The Jews and Christians Behind the “Cordoba Initiative”
The concept of an “interfaith dialogue” is an alluring one. It assumes that people of faith are, by definition, virtuous, honest, tolerant, soft-spoken–and, hopefully, more committed to peace, reason, and morality than non-religious people are.
But is this true?
What if some religious people who are involved in such seductive dialogues are also crafty, evil, double-dealing hypocrites, more interested in money, power, sex, and war than in embracing lives of poverty, powerlessness, chastity, or even self-restraint? What if they are liars? Or addicts? Or, like so many others, merely addicted to the “high life”?
I myself believe in talking to and working with Muslim and ex-Muslim dissidents and feminists—some of whom are religious Muslims, many of whom are secularists or apostates, but none of whom are powerful imams or sheikhs. I also believe in talking to and working with Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and atheists who are anti-Islamist—not necessarily anti-Islam or anti-Muslim—and who support universal human rights. By definition, we are all opposed to Islamic gender and religious apartheid, misogyny in general, and the demonization of Israel, America, and the West. These are my kind of “interfaith” allies.
Jews are especially tempted by the idea of an “interfaith dialogue.” Why? Because it means that as long as one is still talking, the pogrom has not yet started. Also, despite a long and terrible history of being persecuted and murdered, Jews still continue to believe that reason, ideas, charm, even cleverness still have the power to triumph over genocidal hatred. Jews also believe that listening to the “other,” trying to understand his pain, will lead the lion to lie down with the lamb.
Thus, any number of prominent (and non-prominent) religious Jews are involved in “interfaith dialogues.” They fly around the world (they are often in constant motion) as they meet with their counterparts. Some stay at five star hotels or in palaces; others reside in more modest lodgings. Some are pillars of their communities; others seek to overthrow those very pillars. Some are clean-shaven, others fully bearded. Some sport ponytails and long, flowing hair. Some are seen as radically progressive, others as radically conservative. Mainly, all are men. Rabbis Arthur Waskow and Michael Lerner immediately come to mind. I bear a residual sentimentality towards them, (we go way back), but I certainly do not agree with their views about Israel, America, jihad, global warming, or the “Palestinian” question.
But there are other prominent, religious Jews who are more directly involved with the Cordoba Initiative, otherwise known as the mosque at Ground Zero, and with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, its chairman. (Abdul is part of his last name, which means “servant of The Kind One.”)
The Great Mosque of Cordoba, originally a Christian Visigothic Church
Rabbi Bradley Hirschfield, the director of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL), has been working with Imam Abdul Rauf for awhile. In fact, Rabbi Hirschfield is on the Advisory Board of the Cordoba Initiative. In 2007, Rabbi Hirschfield spoke on a panel together with Abdul Rauf for the Cordoba Initiative. The panel was also sponsored by CLAL and the American Society for Muslim Advancement—and took place at UC Irvine (the very university where Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren’s speech was disrupted). Their subject? “Why Should/Would Israel & Palestine exist? …How Cultural Narratives Compete.” For all I know, it was a principled and moving moment. I have no sure way of knowing. All I can say is that these two men — Hirschfield and Abdul Rauf — are in each other’s orbit, talking, presenting and working together publicly.
Rabbi Hirschfield was also involved with Buffalo-based Muzzammil Hassan, the founder of Bridges TV, who turned out to be a serious and serial wife batterer and wife killer. He is the man who beheaded his wife Aasiya when she dared to leave him. Bridges advertised itself as committed to interfaith dialogue and to the presentation of a positive image of Muslim-Americans. Amazingly, Hirschfield, an author and radio personality, (whom I have met twice, but briefly), has not dropped his association with Bridges, at least as shown on Wikipedia.
There are worlds within worlds. Rabbi Hirschfield, Imam Abdul Rauf, and former President Jimmy Carter, the author of the infamous book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, have all worked together at the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions. They presented at the same conference, the same year. Look: Maybe Rabbi Hirschfield tackled Carter at this conference—but probably not as forcibly and passionately as Alan Dershowitz tried to do at Brandeis. (Carter refused to appear with Dershowitz).
Jimmy Carter? He is a Jew-hater, Israel-demonizer, and a Saudi-money lover.
