No religious basis for 9/11
The New York City community board endorsed the Cordoba House, a community center and mosque planned for construction near Ground Zero. Significant opposition has emerged against the project. Sarah Palin even weighed in this weekend, tweeting, "Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing."
Should there be a mosque near Ground Zero?
While opposition to the opening of an Islamic center at Ground Zero is certainly not surprising, it reflects a dismal level of intolerance, bigotry and ignorance that continues to plague our country. To characterize the existence of a place of worship for God-loving, law-abiding Muslim citizens as a 'stab in the heart' to Americans is to presume that 9/11 was a religious attack that exclusively targeted non-Muslims.
I'm sorry Sarah Palin, but 9/11 was an attack against all Americans - including Muslim Americans. Muslim firefighters, lawyers, restaurant waiters, and dozens of other Muslims who worked at the World Trade Center lost their lives on that day. Hundreds of Muslims lost loved ones and millions of Muslims across the country grieved with everyone else on that day and continue to grieve every day that lives are unjustly taken. Sept. 11 was not a religious attack that exclusively targeted one religion, race or ethnicity, but one that stabbed all of our hearts. The victims of 9/11 spanned countless ethnicities, races and religions.
Perhaps the intensity of the opposition to the Islamic center at Ground Zero also reflects the shortcomings of the Muslim American community - our failure to reach out to Americans of other faiths, to educate others about Islam, and to rectify stereotypes and misunderstandings. But this vehement opposition also demonstrates why many Muslim Americans feel intimidated to reach out to others, to speak up on behalf of their faith, and to represent the true nature of Islam. When Muslim Americans are struck with an endless barrage of criticism on the air waves, editorial pages and in the public space, when they are constantly asked to denounce and explain acts of violence that occurred in foreign countries that they can't even point out on a map, when they are constantly asked to justify whether Islam is a peaceful religion that is worthy of equal respect and accommodation, do we really expect Muslim Americans to stand up, represent their faith and reach out to others?
In fact, what I have witnessed is the complete opposite. After 9/11, many Muslims felt the impulse to retreat rather than come out of their enclaves. I have met one too many Muslims who would rather their colleagues not know that they are Muslim. They'd rather give their kids Anglo-Saxon nicknames in public than call out their real, Muslim-sounding names; they would rather go pray in their cars during prayer time than ask for a decent corner at work to pray in for 5 minutes, they would rather take a long lunch break on Fridays than dare request for time to attend the congregational Friday prayer for 30 minutes at noon. These are just simple examples, but they reflect the fact that our post 9/11 environment has not exactly encouraged Muslims to 'come out of the closet' and share their faith with others. Those who have done so seem to be the courageous minority in every community.
Again, while this fierce opposition to the new Islamic center in Ground Zero reflects the shortcomings of our own community, the Muslim American community, it also bases itself on a very flawed and dangerous premise. It espouses the same belief of the terrorists - that there is a religious basis for the attacks of 9/11. While Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri would like us to believe that their actions are divinely sanctioned and religiously ordained, there is no question to anyone who has studied Islam that there is absolutely no basis in Islam for their acts of terror. If one were to search through Islam's primary sources - the Quran and prophetic tradition (hadith) - and all the classical legal texts of Islamic jurists, one could only come to one conclusion: that 9/11 and all acts of terror that inflict violence on innocent people are a violation of Islam.
This is not something that Muslims are contriving to make Islam 'look good.' This is a basic fact known to anyone with any real training in Islamic law, which is why, as one scholar recently pointed out, you never find graduates of Islamic seminaries like al-Azhar or Deoband becoming suicide bombers or terrorists. This is not just a coincidence, but based on the fact that there is no religious justification for acts of violence against civilians.
