Italy has denied religious status to Islam. Politicians cited extremist (fundamentalist) imams, polygamy and failure to uphold women's rights by Muslim immigrants as obstacles to recognizing Islam as an official religion in Italy.

And here in the US we are paying for extremist imams (like Rauf) and their wives to go on Middle Eastern junkets to raise money for Islamic supremacist Ground Zero mosques. Sick.

Photo: Ground Zero mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, of the Cordoba Initiative, at the Fanar-Qatar Islamic Cultural Center's mosque in Qatar (August 27, 2010). This is the first leg of his US-funded tour to Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Italy: Islam denied income tax revenue

Rome, 27 August (AKI) - Mosques in Italy will not receive a share of income tax revenue the Italian government allocates to religious faiths each year. Hindu and Buddhist temples, Greek Orthodox churches and Jehovah's Witnesses will be eligible for the funds, according to a bill approved by the Italian cabinet in May and still must be approved by parliament.

Until now, the government had earmarked 8 percent of income tax revenue for Italy's established churches. The great majority of these funds go to the Catholic Church, although if they wish, individual tax payers may elect to give the money to charities and cultural projects instead.

The head of COREIS, one of Italy's largest Muslim groups, Yahya Pallavicini, said he was bitter that Islam had been denied the revenue from Italian income tax. 

"Work should be begun on legally recognising those moderate Muslims who have for years shown themselves to be reliable interlocutors who are free of and fundamentalist ideology," he said.

Islam is not an established religion in Italy and there is only one official mosque in the country, Rome's Grand Mosque. Politicians from the ruling coalition cite radical imams, polygamy and failure to uphold women's rights by Muslims immigrants as obstacles to recognising Islam as an official religion in Italy.

Until now, only the Catholic Church, Judaism and other established churches including Lutherans, Evangelists, Waldensians and 7th-day Adventists have received the income tax revenue from the Itallain government.

“New York is the capital of the world, and this location close to 9/11 is iconic.” Imam Feisal

Indeed. The above is a quote from Ground Zero mosque Imam Feisal.

"The story is repeated around the globe, the story of Muslim denial, self-pity, and demands for extraordinary sensitivity from others even whilst trampling on every sensitivity of absolutely everyone else." Douglas Murray

That building isn't near Ground Zero. it is Ground Zero. It was hit and partially destroyed  in the 911 attacks. This is deliberately provocative. Mecca on the Hudson.

NY1 Reporting: 

With a debate raging from coast to coast over whether an Islamic community center and mosque should be built near the World Trade Center site, NY1’s Political reporter Grace Rauh sat down for an exclusive interview with the developer to talk about the future of the project.

Sharif El-Gamal is the developer behind the plan to erect an Islamic community center and mosque two blocks from the World Trade Center site.

Calls are mounting for him and the other backers to find a new home for their center, further away from the site of the September 11th terrorist attacks, but El-Gamal isn't budging.

He is sticking with his plans to erect a 13-story center and prayer space in Lower Manhattan. He likens the project to a YMCA or Jewish Community Center, with programs open to all residents of all faiths.

"A landmark, an iconic building that will have people come and visit it from around the world,” said El-Gamal as to what he imagines. “This looks like it is going to be the most famous community center in the world."

[...]

He insists, however, that he is not open to moving the center.

America’s founding ideal was the principle of individual rights. Nothing more—and nothing less. The rest—everything that America achieved, everything she became, everything “noble and just,” and heroic, and great, and unprecedented in human history—was the logical consequence of fidelity to that one principle. The first consequence was the principle of political freedom, i.e., an individual’s freedom from physical compulsion, coercion or interference by the government. The next was the economic implementation of political freedom: the system of capitalism. Ayn Rand

More blatant anti-American, unconstitutional law breaking. This country was founded on the basic, brilliant principle of individual rights. It took centuries of blood, sweat and toil to get here. No special rights for special classes. No one is supreme over another. This idea, the foundation of the greatest nation on the history of man, is being flouted by Islamic supremacists and their leftist shills.