In any event: Rabbi Hirschfield may have good intentions. My point: He may not be a good judge of character. Or, he may not care with whom he associates. Just as he was willing to work with Muzzammil Hassan “for the greater cause,” just so, is he now working with Imam Abdul Rauf.
3/11 Madrid Bombing
Rabbi Hirschfield is not alone. There is also Professor Michael Gottsegen, a Visiting Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies at Brown University who is also on staff at CLAL. In addition, Gottsegen is listed as a technical consultant at the website for the Cordoba Initiative. Dr. Gottsegen is a co–founder and Executive Committee member of the Consultation on Interfaith Education (CIE), an advisory group with links to the Parliament of the World’s Religions (where Hirschfield, Carter, and Abdul Rauf have presented) and at the United Nations (currently run by tyrants and Islamists). CIE represents the world’s major religions, and seeks to promote and map the field of interfaith education globally. CLAL has been a member of CIE since 2003.
The Lead Signatories to the letter on behalf of the Ground Zero Mosque/Cordoba House include Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan–and Rabbi Roly Matalon of Bnai Jeshurun. There are other Jewish and Christian supporters–too many to list here. Among them are: Reverend Cannon Anne Mallonee, Trinity Church; Rabbi Bob Kaplan, Jewish Community Relations Council; Reverend William Tully, St. Barthalomew’s Church; The Very Reverend James Morton, Interfaith Center of New York; Reverend Katherine Henderson, Auburn Theological Seminary; Stephen Heintz, Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Finally, the highly distinguished Rabbi Arthur Schneier, of Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue, has also praised the work of Imam Abdul Rauf and the Cordoba Initiative. Rabbi Arthur is quoted in the New York Times as saying: “He [Imam Abdul Rauf] subscribes to my credo: ‘Live and let live.’” However, Rabbi Schneier, Senior, is not on the Board of the Initiative.
A mosque at Ground Zero can be viewed in different ways. One of the things it is saying is “The West is tolerant; Islam is not.” Could one imagine a church in Mecca? Of course not. Western tolerance is evidence that democracy is good.
OK, so if a bigot demands a Jewish person use the word “kike” to describe themselves, should the Jew do that to get along and prove some sort of lofty ethical superiority? Or should he or she see it for what it is- an imperialistic attempt at ascendancy.
Intention is everything. The intention in the person advancing the point, not in the recipient. The Ground Zero Mosque is taqiyya. And a beachhead. Not to see that- is to see nothing.
I think a Mosque at ground zero can correctly only be viewed one way: traitorous and inciting to bomb any iconic location so that it be replaced with a mosque.
And only those with a mental disorder could have a different view.
Jewish Christian and islamic religions all have one thing in common – a history of brutality.
The difference today? Jews and Christians are (for the most part) peaceful in the practice of their respective religions.
Unless and until muslums renounce (and follow it with outcome based action) I mistrust them with all my heart and soul.
Whenever they have conquered a nation/region they’ve built mosques over the most important places to the vanquished to prove the dominance of their ‘god’.
The most holy place for Jews – the Temple Mount was claimed by the muslim – they built a mosque that muslims consider nearly as holy as their black rock at mecca – a place that no non-muslim may ever visit. Nowhere is Jerusalem even mentioned in the koran. The only thing that makes it special to muslims is that it’s an insult to the Jewish religion/nation. It is an affront to any thinking Jew – or should be and should be taken down.
History is repeating itself – this ‘cordoba’ initiative should be an insult to anyone who loves this country and has a brain to think for themselves.
Apparently thinking and common sense have given itself over to appeasement.
Whats next – groveling to keep your head attached to your sholders?
You write “Jewish [sic] Christian and islamic religions all have one thing in common – a history of brutality.” What is your point here? Is it an attempt at the typical moral equivalence argument of a five- year-old? Also, do you even know your history? Did you attend an ivy league school? Do a little more reading concerning the brutality of Judaism, Christianity and Islam before you compare the three and maybe you will realize just how ignorant you really are.