Bin Laden's war, or the wars of those fighting America in Afghanistan, northern Pakistan or Iraq, cannot be explained by searching the Quran. Those wars can only be analyzed and explained through the lens of political, historic and geographic factors. As political scientist Robert Pape explained in Dying to Win: The Logic of Suicide Terror, military occupation rather than ideology is the primary cause of suicide terrorism, whether it is employed by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka (the perpetrator of the largest number of suicide attacks), secular Palestinian groups in the West Bank or al-Qaeda in Iraq, Afghanistan or Western states. Pape bases his conclusion on empirical evidence he compiles on every single suicide attack or campaign around the world from 1980 to 2003 (Pape, Robert. Interview with The American Conservative. "The Logic of Suicide Terror." 18 July 2005. http://www.amconmag.com/article/2005/jul/18/00017/).
These findings are consistent with Bin Laden's own articulations, who has repeatedly stated in online statements, video broadcasts and media interviews with journalists from all religious backgrounds that his war against the West is driven by what he perceives as the West's aggression, violence and injustice against Muslim lands - Chechnya, Afghanistan, Palestine, etc. The use of religious rhetoric by Bin Laden and others who share his ideology does not change the fact that their underlying motivation is political, not religious.
When pressed by al-Jazeera journalist Taysir al-Alluni on how he could justify the attacks of 9/11 despite Prophet Muhammad's prohibitions against killing civilians, Bin Laden ceased to invoke religious evidence and instead, invoked a politics of reciprocity based on his own logic and ideology. He stated, "It wasn't a children's school! Neither was it a residence...We treat others like they treat us. Those who kill our women and our innocent, we will kill their women and innocent, until they stop doing so" (Lawrence, Bruce. Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden. Trans. James Howarth. London: Verso, 2005, 119).
The Islamic cultural and community center envisioned by Imam Faisal Abdul-Rauf and the organizers in NY will be one step towards reclaiming Islam's true spirit, fostering reconciliation and bridging gaps that desperately need to be mended.
By
Hadia Mubarak
|
July 20, 2010; 8:27 PM ET
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Posted by: belfast1914 | July 27, 2010 2:05 PM
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Simply put!! Hadia MU BARAK, LIKE ALL WHO FOLLOW THE CREEDS OF ALLAH, ARE UNDER THE POWER OF THE "GREAT DECEIVER". Isn't that just ONE of his 99 names.(quoting an ex.PLO/Islam terrorist converted to Christianity, also confirmed by other converts).
IF WE ALL COULD JUST RECOGNIZE THE ENEMY FOR WHO HE IS AND HOW HE WORKS, WE'D KNOW WHO WE'RE ACTUALLY FIGHTING. THE DEVIL is THE LIAR!..AND the CHEAT!
THE HUMAN RACE HAS ONLY ONE ENEMY...HE JUST USES EVERYONE ELSE.
JEHOVAH DELIVER THE MUSLIMS FROM THE GRASP OF THIS THIEF AND DECEIVER, THIS IS MY PRAYER.
AND ALL OTHERS OUT THERE, WHO DON'T THINK WE'RE LIVING A SPIRITUAL WARFARE...CHECK YOURSELF!!!!, CAUSE IF ALL YOU'VE GOT TO RELY ON IS YOURSELF AND YOUR OWN PERSPECTIVE...NO THANKS!!! I'LL STAND WITH JESUS!!!
Posted by: Tasi_Ieova | July 26, 2010 6:12 PM
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If 9/11 was really a case of a few misguided Muslims trying to highjack a peaceful religion then why didn’t the Muslim world take action afterwards? If that was true the Muslim world should have scoured the planet for Bin Laden and his followers and brought them to justice on their own. Of course they didn’t do anything, because they stand behind what Bin Laden did and what he seeks to do in the future.
Posted by: nuke41 | July 26, 2010 7:39 AM
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Maybe, in reciprocity, Saudi Arabia would allow construction of a Jewish synagogue or Christian church in Mecca, perhaps near Masjid al-Haram, the largest mosque in the world.....
Ooops, I forgot, non-Muslims are prevented by law to enter Mecca. And therein lies the reason why Americans and Muslims will never see eye-to-eye. The western world has an open community. The Muslim community, for all their protestations to the contrary, is basically a closed one, both by Islamic law and the laws of individual Muslim/Islamic nations.
In America, we learned early on to separate church and state. Most of the Islamic/Muslim nations have not learned this lesson yet. Thus, there will always be a long line at the 'Martyr Registration Office'.