Why the "special handling" of Muslims? Why treat Muslims as if they were mental patients? It is insulting to all Muslims. If I were part of Muslim leadership, I would rail against this polarization. Muslims should be thought of as Americans, period. Why the relentless separatism from American society as a whole?  If I were Muslim, I would fight this isolationism and polarization that Islamic supremacist groups like un-indicted co-conspirator, Hamas-linked, Muslim Brotherhood fronts CAIR, ISNA, ICNA, etc., inflict upon American Muslims.

It is positively un-American. Why deliberately set up divisions among Americans?

Honest people are never touchy about the matter of being trusted.

Mark sent me this:

I received the following email from Nancy Eisenhart. It appears that our tax funded police force is reaching out to the Muslim community by holding community forums just for Muslims. Nancy rightly asks why is there no outreach forums for the rest of us? Please contact the police department and make your feelings known. The forum has already taken place, but this type of outreach to a select group must stop.

Look what the taxpayers of L. A County are paying for, the same group that boycotts law-seeking Arizona. Supporting the a Muslim Community Forum. Now let's see if they will promote a Jewish Community Forum, or a Christian Community Forum. Please write Charlie Beck and the other LAPD enablers about your objections or your expectations. Nancy

Subject: Community Message: Muslim Community Forum

Community Message has been issued by the LAPD - Community Relations Division.
Tuesday June 22, 2010 6:19 AM PDT
Muslim Community Forum
WHAT: Muslim Community Forum
WHEN: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Iranian Muslim Association of North America (IMAN)
3376 Motor Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90034

WHO: Chief Charlie Beck
Deputy Chief Michael Downing, Counter Terrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau Muslim Representatives

WHY: This event gives an opportunity for community members to engage with LAPD and Police Chief Beck, in a continued effort to strengthen partnerships with the communities in the spirit of openness and transparency. Muslim communities, businesses, and organizations will meet for an evening of dialogue at the IMAN Center. Contact: For further information, contact Sgt. II Ralph Morales and Officer Sandra Moura, Community Relations Division at (213) 486-6000. For full details, go tohttps://local.nixle.com/alert/2602137/.

Dear G-d in heaven, look what it has come to.

Dutch police use 'decoy Jews' to stop anti-Semitic attacks Telegraph hat tip Urban Infidel

Dutch police are to use "decoy Jews", by dressing law enforcers in Jewish religious dress such as skullcaps, in an effort to catch anti-Semitic attackers. 

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Lodewijk Asscher, Amsterdam's mayor, has ordered the new decoy strategy to cut the number of verbal and physical attacks on Jews, amid fears that anti-Semitic "hate crime" is on the rise.

"Jews in at least six Amsterdam neighbourhoods often cannot cross the street wearing a skullcap without being insulted, spat at or even attacked," according to local reports.

Police in the Dutch city of Gouda have claimed the use of officers disguised as apparently frail old age pensioners has helped cut street crime.

"If we receive several reports of street robbery in a certain location, we send out the granny. That soon quietens things down," said a spokesman.

Secret television recordings by the Jewish broadcasting company, Joodse Omroep, broadcast at the weekend, have shocked Amsterdam, a city which prides itself on liberalism and which is home to the Anne Frank museum.

The footage showed young men, often of Muslim immigrant origin, shouting and making Nazi salutes at a rabbi when he visited different areas of the Dutch capital.

Obama's anti-semitism is meticulously researched in the book: The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America.

It will only get uglier .................

Keep America Safe’s Liz Cheney released the following statement on President Obama’s response to the flotilla incident:

“Yesterday, President Obama said the Israeli action to stop the flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip was “tragic.” What is truly tragic is that President Obama is perpetuating Israel’s enemies’ version of events. The Israeli government has imposed a blockade around Gaza because Hamas remains committed to Israel’s destruction, refusing to recognize Israel’s right to exist and using territory under their control to launch attacks against Israeli civilians. The Israeli blockade of Gaza, in order to prevent the re-arming of Hamas, is in full compliance with international law. Had the Turkish flotilla truly been interested in providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, they would have accepted the Israeli offer to off-load their supplies peacefully at the Israeli port of Haifa for transport into Gaza. President Obama is contributing to the isolation of Israel, and sending a clear signal to the Turkish-Syrian-Iranian axis that their methods for ostracizing Israel will succeed, and will be met by no resistance from America. There is no middle ground here. Either the United States stands with the people of Israel in the war against radical Islamic terrorism or we are providing encouragement to Israel’s enemies—and our own. Keep America Safe calls on President Obama to reverse his present course and support the state of Israel immediately and unequivocally.”