A thousand pardons, but more likely K.T. describes himself…
This mosque at Ground Zero would not worry me if I the grandiloquent claims of “peace”, harmony”, “dialogue”, and similar platitudes behind the creation of this supposed “religious center” were credible. But Imam Abdul Rauf in on record as a true jihad advocate in his published works in Arabic and virtuoso of takkiya when speaking in English to westerners.
Why are some of our spiritual and political leaders allowing themselves to get ensnared in such schemes? Can you apply the doctrine of preemption to the fall into dhimmitude? Is this going to avoid the humiliation of capitulation? It took a while for New Yorkers to voice their opposition to the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed in the neighborhood of Ground Zero, but they eventually did, and the jihad apologists in the white house did back off as quietly as they could. Let’s do the same here.
So often we are told not to do or say something that might offend muslims or anyone of a different religon or culture. turnabout is fair play.
I am offended by this mosque being built anywhere near ground zero
I find Islime offensive
I would have stopped at ‘anywhere’.
What about the non-Mohammedans who are offended and feel betrayed by the symbolism inherent in a mosque identified with ground zero? Have you asked the wives of the firemen and the policemen what they think? Why do I feel that the Christians and the Jews involved with this are sick to their very cores, and that they are, in some very real sense, traitors or cowards or both?
I have often wondered why, those of us who are Christians, have a stronger affinity toward Israel than most Jews in New York and other liberal enclaves with a high Jewish population? Why is it that we feel the need to sound the alarm against the intrusion of Sharia law into our lives by stealth and misdirection by self-serving Muslims when some of the more influential Jewish leaders buy the “snake oil” without question?
The Jews are God’s chosen people. Israel is their biblical land and every day, the citizens of Israel face death, injury, and destruction from the hands of the people they support. How dare any Jew or Christian enjoin with the enablers of the Cordoba House initiative, when the very presence of the structure and what it actually stands for is an affront to the people of America, the City of New York, and in particular, the relatives of those who perished in an act of cowardly mass murder on the morning of 9-11-2001.
One can only wonder how they manage to sleep at night. Then, it takes a conscience and a soul to feel guilt or shame, doesn’t it? Somehow, I think these people have lost both.
There are a lot of Jews who have a great respect and appreciation for the Christian supporters of Israel. I have met many in Jerusalem and they are the salt of the earth. One Jew who writes/talks about this is Dennis Prager, and I will have the privilege of hearing him speak at a local Toronto synagogue tomorrow. These Jews/Christians who support this mosque, this utter TRAVESTY of justice will regret it one day. They are misguided, naive and dangerously ignorant.
Re “Waltzing with Suicide Bombers at Ground Zero. The Dangers of “Interfaith Dialogue.” By Phyllis Chesler – The Jews and Christians Behind the “Cordoba Initiative
Thanks for your excellent article as it provides the opportunity to embrace a larger paradigm than the one in which frankly I was getting stuck! Also answering the oh so important question “why the Jews” do some very foolish things.
What did P.T. Barnum say? Seems to apply here in terms of supporting a Mosque at Ground Zero.
jews, especially those who are thinkers,
Islam is SUPREMACIST and TRIUMPHALIST in nature and the Ground Zero Mosque is just ANOTHER example of this . Another one the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem built by the Mohammedan ARAB invaders right on top of the Holiest place in Judaism which had existed for THOUSANDS of years and the Hagi Sophia in Istanbul which then had the worlds largest DOME and is why Mosques the world over have domes now. And to call it CORDOBA after the Capital of Mohammedan INVADED and occupied Al Andalus and seat of oppression against Spanish Christians , now know as SPAIN again, just adds insult to injury.
Mohammedans when committing their atrocities and acts of terrorism are frequently heard to cry ‘Allahu Akbar”. Now what the dhimmie STUPID left wing PC MC Islamophile moonbats THINK this means is “God is Great” and of course Mohammedans are very happy to let the moonbats continue in their STUPID IGNORANCE.
‘Allah Akbar’ means God is Great but ‘ALLAHU Akbar” is a a horse of a completely different colour it means ‘MY God is the GREATEST’ a significant difference dont you think. A claim such as this reveals a lot about Islam
1) Its POLYTHEIST nature (as THEIR God being the GREATEST admits the existence of OTHER in their opinion albeit LESSER Gods)
2) It also reveals the SUPREMACIST nature of Islam as they think THEIR God is the GREATEST God.