Posted by: superfred911 | July 24, 2010 12:54 PM
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I wish one could believe this, tell me what other actions they have taken for me to even consider their actions?
The Islamic cultural and community center envisioned by Imam Faisal Abdul-Rauf and the organizers in NY will be one step towards reclaiming Islam's true spirit, fostering reconciliation and bridging gaps that desperately need to be mended.
Posted by: ZebZ | July 22, 2010 7:18 PM
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Hadia Mubarak is in denial.
Posted by: Robert2008 | July 22, 2010 4:47 PM
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Chasmosaur1
I was the one who suggested that Muslims convert to Christianity. My point was that Islam and Christianity are really about the same; they are mirrors of each other; one is as good or as bad as the other; it shouldn't be that hard for a Muslim in America to save himself all the trouble, and just be a Christian. So you wear a cresent or a cross around your neck, big deal, what's the difference? They are both little trinkets with a pleasing shape. What is the difference between Mohammed and Jesus? They are a reflection of each other. What they mean to people is what people make of them. They are both imagined memories. And isn't Allah supposed to be God and God is Allah? There would not even be the mildest mental gymnastics to that trick, would there?
So, I say to all of the American Muslims, go ahead, take the plunge, the water's fine. It would be like knowing two languages.
Posted by: DanielintheLionsDen | July 22, 2010 4:29 PM
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Cadam72
You are comparing apples and oranges since North America and Europe are secular societies. It is not a competition between Islam and Christianity; it is a competition between Islam and secularism.
In this competition, Muslims may have the same freedom as anyone else, but they will not subvert or defeat secularism; rather the other way around.
Secularism is not a religion, but a basic modern outlook on life, which well-educated people, including Muslims, assume wtihout even realizing it.
From a secular point of veiw, Islam and Christianity are very similar religions. It is a little absurd to try and point out all of the differences when they are just mirrors of each other.
Posted by: DanielintheLionsDen | July 22, 2010 4:21 PM
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svengerald, 9/11 was a NOT a religious attack by islam. It was a band of 20 terrorists who flew planes into the world trade center with perhaps the help of 500 others outside the US, NOT the 1.5 billion Muslims. Bin Laden was not a religious leader and, in fact, said that only the militant thoughts deep in Pakastan followed true Islam (not the other 1.5 Billion). At least admit that there are bible passages equally horrific about slavery, (selling your daughter), stoning adulterers, violence toward non believers, etc also written over 2000 yrs ago. You say "look at the behavior of the people who follow islam.", well we have 7 million muslims in America and perhaps 100 have advocated violence toward America. I DO look at followers of the religion, and they deserve the right to practice along side any other here in the US. Would you define Christianity by the zealots only?
Posted by: cadam72 | July 22, 2010 3:45 PM
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Keep the mosque there, but name it after Tariq Amanullah, an Islamic community leader and employee of Fiduciary Trust who died on 9/11. Or Salman Hamdani, an ambulance driver who was killed by debris falling from the Towers while trying to help the injured.
Posted by: Athena4 | July 22, 2010 2:19 PM
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9/11 was a religious attack by islam. Ms Mubarak is just another apologist. For Ms Mubarak to say the people objecting to this mosque are intolerant bigots is laughable. If you want intolerance hatred , bigotry, sexism, violence glorified,ignorance and lies glorified just read the quran and the associated literature and look at the behavior of the people who follow islam. How tolerant is islam, look at the counties who adhere to this ideology ,Egypt, Suadi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran.....?
Posted by: svengerald | July 22, 2010 1:18 PM
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Did the Inquisition have anything to do with Christianity--even though it represented the opposite of what Jesus actually taught and said?
The people who commit terrorism in the name of Islam certainly believe they are doing so for religious reasons. Why else would they yell, "Allahu akbar" as they detonate their bombs? Why else would they pose with Korans in their hand? Why else would their wear headbands with verses from the Koran?
The problem is not really what Islam does or doesn't represent--but what its representatives say it does, and above all what its representatives do in its name.
