Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

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Worthwhile Muslim Canadian Initiative

Raheel Raza and Tarek Fatah, members of the board of the Muslim Canadian Congress, declare their solidarity with the American xenophobes and purveyors of "race and religious hatred" who oppose building the Cordoba House two blocks from Ground Zero.  Their intolerant arguments mocking the First Amendment include:

  • "Muslims know the idea behind the Ground Zero mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation to thumb our noses at the infidel. The proposal has been made in bad faith..."
  • "Do they not understand that building a mosque at Ground Zero is equivalent to permitting a Serbian Orthodox church near the killing fields of Srebrenica where 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered?"
  • "[A] mosque is an exclusive place of worship for Muslims and not an inviting community centre. Most Americans are wary of mosques due to the hard core rhetoric that is used in pulpits. And rightly so. As Muslims we are dismayed that our co-religionists have such little consideration for their fellow citizens and wish to rub salt in their wounds and pretend they are applying a balm to sooth the pain."
  • "As for those teary-eyed, bleeding-heart liberals such as New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and much of the media, who are blind to the Islamist agenda in North America, we understand their goodwill. Unfortunately for us, their stand is based on ignorance and guilt, and they will never in their lives have to face the tyranny of Islamism that targets, kills and maims Muslims worldwide, and is using liberalism itself to destroy liberal secular democratic societies from within."

    Read the entire article, from the Ottawa Citizen.

Discussions - 12 Comments

Wow. If there were more Muslims like that, I'd have to change my mind about "the religion of peace."

I know, I know, Redwald. You like Fatah's support for gay marriage and Raza's constant mantra of "unity in diversity" and her promotion of gender equity, right?? Haha.

While I can take Fatah and Raza's views seriously, I think they're speaking from a certain Canadian progressive perspective (kudos to Mr. Voegeli for spreading their ideas, as say, opposed to those of Palin's or Gingrich's), one which is obviously quite well-intentioned (building a Mosque is one thing, but Sharia law, acid-burned faces, and honor killings are other matters entirely), but doesn't always mesh well with our American acknowledgement that even speech (and speech-acts) that we don't necessarily approve of or agree with must be allowed (I'm sure I need not remind anyone here of Mark Steyn's problems in Canada) - people can draw Mohammed pictures, people can burn their Korans, AND people can build their Islamic centers in the general vicinity of the hole where the WTC once stood. Of course it remains to be seen how fair it is to even lump those 3 things together. We shall see just how much bridge-building will be attempted from this new center; perhaps the pre-emptive judgment and interpretation of the Islamic center as part of an Islamist plot or an incitement to violence or Islamic domination (good luck!) is as accurate as the WMD intelligence on Iraq.

A few other points:

1. I think there's a much stronger argument that disrespect to the memory of 9/11 and its victims is found in the Republican-led refusal to pass the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act - people who pulled out the bodies and body parts and cleaned up the wreckage and now are experiencing health problems clearly linked to the unique toxins of that burning pyre - they don't deserve help? In conservative/GOP eyes, I guess not.

2. I don't know if anyone here will admit to hearing it, but Boss Limbaugh inadvertently helped to highlight the fact that there are actually Shinto shrines near Pearl Harbor...
japanprobe -dot- com/2010/08/17/shinto-shrine-near-pearl-harbor/

and there's already a multi-faith chapel INSIDE the Pentagon, where every Friday an Imam leads Muslims in prayer (Yikes!!). Has the Pentagon been taken over by bleeding-heart liberals, too?? Why aren't Muslims shot on site whenever they enter the Pentagon's grounds? (No, that's not a suggestion!)

3. This controversy is largely contrived:
https://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/16/ground_zero_mosque_origins

and, at the very least, shows that the "liberally-biased" "lamestream media" is more than happy to take its cues from (truly bigoted) right-wing bloggers.

4. Others have pointed it out, but it bears a lot of repeating - this controversy hinges on conflating all Muslims with Al Qaeda.