3) It also reveals the competitive will to dominate in Islam too.
So next time a Mohammedan or moonbat tries to tell you THEIR God is the same as YOUR God and that we all worship the SAME god then ask them ‘Why then do MOHAMMEDANS scream FIVE TIME A DAY from their Mosques that THEIR God is the GREATEST’
Guys…what can I tell ya?…if we Jews never have a kind word to say about anyone Muslim or anyone who advocates on behalf of Muslims, then all we’re doing is playing into the hands of the extremists who, in their Madrassas, are teaching the next generation of potential suicide bombers they’re in a life-or-death fight with America, Israel, etc.
I disagree. They are not being are not being taught that they are in a life-or-death fight with America, Israel, the West, ect. They are being taught that to not be Muslim is an unpardonable sin and that they must kill anyone who resist their teachings. You can say all the kind words you want. Islam will never abandon its hatred for all things Jewish. You can talk until you are blue in the face, or until your decapitated head is lying on the ground, but either you renounced Zionism (Which all Jews are guilty of no matter how liberal) or you will be killed.
Radical Islam should be viewed with the same intolerance as the KKK. There should never be a time when its philosophy is allowed to have equal moral standing with other Religious points of view. It has proven again, and again, and again in its 1400 year history that its adherents only pause long enough to regroup for the next attack. That by sword, or by immigration, they will continue to advance, divide, conquer.
“Radical Islam should be viewed with the same intolerance as the KKK.”
THIS x 10000000000000000000000000000
When dealing with Moslems non Moslems, that is Infidels, must always keep in mind that Moslems believe that Infidels are evil, dirty, unscrupulous sinners existing only to serve as slaves to Moslems. Moslems are enjoined by their Koran to hide these feelings if the Infidels are more powerful than they are but to express them remorselessly when the Moslems are more powerful. For example, look at the by now well known brutality which Moslems inflict on their housekeepers. There is no end to the horror stories about how Moslem homeowners keep their Infidel maids and housekeepers in a state of slavery, physically and often sexually abusing them, withholding their pay, confining them to the house they work in, and sometimes even killing them. And when the Moslems tire of them or just want to rid themselves of paying their debt, they load them into a car and dump them in the countryside or simply murder them.
Unfortunately, most Christian and Jewish outreach and interfaith leaders don’t even realize that their Moslem counterparts see them as corrupt and decayed, because they do not react that way to others they cannot imagine that anyone religious would react that way to them.
The mosque being planned for Ground Zero is seen and revered by Moslems as a sign of perhaps the biggest Moslem victory over the hated and loathed Christian and Jewish Infidel since the Middle Ages and to supplant the reverence that Infidels have towards the site. This is the only reason that the Moslems want to build it, just as they built mosques on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, to commemmorate their victory over the Jews and to supplant the reverence that Jews have for the site.
Unfortunately the Moslems will probably be victorious at Ground Zero too.
Remember:Just before Theo van Gogh(infidel) was slaughtered by Mohammed B.,he said…’but,we can TALK’.
I find it absolutely appalling that anyone could actually allow a mosque at ground zero. Not one muslim will look at America and say, “Are they not just so wonderful and tolerant.” It is a slap in the face of all Americans. And those that go along with it are being used, but there is no excuse for them.
Here’s what goes on in Mosques
http://newstime.co.nz/undercover-mosque-the-return-trailer.html
The Cordoba Initiative is also The Cordoba Question: Are the powerful in the United States willing to see Islam for what it does and act on that?
The answer is No.
Instead those who approved the mosque at the WTC are proving to the world that spiritual weakness and moral corruption underlie and make temporary the colossal strength of the United States. The same is true of those described who participate in the interfaith dialogues with Muslims who are deceiving them.
The answer is not so much NO, as it seems to be DON’T KNOW. The victims of Islamic aggression often forget what it is that they have lost.
People simply forget history, and the story repeats itself. All this happened a thousand times (in India, Malaya, Jakarta, Bali, Kashmir, East Africa, the Maghreb and now in the USA).