Posted by: Ruth12 | July 22, 2010 12:38 PM
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Wow - nice to see the board illustrates Ms. Mubarak's post so beautifully. I particularly enjoyed the post recommending that all Muslims convert to Christianity. So glad to see everyone embraces religious tolerance, and understands that Islamic terrorism is based out of extremism and hatred. Which isn't actually confined to Islam.
Posted by: Chasmosaur1 | July 22, 2010 10:08 AM
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As an American Christian, I take issue with people calling Islam a "cult". WE know very little about the people or religion except through a narrow, clouded, lense. We hear about extremists in Iran, Iraq, etc but what about the millions in Moracco, Algeria, Turkey, Indonesia, etc. If you were a muslim sitting watching TV in the 1970-1980s and saw the IRA and the catholic/protestant wars, woudl you think it was a peaceful religion, how about Waco and David Koresh, or the Christian mobs in Sudan, or some African christians wanting to kill homosexuals. Our religion, and theirs are not defined by the provocative, but the millions who practice it with honor. Let the mosque be built.
Posted by: cadam72 | July 22, 2010 10:06 AM
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How profoundly stupid do you think we are?
If you are really so deluded as to this that Islam wasn't the cause of the Islamic terrorists' attack on NYC then why dodn't you just ask them?
Oh yeah, look, the Islamic terrorists made videos before they died talking about just how frakking Islamic their Islamic terror attack was going to be against the non-Muslims.
Oh well, at least I get to be entertained by your mental gumnastics and tortured logic.
.
Posted by: ZZim | July 22, 2010 8:56 AM
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why the instance of a mosque at ground zero? It is because Islam is about conquering. Seal the deal with a kiss/mosque. Islam is a dominating religion with a message; conform. Keep Islam to its muslim countries. I don't want a mosque anywhere near me. They are a breeding ground for violence. London, France, Spain and now in a neighbourhood near you NY.
Posted by: Arif2 | July 21, 2010 10:11 PM
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The official account of 9/11 is false. The real culprits are closer to home — examine the evidence at http://www.twf.org/911.html.
Why aren't Muslim leaders playing their trump card?
Enver Masud
Founder, The Wisdom Fund
Posted by: twforg | July 21, 2010 9:48 PM
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tlwinslow
It's not that different from Chrisianity, for all practical purposes. The little iconic symbols, the cross and the crescent, the old scriptures to read and reread, veneration of the Prophet and Savior ... not that different ... most Christians and Muslims do not even really know what they believe, the just go to church or mosque, and do what they are told, so, either is as good as the other.
Bottom line, God and Allah represent the same concept, and distinguishing them because of the old scriptures or the type of building architecture or the shape of the venerated icon is really not very far from worshipping a stone idol.
Posted by: DanielintheLionsDen | July 21, 2010 7:31 PM
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Sorry, but 9/11 was about Islam vs. America, starting with the Quran's famous sura 9:111 (coincidence?) where Allah promises paradise for those who "kill and are killed for him", which makes Islam unique among major religions. Unlike Christianity, which has church hierarchies that can be reined in by the state, Islam gives each believer the direct authority to kill when they think it's Allah's will, hence al-Qaida's decision to mass-murder Americans knowing that they would be all infidels, even so-called Muslims, which they view as infidels for working with Americans. Al-Qaida doesn't have to have orders from a church official first, it just does what the Quran commands and leaves it in Allah's hands, which is the problem. It's a cycle that nobody can stop unless they can make all the Qurans go poof, sorry.
Study Islam's long little-known history for yourself anytime free with the Historyscoper to see its track record in country after country and how its way of life called Sharia is on a violent collision course with the West's. http://go.to/islamhistory
Posted by: tlwinslow | July 21, 2010 3:53 PM
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I know what I am about to say may sound a little insenstive, but it is not intended that way. It is intended as a real-world, pragmatic solution to this problem. I am serous about it, and I think serious Muslims should consider it.
If Muslims in America are self-conscious about their religion because of all the terrorism that has been done in the name of Islam, then why don't they convert to Christianity?
Christianity and Islam are weirdly reflective of each other. Don't go to Mosque, go to church. Don't pray to Allah, pray to God. Don't venerate Mohammed, venerate Jesus Christ.
