was now in progress.

If we choose not to blame Islam for the violent acts of Islamists ~ instead accusing extremists of having hijacked this "religion of peace" ~ we should at least listen to the insights Islam’s moderates share with us about their religion. Modern day Turkey is among the most moderate of Muslim states. As such, it was welcomed into the NATO alliance as sharing some of the values of its Western members. But comments by Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his beliefs about Islam and the symbolism that its mosques represent, should give us pause for concern. "The mosques," Erdogan has said, "are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the believers our army." Nothing in "moderate" Muslim Erdogan’s description of Islam suggests it is a religion of peace!!

Furthermore, Erdogan takes offence at even using the term "moderate" to describe Islam. Such a description, the Turkish Prime Minister has asserted, is "very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it." So, by Erdogan’s own definition, Islamists and moderates are of the same ilk. If so, a dangerous mindset now permeates NATO’s den.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, assisted by his wife Daisy Khan, heads the American Society of Muslim Advancement (ASMA). This is the organization that is leading the effort to build a $100 million, 13-story mosque, less than 200 feet from the World Trade Center. Both Rauf and Khan describe themselves as moderate Muslims. While such a label suggests a tolerance for Western culture and beliefs, their actions/inactions reveal something far, far different.

An organization known as Former Muslims United (FMU) has launched a campaign to appeal to Muslim leaders to repudiate Sharia law’s more extremist views .... such as executing former Muslims who leave Islam for another religion. FMU asked Rauf and Khan to sign a "Muslim pledge for religious freedom and safety from harm for former Muslims." Ten months later, ASMA has failed to do so.

More recently, during a live interview, Rauf refused to condemn violent jihadist groups as terrorists. While refusing to admit Muslims carried out the 9/11 attacks, Rauf has not hesitated to condemn U.S. policies as the root cause.

In 2004, Rauf wrote a book entitled, according to the English translation, "What’s Right with America is What’s Right with Islam." Such a title suggests a moderate perspective is taken. However, the book’s Arabic translation ... "The Call From the WTC Rubble ~ Islamic Da’wah From the Heart of America Post-9/11" .... suggests otherwise. Rauf, denigrating the loss of American life in calling it "rubble," seeks to use 9/11 as a springboard for selling Islam to America & subjugating All to Islam.

Also, closely linked to Rauf’s AMSA and topping its list of supporters is a charitable organization known as Carnegie Corp. It is headed by Iranian-born scholar Vartan Gregorian who, in his own book, espouses the Islamist goal of world domination. Thus, both Rauf and Gregorian promote replacement in America of the U.S. Constitution with Sharia law. This is quite evident by Rauf’s assertion, "Throughout my discussions with contemporary Muslim theologians, it is clear an Islamic state can be established in more than just a single form or mould. It can be established through a kingdom or a democracy. The important issue is to establish the general fundamentals of Sharia that are required to govern."

I am thinking here of how far along this road the UK already is!!

Still unclear about the mosque initiative is the source of its $100 million funding. AMSA has yet to fully disclose how an organization whose financial well has been relatively dry is suddenly flush with funding. It is critical that the source of this funding be disclosed and verified that it has no link to the same groups to which Rauf refuses to attach a terrorist label .... such as the violent Muslim Brotherhood to which Rauf is said to have ties.

As non-Islamic religious houses of worship flounder in Muslim nations prohibiting freedom of religion, mosques flourish in non-Islamic states promoting such freedom. Muslim 'moderate' leaders, such as Erdogan, seek to achieve the goal of their extremist brethren of subjugating the West to Sharia law ~ the ONLY difference being that they have cloaked their ultimate objective under a "moderate" label.

Muslims understand symbols. The name initially selected for this mosque building effort is "Cordoba House." Cordoba is a Spanish city where a victorious Muslim army destroyed a church, building a mosque in its place in earlier times. In 2001, President Bush initially referred to the war on terrorism as a crusade, later apologizing for the negative connotation it had for Muslims and never using it again. Yet in naming this mosque building effort after Cordoba and claiming it is a cultural center to promote religious tolerance, its initiators purposefully continue to reference a name having a very negative connotation for non-Muslims.

The construction of this mosque, so close to the World Trade Center site, will symbolize yet another victory for Islam over Western values. And a sharp slap in the face for all who fell or lost loved ones in the Islamic atrocity of September 11th 2001.

"Decline, Fall & Islam"

NEW ENGLISH REVIEW SECOND ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM FOR POSTING AND DISTRIBUTION

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6/14/10 NASHVILLE:

The New English Review (NER), an Anglo_American on_line publication (www.newenglishreview.org) will hold its second annual international symposium,

"Decline, Fall & Islam"

History of Mosques in America

The first mosque in America was built by Albanian Muslims in 1915 in Maine. By 1919, they had established another mosque in Connecticut. Polish-speaking Tatars build a mosque in Brooklyn, NY in 1926, which is still in use. African American Muslims established the first Mosque in Pittsburgh, PA in 1930. The Lebanese Community of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, opened its first mosque in 1935.

The State Street Mosque in New York City was established by Sheikh Dawood Ahmed Faisal in 1955. This mosque represents a special point in the development of the American Muslim community. The Dar-ul-Islam movement began from there.

Although the first mosque was established in America in 1915 but only few mosques were built till 1960. Greater growth of mosques began in the 1970s and the tempo of growth continues unabated. The vast majority of mosques (87%) were found since 1970. Thirty percent of all mosques were established in the 1990s and 32% were started in 1980s.

 Americas largest mosque, the Islamic Center of America, is in Dearborn, Michigan. It was rebuilt in 2005 to accommodate over 3,000 people for the increasing Muslim population in the region.

 According to the FACT survey, the total number of mosques in the United States increased 42 percent between 1990 and 2000. This is a considerable rate of new growth especially when compared with a 12 percent average increase for the study’s evangelical Protestant denominations, and a two percent average increase among old-line Protestant, and Catholic and Orthodox groups.

Dr. Jane I. Smith, co-director of the Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam, also located at Hartford Seminary, pointed out that in the 1980s and 90s mosques and Islamic centers were built with generous contributions from abroad. Now, she says, most are being constructed by American Muslims. "There now are many affluent Muslims in America—individuals with organizational skills and with sufficient financial means to build the mosques and Islamic centers that are now common all across our nation," Roozen noted.