Islam keeps on winning, spreading, conquering. Submission to Islam is so compelling that denying a place for it is nearly unavoidable. And the way Muslims submit to their own faith is so total and hypnotic, the non-believers stand no chance. Even bystanders get drawn into the drama of the faithful. Once you let the true believers into the room, the others stand no chance of freedom of thought. They fall victim to delusion, loss of faith, and fake tolerance. Eventually a mass Stockholm Syndrome sets in. That has been the pattern throughout history. Once the towers fell, Islam set foot in already! What’s one to do, then?
It is at times tempting to get one’s self into a Gerald Ford mood, and say to NYC ‘drop dead, you’re a lost cause.’
The true solution, in reality, though is simply to keep talking about it. Keep asking questions, raise the issue, never let up, and just keep going.
History didn’t seem to have helped Catholics, Hindus, Jews, and Buddhists. Secular Americans, are they a breed apart?
May be, as the man said, America Alone, will stand firm and go against the grain of history.
Muslims should never be allowed into democracies in the first place. It is a totalitarian culture diametrically opposed to freedom. The anti-culture of the West is enamored with them for attacking the traditionalist (my enemies enemy) and can flatter themselves for being “tolerant” without pain. Same thing in Europe. Mercifully, the game is coming to an end because the money is running out in a West addicted to extravagance we can no longer afford. The anti-culture will mount increasingly hysterical charges of racism against humane traditionalists.
Interesting piece. Well done, Chesler!
When it comes to interfaith dialogue, you must ask yourself–are you guilty by association? Good-intentioned people like Rabbi Arthur Schneier will met with controversial figures to Israel and Jews in general. Many, i’m sure, protest. And he’s couragous to do so. By him, over the years doing so, he has managed to, at least at the UN, build bridges. Whether these “bridges” amount to anything is another question. At the same time, he legitimizes those who he meets with. So…although his motives are good, the outcome may be bad?
Also, certainly, many can and will take offense to the location of a mosque so close to Ground Zero. But I like a comment to the article that by allowing the mosque to be built there that it shows the West is tolerant. On the flip side, again, boy is it offensive and, to highlight another comment, it’s a prime location by Islamic extremists plotting something.
At sacred ground zero where war was declared on hated infidel America. Where 3,000 of our precious American brothers and sisters were cruelly murdered in the name of Islam’s god, Muslims aided and abetted by non-Muslims, seek to honor Islam and Islam’s god with a mosque yards from the place of Islamic barbaric mass murder. It is profoundly evil.
Rudy Giuliani would never put up with this crap.
You said it!
jews in germany in the 30′s denied reality until the inevitable came to pass and it was too late. these mosques are havens for monsters and the site of an act of war by moslems against the west and against jews, displays their arrogance and hatred. it is in the culture of islam to lie to the infidel, making any dialogue with them empty of all meaning. cutting out their moslem tongues. now, that would make sense to support.
the wolf at our door, and he bares his teeth and they want us to believe they are smiling at us. a mosque at ground zero is simply jihad.
Stockholm Syndrome.
One key is to never, ever elect ultra-rich knotheads like the current incumbent to the office of Mayor of New York. In modern times New York got the right Mayor once. Not a very impressive record. Same could be said for Governor of New York.
Footnote: You think he isn’t a knothead? Isn’t he the one who wants to outlaw marshmallows, etc? He is much much more concerned about fat kids than uneducated kids, when educated kids are much more likely to control their own weight. He is completely ineffective at controlling New York’s budget. One could go on, but why bother. New York will probably elect a new knothead, Cuomo, soon.
A. When Muslims achieved total victory; they desecrated the defeated people’s Holy Places and converted them to Mosques. They did just that on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (AKA in the Obama Administration as Al Quods), In Hebron’s Graves of the Patriarchs, in Andalusia (Spain) and in Asia Minor (Turkey). In line with this tradition, The Muslims would have liked to build their new Mosque, The Cordoba House, on the foot print of No 1 World Center. Since they have not achieved total victory as yet (wait until the 20% of the world population arrives at our shores), they settled for second best, the current site.