It is all the same, or at least very similar, What difference does it really make? Very little, really; in fact, none.
And in Ameerica, there is quite a broad selection of Christianity to choose from; I think that this is a good idea. Converting from Islam to Chritianity would immediately end the problem shame and alienation associate with Islam in America, but keeping up the religiou appearance and devotion to God could go on, uninterrupted, and unbothered, exactly as always.
So read the Bible at church and the Koran at home, so what's the difference?
It would be sort of like knowing two languages.
Posted by: DanielintheLionsDen | July 21, 2010 1:44 PM
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Freedom of religion means every religion - not just ones that you find acceptable.
Frankly, if you don't live in NYC, there's really nothing that you can do about it, so who cares? Unlike the way that most New Yorkers think, New York is NOT the center of the universe. If you do live in NYC, your Board of Supervisors approved the project by a vote of 29-1. I suggest that you address your complaints to them.
Posted by: Athena4 | July 21, 2010 1:37 PM
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Very Dear Hadia Mubarak,
You should face Islam Reality.
Islam Reality is Afghanistan,Iran Islamic Republic,Saudi Arabia.Please,See anymore.
Islam Reality is Poverty,Idleness,Subjugation,Backwardness.Please,Look at islamic countries.
Islam Reality is the Cult of Hate,Hostility to Everything which is not islamic.Please,Understand anymore.
*No religious(islamic) basis for 9/11* How can you say this ? How ?
If an enlightened,well-educated Madam like you say this,what can uneducated people think in islamic lands ?
Who will deflaw islam ? who ?
Where is Islam's true spirit in 57 countries ? If they are not *true spirit*(whatever it is),who critisizes those Untrue Spirits ?
Please,face the Reality,but,if you say *no islamic basis for 9/11*.who will do so,Who ?
Have a great day.
Posted by: halozcel1 | July 21, 2010 1:02 PM
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"Sept. 11 was not a religious attack that exclusively targeted one religion, race or ethnicity, but one that stabbed all of our hearts. The victims of 9/11 spanned countless ethnicities, races and religions. "
but it was an attack by one religious group, not one ethnicity.
How easy it is to create boxes. This attack was political, this attack economic, their source is the west's maltreatment of muslims (but it is not religious)...
No. The islamic jihad is in process all over the world. It is not just an attack on the West. It is also an attack on India. On Polynesia, on Africa, on Danish cartoonists, on Russians, an on muslims that don't belong to the right mosque. It takes sophistic ignorance to set aside a global movement of violence to propagate islam. These are attacks founded in the koran and in mohamed's methods. They don't care who you are, this is true, because they really don't care. All they care about is that you and we must comply with their world view, their religion, the way they interpret their religion.
Who speaks for islam, the statistician that finds 30% support Sharia, the business data that shows support for terrorism throughout the islamic diaspora, the, the man with the faith in his god to strap a suicide vest on himself, or the academic that puts hatred in a convenient box?
hariaum
Posted by: Navin1 | July 21, 2010 12:03 PM
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I Did it To Break the Kafir's Heart" See:
http://wwrn.org/articles/33593/?place=northern-africa
Posted by: probably-no-deity | July 21, 2010 11:38 AM
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HOW TO PUT A DAGGER INTO al iSLAMI's HEARTS Forever! They Did it to US why not US to Them? SATANIC VERSUS Lovers don't Like They're Own Medicine by KAFIR(s), whom giveth them back in more ways than one. aye.
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. . . . . . Credits To "jj" http://onwapo.com
Posted by: probably-no-deity | July 21, 2010 11:16 AM
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About the 911 Islam issue.
Please understand that this is a Religious war issue,the fact being look at all the recent wars each are based on Islam.1-Serbia that war was about the Orthodox Serbs And Islamic Faith.
Now 911 Islamic faith and THE United States a Christan Country,most all wars were based on a religion factor.Why is this so hard to see.?
The Islamic faith wants to take over the world they have made this very clear so YES the issue of Chechnya, Afghanistan, Palestine, etc. The use of religious Leaders in these countries as you see on the news are mostly Imans speaking they are Holy leaders.