The Muslim Brotherhood in the US, the Muslim American Society, has purchased a convent in what is being called a 'mystery sale'." A deal had been made for the Church land to be sold to a developer, but then in mysterious and shady deal, the land was sold to the MAS (Muslim Brotherhood)/ What man of the cloth with even so much as a cursory knowledge of how Christians have fared in Islamic countries would do such a thing -- and with the oppressive, violent Brotherhood, no less? The express and stated goal of the Muslim Brotherhood is a universal caliphate, by any means necessary.

The impending sale of an empty, 2 ½ -story convent in Midland Beach owned by St. Margaret Mary’s R.C. Church has neighbors angry and afraid because the purchaser is an Islamic organization they know little about.

Neighbors should be worried. Very worried. The Muslim American Society was named a front for the Muslim Brotherhood in the Holy Land terror funding trial (along with CAIR, ISNA, ICNA, etc.)  It was started by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Here's more from the Weekly Standard on MAS:

THIS BRINGS US to MAS, which was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 and today has 53 chapters nationwide and about 10,000 members. According to the Chicago Tribune, a contentious debate among Brotherhood members preceded MAS's incorporation, and the Muslim American Society is now the name under which the U.S. Brotherhood operates.

While MAS leaders admit that their organization was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood, they claim that the two are now completely distinct. For example, MAS official Shaker Elsayed told the Chicago Tribune, "Ikhwan [Brotherhood] members founded MAS, but MAS went way beyond that point of conception." The fact that a MAS spokesman such as Bray feels comfortable publicly arguing that MAS does not want to see an Islamic state in America demonstrates the strength of its public disavowal of the Muslim Brotherhood.

"Analyses of Muslim Brotherhood's General Strategic Goals for North America Memorandum," by Stephen Coughlin, September 7, 2007

 MAS agreed to pay $750,000 for the property, and its plan for the convent’s re-use includes a mosque and community center with after-school programs for children.  

Residents believed until recently that the property was being sold to local builders Robert Buccellato and Robert Cucuzza, partners in the Olympia Development Corp. that has constructed more than a dozen homes in Midland Beach in the last two years.

"We were proceeding forward with the church to purchase the convent and build four homes on the site," Buccellato told the Advance yesterday. "There were also some negotiations between us and the Archdiocese, but only after six months because the Archdiocese did not return our calls until then. Then they kept notifying us that they had buyers willing to pay more money."

"Finally they stopped the negotiations, and told us that they had deals with various religious organizations," he said.

Who paid off the church not to sell to land developers? Someone get this info to the people of Staten Island who are involved in this process. The deal must be stopped.

"I live in Midland Beach, and my partner was born and raised here. I love this community and am looking to help it. So I thought of an alternative scenario that will benefit everyone, especially the parish. Rather than us buying the land and building the homes, we will build for the church. That way, St. Margaret Mary’s will make money from the sale of the homes. It’s a win-win for everybody," he said.

Buccellato attempted to discuss the plan with Father Fennessy yesterday but did not receive a return call, he said. He told the Advance that he also separately described the new idea yesterday to civic association president Ms. Ammirato.

Start working the phones now and make this happen. Spare this community the colonization of the Muslim Brotherhood.

MAS has long played a double game where, despite its fringe outlook, it attempts to pass itself off as mainstream. When the Chicago Tribune began to lift the curtain on this deception with its investigative report, MAS's leadership quibbled with the portrait that the newspaper painted. Yet an even bigger indictment lies in the material that MAS requires its members to read--and in the book that it touts as "the correct unified comprehension of Islam."

 

Advance file photo The impending sale of this vacant, 2 ½ -story convent in at 555 Greeley Ave., Midland Beach, owned by St. Margaret Mary R.C. Church, has neighbors angry and afraid because the purchaser is an Islamic organization they know little about.


STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. --- Amid a controversy over the sale of a portion of St. Margaret Mary R.C. Church’s property, the pastor of the Midland Beach parish has stepped down to care for his ailing elderly mother. 