B. The list of Jewish “interfaith” activists and organizations that was described in this article is amazing but not surprising. The core problem is very simple; Jews are ashamed and embarrassed of being Jewish. In The US, I don’t know any fourth or fifth generation secular Jew that is still Jewish. They all intermarried and in most cases their children were christened by their non Jewish spouses. This situation is common to other countries where Jews were accepted (where are the Rothschild’s? How about the Donnelly’s –Don Ely). Jews are very smart individually. But collectively, they are so delusional and stupid that they are an embarrassment
Dr. Chesler states:
“Jews are especially tempted by the idea of an “interfaith dialogue.” Why? Because it means that as long as one is still talking, the pogrom has not yet started. Also, despite a long and terrible history of being persecuted and murdered, Jews still continue to believe that reason, ideas, charm, even cleverness still have the power to triumph over genocidal hatred. Jews also believe that listening to the “other,” trying to understand his pain, will lead the lion to lie down with the lamb.”
As usual, Dr. Chesler is spot on in her analysis of the most pernicious illness that has plagued the Jewish nation since time immemorial. The desire of the Jew to be loved and embraced by the world even at their own expense is one addiction that has proved to be an insurmountable emotional obstacle on the road to becoming a “normal” nation.
People like Arthur Waskow, Michael Lerner, Arthur Schneier, Michael Gottsegen and Bradley Hirschfield are a mere concept. They are representative of a larger and more insidious problem; namely the Jewish liberal and left wing intelligentsia who historically have pandered to our enemies in order to slake their urgent need for acceptance.
Rabbi Hirschfield’s association with Imam Abdul Rauf and Muzzammil Hassan come as no surprise. The pages of Jewish history are replete with Hirschfields and others of his ilk. In their patently distorted views of what authentic Jewish concepts are or represent, they lead their flocks down the primrose path to annihilation as they carve the trajectory to yet another “final solution”. Mired in their own belief of their moral rectitude, they remain intransigent when it comes to listening to reason based on historical facts. Discerning truth from falsehood is not relevant as they transform into lemmings who feverishly and fervently race to “the cliff” in order to obliterate any notion that Jews are “racist” or not “politically correct”.
In this particular case, the thought of building a mosque at ground zero is a most tantalizing one for them. After all, support of this project will prove to the world that the Jews; sans an iota of bigotry, prejudice or intolerance are in the visible forefront of allowing a religion predicated on animus to thrive, despite the nefarious ramifications to their own people that are implicit here
Woe unto such a self-loathing people who don’t have a clue about the mind set of the world as it pertains to them. Simply put: If you want the world’s love, you first have to earn their respect and how does one earn respect? By having self-respect !!
Thank G-d for the clarity that Dr. Chesler provides
ISlam has noplace for other religions why our leaders and intellectual,media are fooling public about interfaith. Do any interfaith dialogue going on in any islamic antion. This is good till they take your land away.
Growing up in Mormon Utah, I have always understood the necessity to distinguish between spiritual religion and corporate religion. While there are some religions whose public actions remain in accordance with their spiritual creeds, I see more and more instances of amoral religions who function as corporations, rather than spiritual communities, who use their spiritually superior status to justify backwards business and religious habits. Why should it be considered progressive to confer with a religion that has reduced the western world to the land of Satan and infidels? Not all Muslims are Islamists, but to agree to and support the building of mosque next to the fallen World Trade Towers, shows an inability to reason—surely Islamists in America will flock to this mosque. For them, it is a ground of victory; if the mosque is built, it too may be counted as a victory for the Islamists. Why are prominent rabbis engaging in parlay with men like Muzzammil Hassan, the wife-beater? I agree very much with your note that there are few, if any, examples of peaceful Muslims who are also heads of religious headed corporations. Yes, engaging in discussion with Muslim extremists exemplifies (to an extent) western progressiveness, but it also exposes a major weakness. Is it better to appear progressive, or to be smart? If I thought good, peaceful, and progressive Muslims would be among those to worship at the mosque at ground zero, perhaps I would be less opposed to the project. As it is, I think the mosque, should it go up, will be an example of western over-leniency and America’s dangerous tendency to preserve our image of tolerance instead of acting smart and as a voice of reason.