In the Eastern Europe countries any clashes were always with the Orthodox churches and other fractions Orthodox and Catholics for example in Ukraine Orthodox and catholics are now just trying to over come differences for many years they were not friendly to each other,the Russian Church trying to take over the Ukrainian Churches would result in war if we did not have the U.S.A. and the E.U. involved in the present situation between Russia and Ukraine,the Jewish and Muslims it goes on and on.From the time of the crusaders until now it will never end,never.
Posted by: chaplain2 | July 21, 2010 10:30 AM
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Ms. Mubarak wrote "they would rather go pray in their cars during prayer time than ask for a decent corner at work to pray in for 5 minutes, they would rather take a long lunch break on Fridays than dare request for time to attend the congregational Friday prayer for 30 minutes at noon".
In another blog I was writing about how the muslims expect these as some ckind of birth right of their, for which rest of the world needs to bend over backwards to accommodate them. Ms. Mubarak, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs also have similar injunctions, but they do not go agitating for the employers to provide such privileges. Why do you think it is the employers' obligation to provide facilities for your prayers. Why should you even expect that. When such accommodations are made you don't see any kind of gratitude. IN your islamic paradises Ms. Mubarak during the month of Ramadan every oen even non-muslim expats are forced to observe Roza. Do any of you tolerant muslims ever take up their cause, that they may be spared of your islamic injunctions? This is the kind of arrogance that we secularists detest of you.
Ms. Mubarak wrote, "as one scholar recently pointed out, you never find graduates of Islamic seminaries like al-Azhar or Deoband becoming suicide bombers or terrorists". Are you kidding me? Deoband school is one of the most intolerant of the schools, and their graduates create mayhem in India. As to Al-Azhar, scholars continuously spew invective against other religions.
while your claim of constitutional rights in building the center near ground zero may be right. But a little deference to expected reaction should have cautioned you against considering that site for the center. Discretion would have been the better part of the valor. No instead of that you must choose the site that is undoubtedly would offend the natives. You expect the rest of the world to accommodate to every perceived offense to your sensibilities, but you would never countenance the notion of accommodating to others sensibilities do you.
Posted by: Secular | July 21, 2010 10:12 AM
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If Islam is a peaceful religion, then let actons speak louder than words.
Let all Muslims who say they do not understand terrorism study it hard, so that they know all about it, so that they can explain to any non-Muslim who asks, why terrorism is not Islamic, and let them apologize, personally, for what others do in their name. That would help.
Is this too much to ask, to learn about all of the terrible things that are done in the name of Islam? I do not think that it is. It is the responsibility and the burden of Muslims to know and understand what is going on in the world in the name of their religion.
The only speakiing that is necessary is to say that Islam is not a terrorist religion and to say that you are sorry.
Proselytizing is not necessary. Peaceful actions will speak louder than words.
Posted by: DanielintheLionsDen | July 21, 2010 10:11 AM
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bonosanto-unfortunately you appear to be one of those people who cannot separate religion from anyhting else. If 9/11 were a religious attack, then all the muslims in and around the WTC would have been notified to stay away, so taht only those non-believers would be injured. Sorry, the attacjkers happened to be from an islamic group, but they were targeting America and our Allies, not christian. There were muslim countries with offices in the towers. Were they empty? no, their citizens died along with ours.
Posted by: schnauzer2 | July 21, 2010 9:12 AM
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9/11 might not have been based on some theoretical interpretation of Islam believed by a few intellectuals. The Lockerbie bomber got a hero's welcome on his return to Lybia. The USA has no room for people who love death more than we love life.
Posted by: WmarkW | July 21, 2010 7:45 AM
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Of course "there is no religious basis for 9/11". Unless, of course, you happen to be an Islamic Fundamentalist.
Posted by: DavidCatleugh | July 21, 2010 3:27 AM
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" Friday Sermon: Al-Aqsa Is Crying Out For Help!
