Remembering the 9/11 martyrs and opposing the mosque

by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
May 22, 2010

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/746/remembering-the-9-11-martyrs-and-opposing

According to media comments, mosque at Ground Zero in New York City is another horror. No doubts this will be a kick on the face of everyone, who are heavy with shock at the tragic death of 3,000 people, who were killed by Islamist militants during the attack on 9/11. This mosque will cost more than US$ 100 million, and by now, tons of money is already being shifted in the fund for this construction. Interestingly, major segment of this money is coming from Arab nations especially Saudis.

Currently, The Islamic Cultural Center of New York is the largest mosque and Islamic cultural center in Manhattan. The $17 million dollar center opened on April 15, 1991, just after the First Gulf War ended. Since September 11th, 2001, a number of controversial statements came from at least two of the centers leaders, both of them blaming the Jewish population for the attacks and denying any Muslim involvement.

Stop Islamicization of America. Executive director Pamela Geller told New York Post, "What could be more insulting and humiliating than a monster mosque in the shadow of the World Trade Center buildings that were brought down by an Islamic jihad attack? Any decent American, Muslim or otherwise, wouldn't dream of such an insult. It's a stab in the eye of America."

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is planning an Islamic community center and mosque near Ground Zero says his critics are bigots and the project will stamp out terrorism - not fan the flames.

"We condemn terrorists. We recognize it exists in our faith, but we are committed to eradicate it," Raud said, who is leading the charge to build the Cordoba House.

"We want to rebuild this community," he said. "This is about moderate Muslims who intend to be and want to be part of the solution."

Imam who helped found the Cordoba initiative after 9/11, Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf, is on record as telling CNN, right after the 9/11 attacks, "U.S. policies were an accessory to the crime that happened. We [the U.S.] have been an accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. Osama bin Laden was made in the USA."

Elsewhere, Rauf has stated that terrorism will end only when the West acknowledges the harm it has done to Muslims. And that it was Christians who started mass attacks on civilians.

A previous Rauf project, Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, clearly shows on its website that it is headed and funded by individuals from Saudi Arabia, the country that spawned fifteen of the nineteen jihad jockeys who rode the 9/11 planes of destruction. The funding for the mosque at Ground Zero is much murkier so far. All that has been publicly disclosed is that the support comes from unidentified sources in Saudi Arabia and Muslim-ruled Malaysia. Rauf reportedly says he paid $4.85 million for the property -- in cash. Where exactly did this money come from? Was it Wahhabist-supporting Saudi sources, which have already funded many other mosques in New York City?"

The 13-story Cordoba House will include a mosque, fitness center, pool, classrooms, kitchens and a theater for lectures and performances.

Another mosque - much smaller than the Cordoba plan - has existed downtown on Warren St. since 1970 and has been operating out of 20 Warren St. since 2008.

Although there have been critics, including some relatives of 9/11 victims, the Cordoba project has the support of virtually every lower Manhattan politician and Community Board 1.

"There's been a tremendous amount of bigotry associated with this," said CB1 president Julie Menin. "If we've learned any lesson from 9/11, it's to respect people's religious freedoms."

"Our city's open to anybody, no matter what your religion is," New York City Mayor Bloomberg said.

The plan to build a mosque next to Ground Zero has angered residents of the Big Apple. The proposed site of the mosque - just around the corner from the gaping hole where the Twin Towers once stood - has upset locals. A website has already been created to protest the building of the mosque, saying it will "cast a rude shadow over Ground Zero."

To my personal opinion, this mosque is an insult to the memory of 9/11, comparing the idea to building a German cultural centre at Auschwitz. I really fail to understand as to why those Manhattan politicians and Community Board 1 are supporting this ridiculous idea of constructing the mosque on the Ground Zero site.

New Yorkers seem overwhelmingly opposed to the plan, comparing its insensitivity to the German government opening, say, a Bach appreciation museum right outside the Auschwitz death camp, or Toyota opening a car factory by the Arizona Memorial on the island of Oahu.

On radio shows, families of 9/11 victims called in to condemn the plans as 'a slap in the face,' 'highly insensitive,' and 'a despicable attempt to claim victory at the site where so many innocent Americans died.'

Debra Burlingame, the sister of the American Airlines pilot whose jet was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon, is the founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America. In a recent Fox News interview she said:

"The idea that you would establish a religious institution that embraces the very Shariah Law that terrorists point to as their justification for what they did … to build that where almost 3,000 people died, that is an obscenity to me."

Eminent writer Pamela Geller wrote, "recent history has shown that if you draw a picture of the Prophet of Islam or otherwise "insult" Islam, you'll have no shortage of offended Muslims lining up for an opportunity to stab you in the heart, behead you, rape your daughter or burn your house… so you'll have to forgive my tongue-in-cheek "confusion" that sensitive Muslims everywhere don't realize how offensive it is to build a huge mosque on the holy ground surrounding what was the World Trade Centre.

"The joke is, of course, that the people planning to build the 9/11 Mosque at Ground Zero knows exactly how offensive it will be.

"That's the idea. That's why they want to hold the grand opening on the tenth anniversary of the slaughter of 9/11.

"The proponents know that the building won't be seen by the Islamist fascists as a mere mosque: it will be a victory monument. A symbol of American submission. A vision of the progress of the worldwide Muslim Caliphate that is the Jihadist goal.

"It will be something for the fascists to point to throughout the Islamic world when they're not busy otherwise – say sharpening their knives to mutilate young women or hanging 16 year old girls for having unwed relations."

"What could be more insulting and humiliating than a monster mosque in the shadow of the World Trade Center buildings that were brought down by an Islamic jihad attack? Any decent American, Muslim or otherwise, wouldn't dream of such an insult. It's a stab in the eye of America."

My newspaper Weekly Blitz has been continuing to publish articles against the idea of constructing a mosque at Ground Zero site. None of the newspapers in the Muslim world are even uttering a single word against this project. Rather, many are either advocating the construction idea or even giving provocation to readers in raising voice in favor of the construction of this mosque.

Since we started publishing the articles, while several international news media tried to get our own comments on this issue, a senior official with a Bangladeshi sensitive intelligence agency called me a number of times, thus threatening me of consequences, if we continued to publish such articles. He said, "these are extremely provocative anti-Islamic materials. You cannot continue to publish these rubbish stuffs. If you do not stop, we shall make sure, registration of your newspaper is cancelled".

This officer is even using some of his juniors in putting pressure on me and other members of my newspaper.

I know, such tendency of the Bangladeshi intelligence officer is to make Saudis and other anti-American elements happy. He might even be trying to renew their previous secret affiliations with Jihadist groups like Hizbut Tahrir.

But, defying all such 'red-eyes' of the devils, we want to be loud enough to tell our readers that, Weekly Blitz and I will not stop from opposing the construction of the mosque at Ground Zero in New York City. Implementation of this mosque will make the Jihadists delighted. And, I have no taste for making those devils happy.

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