The interactions between the heads of other religions with the leaders of the Muslim faith mimic liaisons between business heads. This mosque is not a product of spirituality, nor is it a testament to an emerging peace between Jews, Christians, and Muslims—it is the result of shady business transactions between greedy CEOs.
The imam says his plan open a mosque on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 next to Ground Zero is to ” to heal wounds, not open them.”
I believe that the imam is a liar, or and his
“Jewish” accomplices are morons.
These are like the German “jews” who said “don’t worry about Hitler” and then a few years later they were the Judenrat making lists of who worked and who went in the cattle cars.
This mosque is “healing” the way burning a koran every day for the next 10 years is “healing”.
The Imam and his kapos are URINATING ON OUR WOUNDS.
They want to be “healing”?
Get 10,000 muslims to march out in a field (IN ANYPLACE BUT NYC) EVERY 9/11, AND LET THEM BEG AMERICA’S FORGIVENESS FOR WHAT THEIR “RELIGION” DID TO US.
The imam BLAMED America for 9/11, and then he ran around the country (with his “jewish” accomplices) and around the muslim world raising money so they could POUR ACID ON OUR WOUNDS.
The “jews” supporting this “mosque” are hypocrites and evil men and women playing on the liberal guilt of the leftists / useful idiots who live in NYC, and who have decided will back the muslims play so they get their support for another UN socialist plan to tax America further into the grave.
I curse all of them.
Regardless of what this mosque symbolizes to Americans, the fact is that building a mosque at the site of Ground Zero is the jihadists’ wet dream. The counter-argument is that the mosque site is in fact two blocks away from where the twin towers once stood, but the only reason the building was for sale in the first place was that a chuck of one of the hijacked plane’s landing gear fell through the roof and devastated it. That’s close enough. Until American Muslims make it resoundingly clear to the anti-Western Muslim extremists that they can go to hell, that they disavow them, that they are not kinsmen before God, that they are not part of the same group in any meaningful way, they shouldn’t be surprised when their flourishing in this country gets seen as triumphalism rather than success and is feared rather than admired.
I agree with Dr. Chesler’s points. Why is the city of New York being fooled into having a mosque at Ground Zero?
Is this any way to honor our 3000 dead or our fallen soldiers in the war against jihadists in Afghanistan and Iraq?
Too many of the imams are radical Islamists, like she says. They should not be here, practicing hate speech, especially not at or near Ground Zero.
The Jews involved in the Cordoba Project are as Jewish as
the Amalekites. The Christians involved in the Cordoba Project are as Christian as the Amalekites.
What more needs to be said?
Dear Phyllis
I can hardly believe it–a mosque at Ground Zero?!? What chutspa!
Then I think some more: yes, it’s really very easy to believe that those who lie, dissimulate and twist the truth in every which way would want to do this, some perhaps even believing their own momentary flush of good will.
But the others, those who lost their loved ones and friends, those whose lives have been forever altered by the endless wave of jihadist terrorism sweeping over the world like a tsunami, those who ought to remember all the disasters of the past hundred years and all the fools who proclaimed “It is impossible” and Let’s be nice and there will be peace in our time”–how can they march so blindly into the jaws of death?
It makes one want to weep in frustration.
Norman
The site choice is not accidental. The movers behind it are complicit fronts for the “religion of peace,” which means only the “peace” of submission. This mosque, at that location, adjacent to Ground Zero, is intended to be a symbol of conquest. Chesler has demonstrated that the movers behind the mosque are first-class liars and snake-oil salesmen. The non-Muslims involved in the promotion and approval of the mosque are dhimmis. This mosque is Islam giving America the finger. They know they can get away with it because dhimmis are protecting them.
One good explanation as to why so many Jewish liberals get duped by our enemies on a regular basis was given to me in the ealry 1970′s by a Russian Jewish emigre’ to America, Leonid Tarrusuk (Former curate of Medieval Arms at the Hermitage).
He said:
“We too have our asses”.