Posted on Saturday, June 21 @ 15:06:47 AST by eng
Shaykh Abdur Rahmaan As-Sudays
Safar 6, 1423 (April 19, 2002)
All praise is due to Allaah. May peace and blessings be upon His Prophet, his companions and his household.
Fellow Muslims! In view of successive incidences that affect the Ummah these days with noticed world silence and international helplessness that stir up anger in the streets of the Muslim cities; we must take a time to read the history and ponder over Allaah’s universal and legal decrees in order to know the right course, examine ourselves thoroughly and sincerely, hasten to work seriously for the interest of this Ummah and protect our values before they are swept away by the ever-changing trends.
Brethren in Faith! As a positive response to the current issues, I would like to take you on an emotional journey, from this Sacred Mosque in whose vicinity you live in peace and security to the blessed Al-Aqsaa Mosque in view of persecution and massacres it undergoes nowadays which no serious Muslim must keep silent about. "
http://www.alharamainsermons.org/eng/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=71
The above is a Friday sermon by Abdul Rahman Ibn Abdul Aziz as-Sudais the Senior Imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the most noble of the sanctuaries of Islam. I suggest that you go to the web link and read the complete transcript of the sermon. There is a Persian saying.
اسب ترکمنی است، هم از توبره میخوره هم ازآخور
which is the equivalent of the English proverb,
" Runs with the hare, hunts with the hound "
If Ms Hadia Mubarak researcher doctoral student is not prepared to condemn the Saudi religious establishment, I would respectfully suggest that a reasonable conclusion to draw is that either Ms Mubarak's view of the World has only a tenuous relationship to reality or she is a two faced liar.
Posted by: Adrian_Wainer | July 21, 2010 2:58 AM
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How could you possibly say that the terrorist attacks on 9/11 were not directed to American non believers in the name of your god and that thousands of Americans died because your religion says and commands to kill non believers. Any intelligent human being knows that 9/11 happened because of Islam not some group of idiots that were mad at the US government. Get this through your head...over 3,000 Americans are not with there love ones today because of islamic radicals. that's it. there is no other way to dress it up.go try to raise a Japanese flag on the pearl harbor memorial and see what happens. i don have a problem with you building a mosque anywhere else....there is plenty of empty buildings in Jersey City, go there.
Posted by: bonosanto | July 21, 2010 2:42 AM
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" While Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri would like us to believe that their actions are divinely sanctioned and religiously ordained, there is no question to anyone who has studied Islam that there is absolutely no basis in Islam for their acts of terror. If one were to search through Islam's primary sources - the Quran and prophetic tradition (hadith) - and all the classical legal texts of Islamic jurists, one could only come to one conclusion: that 9/11 and all acts of terror that inflict violence on innocent people are a violation of Islam. "
RESEARCHER, DOCTORAL STUDENT Hadia Mubarak
Sorry but this is just absolutely wrong. Islam is not the "Religion of Peace", one of the roles of the Prophet Mohammad, peace be up on him, was that of a military general. There are many Muslims who believe that Islam sanctions "just war" in an equivalent of the Christian tradition of "just war" and there is a logical and reasoned argument in support of that but there is also a logical and reasoned argument to be made that Islam sanctions Muslims to hunt down and annihilate non-Muslims without Mercy until Islam is established as the supreme authority.
Posted by: Adrian_Wainer | July 21, 2010 2:25 AM
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How disappointing. I started reading Hadia Mubarak's opinion piece with hopes of learning something fresh and new that I hadn't seen dozens of times before. Unfortunately, I was naively optimistic.
Islam is not a religion just because you have a god, Ms. Mubarak. Islam is a political ideology at best and a cult at the very least. It frequently uses "al Taqiyya" or "quran-sanctioned fabrication" to say what we want to believe while meaning what you want to keep "inside the closet." The day we can trust Islam is the day it denounces shariah law and execution for apostates in addition to Al-Shabaab's foolish quest for world domination.
Posted by: espritbelle | July 21, 2010 12:03 AM
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Thanks, Nabihah.
I checked out the contents, and they are indeed extreme. At least, they are too extreme for me at this time in the life God has presented me, viz "If your doctor tells you three glasses of red wine a day is what your heart condition needs, find a new doctor. If a Muslim store sells something they call “Halal Beer,” run from that store."