5. "As the saying goes, if you've lost Jon Stewart..." [or, as the case may be, if one of your tea party outrage leaders is dumb enough to have said the same thing that he's trying to smear a Muslim with, as evidence that said Muslim's a lover of terrorism, this is what happens]:

https://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-august-16-2010/mosque-erade

Gotta love the part about maybe it being too soon to allow Catholic Churches to be built near playgrounds (snap!). Keep in mind the superior sense of humor that conservatives have!

With respect to this "mosque at ground zero" thing, I heard someone say it's like building a church in Mecca.

No, not quite. The comparable analogy there would be building a mosque in Vatican City. And that, I'm sure, would not be allowed.

I say let them build the mosque. Seriously. More power to them.

But then I say more power to Greg Gutfeld and his plan to build a gay bar for homosexual Muslims.

I say more power to anyone who wants to put up a billboard near this new mosque that shows a cartoon image of Mohammad having sex with a pig.

We'll see if the two earn the same "equal protection."

We'll see if protesters outside the mosque are treated with the same delicacy as protesters outside the gay bar.

The simple truth is that in today's world of relativism there really are no rules. It is "make it up as you go" or "it depends on the prevailing wind."

That is the real source of the push-back against this mosque -- not that it "offends our sensibilities (real American sensibilities are not that easily offended ... modern ones are, though). It's that there's a clear surrender to a politically correct double standard at play.

And at the very core of the American personality -- what's left of it -- is the notion of fairness and justice.

Everyone knows that if this mosque is built there'll be unequal protection offered to the mosque and the hatred that stews within it. One only look to London to see the rot that is contemporary relativism on this score.

Everyone knows that any counter-action to make a point about the unjust nature of today's PC culture will be smashed. The billboard with Muhammad f-ing a pig? Never happen ... would be banned for certain.

The cracks are starting to appear in the facade of the PC culture. It will resolve itself with or without blood shed. I pray the latter. But I suspect the latter.

The cracks are starting to appear in the facade of the PC culture. It will resolve itself with or without blood shed. I pray the latter. But I suspect the former.

Bring back the edit function!!!

(By the way -- I used the recorded function to indicate the Captcha words ... completely useless. Obviously recorded in a call center with background noise. Indecipherable.)

Turns out, there is only a very small population of Muslims in lower Manhattan. Also, there are dozens of mosques in NYC. Also, the guy behind the building project is also behind the flotilla that resulted in dead Israeli soldiers.

No, this is more than simply a religious freedom issue. There is a message being sent here, and we should resist it. If the Muslims connected to this project were truly interested in diversity and mutual understanding, they wouldn't build they damned thing across the street from the WTC.

"...they wouldn't build they damned thing across the street from the WTC."

It doesn't relate to the principles involved in the argument (but the repeated exaggeration is being used as a propaganda tool by the center's opponents), and I know it's futile for me to make this correction, but...

No, the planned Islamic Center (which includes a mosque) is NOT "across the street from the WTC." It's 2 blocks away, and in fact another building across from the Cordoba/51 center will completely obscure the view between the 2 sites (unless of course a tall building is ever constructed at the WTC site again, in which case, someone looking from, say, the 60th floor will be able to see the Cordoba/51 bldg., in addition to probably every other mosque in NYC and NJ).

There are Halal meat product street foods sold from carts right next to the WTC site, though, so perhaps you can have a field day with that factoid. Perhaps anyone working at the site should have the decency not to buy such foods on their lunch breaks?

"...behind the flotilla that resulted in dead Israeli soldiers."

Could you elaborate on which flotilla raid you're talking about? I presume you're referring to this one, which, as far as I know, involved no deaths of Israeli soldiers - but 9 passengers aboard the aid flotilla boat:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_flotilla_raid

Oh, my bad, just injured Israeli soldier who were defending themselves from being lynched. Such a big difference!

It was as close to "across the street" as they could get, Craig. Tell me, do they issue swim fins and snorkels for people who jump SO deep into the tank for the Left?
And such a fetid, stinking tank of goo it is!