In last weekend’s parish bulletin, the Rev. Keith Fennessy said his 98-year-old mother’s health has been declining for some time and that he wants to spend more time with her. 

“For the good of the parish, I have asked that a new pastor be appointed as of July 1st,” the notice reads.

The news came after parishioners called Father Fennessy insensitive — and worse — for not informing them of the impending sale before he agreed to it.

The deal, to sell the two-and-a-half-story empty convent on Greeley Avenue at Freeborn Street to the Muslim American Society, raised the ire of neighbors, who said they didn’t know enough about the Islamic organization or its intents. Some insisted that MAS, a national nonprofit with 53 chapters, has an affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, a foreign group that has been accused of abetting terrorism.

MAS plans to use the space to build a mosque and community center with after-school programs. Representatives of the organization are on record as saying they have no ties to foreign groups or to terrorists.

Officials of the Archdiocese of New York could not immediately say how many years Father Fennessy had served at St. Margaret Mary, but said terms are typically served in blocks of six years. They said it was Father Fennessy’s decision to step down. The Archdiocese also said they did not know where Father Fennessy is living now. 

This is the usual time for churches to undergo transition, and there are often about 20 or 30 parishes that receive new pastors, officials said. Recommendations for new pastors are made by the priest personnel board as well as the director of priest personnel, with the final say resting with the archbishop.

Officials said it will be several weeks before the new pastor at St. Margaret Mary’s is named.

Excelsior! Here is an icon for the advent of modernizing the Muslim world. She embodies everything sharia and the Islamic world deplore -- free women. Burn those burkas, baby, and come on in. The water is just fine.

I wonder if the ink is dry on the fatwa .................. "grumblings from certain members of the community."

 

Rima Fakih Is First Muslim Miss USA Atlantic Wire hat tip Choi

Rima Fakih, an Arab American from Dearborn, Michigan won the Miss USA beauty pageant Sunday. She is believed to be the first Muslim to win the title, though historical pageant records dating back to 1952 are not detailed enough to confirm. Fakih has been deftly profiled in the Detroit Free Press in a piece that chronicles her unique journey. The daughter of Lebanese immigrants, Fakih's parents proudly supported her despite grumblings from certain elements of their community.

 

 

These mosques, symbols of Islamic triumphalism, will be icons on every Islamic and jihadist website. Despicable. Wouldn't it have been a wonderful, peace loving gesture for the ummah to have declared ground zero a mosque free zone?

That could never happen. 911 is, for Islam, the day they conquered America. Imagine the Muslim call to prayer at Ground Zero.

Smaller Mosque Near Ground Zero by Ed Barnes - FOXNews.com

As controversy surrounds the construction of a 13-story mosque just two blocks from Ground Zero, FOX News has learned that an effort to place a second mosque close to the hallowed site in New York City is in its advanced stages.

As controversy surrounds the construction of a 13-story mosque just two blocks from Ground Zero, FOX News has learned that an effort to place a second mosque close to the hallowed site in New York City is in its advanced stages.

The Masjid Mosque has raised $8.5 million and is seeking an additional $2.5 million to begin construction. While it apparently has not settled on a final location, it has told donors it plans to build very close to where 3,000 people were killed in the September 11 terror attacks.

In fact, the website appealing for donations boldly states that it plans to “build the 'House of Allah' next to the World Trade Center. Help us raise the flag of 'LA ILLAH ILLA ALLAH' in downtown Manhattan."

One source said he believed the planners are considering a five-story building on 23 Park Place, closer to Ground Zero than the 13-story mosque the Cordoba Initiative is planning to build. But a tax record search shows that 23 Park Place is in private hands and has not changed owners since 2008.

Unlike the massive $100 million Cordoba House mosque, the Masjid Mosque is small – and it is no stranger to the neighborhood. Since 1970 it had been located at 12 Warren Street, about four blocks north of the World Trade Center, in a neat but nondescript industrial space that once housed a printing shop. It lost its lease in 2008 when the building was sold, and it was evicted from its second-floor prayer space on May 25 of that year. Since then it has been operating out a cramped basement space in a nearby building at 20 Warren Street.

On Friday evenings the mosque, which is popular with street vendors and taxi drivers, becomes so crowded that worshipers spill onto nearby sidewalks to pray in what has come to be a community event.