My doctor said I needed three tatoos to position the beam from the radiation equipment in exactly the same place each day. I asked my rabbi what to do. He said, "...Listen to the doctor."
Posted by: MichelleKGross | July 20, 2010 11:55 PM
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Mubarak worked for the unindicted co-conspirator CAIR - who has had many of its leaders convicted of terrorism related offenses and she also worked for another Muslim Brotherhood group the Muslim Students Association. She helped get the grandson of Muslim Broth. founder a visa into the US after he was banned for funding terrorism.
It took her nearly ten years to come up with these outright lies and deception to help get an enormous mosque built at Ground Zero?
Posted by: jiji1 | July 20, 2010 11:12 PM
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"If one were to search through Islam's primary sources - the Quran and prophetic tradition (hadith) - and all the classical legal texts of Islamic jurists, one could only come to one conclusion: that 9/11 and all acts of terror that inflict violence on innocent people are a violation of Islam."
Qur'an:9:88 "The Messenger and those who believe with him, strive hard and fight with their wealth and lives in Allah's Cause."
Qur'an:9:5 "Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war."
Qur'an:9:112 "The Believers fight in Allah's Cause, they slay and are slain, kill and are killed."
Qur'an:9:29 "Fight those who do not believe until they all surrender, paying the protective tax in submission."
There are plenty other similar jewels
http://prophetofdoom.net/Islamic_Quotes.Islam
Posted by: abrahamhab1 | July 20, 2010 10:45 PM
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I have no problem with the building project. Sarah Palin is an ignorant agitator. The above all sounds great except for this insidious line "Muslims to 'come out of the closet' and share their faith with others" I believe Bin Laden was trying to share islam and get the good word out by taking down the twin towers. Evangelical christians agressively try to share also. Sharing is just a euphemism for proselytizing. This is where the problem lies. How insecure does one have to be in his beliefs that he needs me or anyone else to validate the beliefs. You can offer to share but please accept my response of no thank you.
Posted by: Brbr2424 | July 20, 2010 10:10 PM
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9/11; London, 7/7; Bali bombings; Madrid bombings; Nidal Hasan; Mumbai attacks; Daniel Pearl; attack on Quetta, Pakistan; Kaluchak massacre, 2002; Kim Sun-Il; Richard Reid, the shoe bomber; Nick Berg; Al-Shabaab bombing in Uganda; Umar Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber; Kenneth Bigley; The Times Square bomber; the many acid attacks; the Saudi girls' school fire; the golden mosque bombings. Just a few.
What, then connects these atrocities other than the religion that inspires them? And why, Hadia, is your idea of Islam more valid than the one that drove these many muslims, in all corners of the world, to take as much innocent life as possible in the name of your God????
Your claim that your religion is not to blame here is absurd. One only has to read the numerous commands to violence in your holy books. Do you recall what the prescribed punishment for apostasy in Islam is? It is Mohammed himself in the Koran who says "whoever changes religion - kill him." How then do you denounce a muslim who kills an apostate when he has divine textual authority to do so? Please. This is nasty, dangerous stuff. Stop trying to dissimulate.
As a wise atheist once said: "all religions are equally ridiculous. They are not, however, equally dangerous." I am not made to take off my shoes at airports because of methodists. Until your religion ceases its routine use of violence to promote its edicts and beliefs, it should be denounced for the death cult that it is.
Posted by: nyadrian | July 20, 2010 9:40 PM
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New study shows that each Sarah Palin Tweet causes decrease in reader’s IQ.
Read this article, it is HYSTERICAL.
Posted by: eye95 | July 20, 2010 9:19 PM
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please check out http://www.islamicsolutions.com/if-it-is-extreme-it-is-not-islam/
Posted by: Nabihah | July 20, 2010 8:55 PM
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Is it true that under Islamic law it's o.k to lie to Infidels? Is it true that this mosque if taken down after it's built will cause anger through out the Islamic world? Do you disagree that Imam Rauf has ties to terrorist? This is not ignorance this is from your own Islamic law. I await your reply.