Well, actually, yeah, there IS a qualitative difference between being injured and being killed. Would you rather scald your finger during a tea party or... die? I love how the IDF storm these aid boats, kill 9 people (with 5 of them shot in the back of the head; also, keep in mind that there were more ship passengers "just" injured than IDF soldiers - so it's beyond ridiculous for you to treat them as 100% invisible), and when there's some comparatively minor measures of self-defense taken by the ship's passengers that becomes the aggression in your...ahem...creative mind. This is the classic warped mind-games employed by every boneheaded locker room bully, writ large. Good thing they kept those toys, wheelchairs, food, and medicine from getting to Gaza!

Whatever "tank" you think I'm in, at least it's not the tank of utterly fact-free non-sense you're pickling yourself in.

Wait a minute - we've got breaking news in the world of Sacrilegious Structures Built Next to Sacred Grounds!!

Read all about it:
https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/international/outrage-over-plans-to-build-library-next-to-sarah-palin-201008193017/

Of course I occasionally make mistakes, but unlike you, mine are free of guile and snark.

Nonetheless, the Gaza flotilla was a clear provocation, and I think they are lucky the Israelis just didn't torpedo the ships and have done with it. Painting these Palestinian activists as "victims" is pure BS, and I think you know it. After all, the Israelis asked to inspect the ships and were denied...the whole purpose of the blockade is to prevent Hamas from gaining more missiles to shot across the border.

As for fact-free, where's that "recovery" we've been promised? I mean, they voted the near trillion dollar stimulus in effect, and that guaranteed that unemployment wouldn't go beyond 8%, and...oh wait, that was apparently just more lefty BS. Hmm.

Here's an article that all principled conservatives should be sure to read, from the recently-excommunicated (from NLT's blogroll) Little Green Footballs, which gives an eye-opening introduction to the views of the people leading the anti-Park51/Cordoba Mosque movement - that'd be Pam Geller, David Yerushalmi, and John Joseph Jay, top dogs for AFDI (American Freedom Defense Initiative) and SIOA (Stop Islamization of America):

https://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/36930_Meet_the_Leaders_of_the_Anti-Mosque_Movement

Highlights:

"David Yerushalmi, who is an advocate for criminalizing Islam itself and imposing 20-year sentences on practicing Muslims. Yes, really.

He’s not simply anti-Muslim, though; Yerushalmi also wrote a now-infamous article titled “On Race: A Tentative Discussion, Part II,” in which he advocated a return to a pre-Bill of Rights Constitution, and the restriction of voting rights to white male land-owners. Again … yes, really."

and

"AFDI board member John Joseph Jay recently has posted a series of truly vicious anti-Muslim rants — apparently without the benefit of a capital letter function on his computer. “if islam kills non-believers as a matter of religious doctrine, then why should muslims expect to be free of retribution in the name of those islam kills?” he wrote. “why should muslims get a free pass? if it is right for muslims to kill non-believers, then why is it no less right for the rest of us to kill muslims?”

...

"Last month, Jay expanded on his advocacy of violence against Muslims to include people in positions of power. He commented on his blog about a magazine article regarding America’s “ruling class” as follows: “friends, if you wish to retain and preserve individual virtue, you are going to have to kill in order to do so. if we are to excise the ruling class, it will be with violence. they used violence to attain their privilege, they use it nakedly in the form of the s.i.e.u. [an apparent reference to the SEIU, the Service Employees International Union] and black panther thugs in elective politics to maintain it, they contemplate relocation camps to preserve it. … buy guns. buy ammo. be jealous of your liberties. and understand, you are going to have to kill folks, your uncles, your sons and daughters, to preserve those liberties.”

Totally reasonable and respectable, eh? And not even a HINT of just out-and-out bigotry!

Yawn...extreme acts tend to breed extreme counters. So what? I think there are millions of principled people who would discourage building this mosque in its intended place; the fact that you can scrape up some crazies in the group doesn't surprise anyone, Craig.

Tell me, Craig, would you support a new, shiny, multimillion dollar KKK meeting house in Selma, Alabama? Of course not. But you go right ahead and "champion" those civil rights. This issue is doing far more damage to the Left, and I for one think that is poetic justice.

Now, what about the "summer of recovery?" Any comments, Mr. Liberal?

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