As Americans, we had better put a screeching halt on the building of this NY City mosque, and all other places in the USA. As Americans, we need to shut down the Souther Border of the USA, secure our ports, and then enforce immigration laws strenuously and get back to some fiscal and social sanity in the USA. We now have politicians who are openly anti-USA, including our own elected POTUS. we now have members of congress, such as the entire congressional black caucus, who embrace Castro and other communist dictators. We now have subversives at all levels of government, who are subverting this nation openly. We now have illegal invaders who openly riot and protest, and burn U.S. flags and raising foreign flags. We have terrorist groups such as LaRaza, a Latinon racist organization, declaring that the Southwest USA belongs to Mexicon. We now have high school teachers who are teaching students that they, the Latino students, should raise arms against the USA. We now have Muslims infiltrating our country silently waiting until the time is right for them to act. And, we have a lot of complacent citizens who are still watching TV while rioting is going on in the streets.
Wake Up America. We have to take our country back, and we have to look at Islam for what it is: A subversive foreign religious-political organization that has world domination as it’s primary aim. We have to outlaw this terrorist organization posing as a religion. We have to put an end to LaRaza, a foreign racist organization that is bent on subverting this nations laws. We have foreign invaders who do not recognize our traditions, values, culture, language or borders. It is time to Take This Country back, and then Clean House of all these Illegal Invaders from Mexico, From the Middle East, Eastern Europe or any other place where elements hostile to this nation come from. Wake Up America. We have to take this country back. That is why we have to begin electing True Conservative American Patriots. The goons and subversives in DC have sold out the rest of the country, and Obama is the lead subversive.
I’m trying to talk a Spanish friend of mine into writing an essay about how truly evil it is to name this project “Cordoba”.
Even now, Islam is pressing Spain’s government to give the cathedral “back” to them because it was once a mosque. Of course, before Islam invaded the territory and copnverted it into a mosque, the building had been consecrated as a Christian cathedral. And before that, the cathedral was probably built on the site of an earlier cultic structure.
Any territory, even a graveyard, once ceded to a Muslim becomes part of the Ummah in perpetuity. It cannot be reclaimed. Thus, to Islam, Cordoba belongs to the Ummah. And now they will have a Cordoba in the New World to match the one they will eventually take back from Spain. They never give up.
My friend, now an American citizen and one who lived through 9/11, is stricken at the placement of the mosque and equally so its evil implications for the Cordoba of his native home.
We Americans don’t know much European history, but we certainly are going to learn…by re-living it.
There wasw a character in the old marvel comics called the Hate Monger, who wore a purple hood and had a hate ray. When they took the hood off, it was Adolf Hitler. Its an allegory, Chesler. You can look that word up. And put your hood back on, your mustache is showing.
Ooooh, you compared someone to Hitler! How devastatingly witty!
principal levine, this is your teacher,”Put away your comic book and pay attention so you can learn something useful. Otherwise, one day when asked to comment intelligently, all you’ll have to say is a quote from a comic book.”
If you’re strongest rebuttal to Ms. Chesler’s serious charges is a reference from a comic book, what does that say about your life or educational experience?
Oh those grand eloquent, wise and all seeing New Yorkers. Why didn’t the rest of us see that Islam is just misunderstood, that Islamists actually mean no harm and they have centuries of persecution to work off. Why putting a mosque in the heart of NYC within spitting distance of Ground Zero is just the most natural thing in the world to do. Us knuckle dragging neanderthals out here in flyover country are just too dumb to really understand what is going on. So I say let them build their mosque. A nice one, a big one. And then let’s see how long it will be before young men are being taught to hate America and Israel by Clerics who hate America and Israel, and who teach terrorist 101 and suicide bombing 101. And how long it will be be before allowing a non-Muslim to walk anywhere near the grand new mosque is considered highly insulting to Muslims so must be stopped. Oh those brilliant brilliant New yawkers.
1) “According to Joan Brown Campbell, “building so close is owning the tragedy. It’s a way of saying we want to be here to repair the breach, as the Bible says.” But that’s Campbell speaking.”
– I wonder if a non murdered Person liked a religious Building to be built on his/her Grave, a Building of a Religion he/she doesn’t belong to.
I wonder what about a murdered Person …
and one murdered by a Killer belonging to the Religion of the above mentioned Building, and acting in the Name of his/her God, being a religious Ideologue.
*
2) “Muslims conquered by the sword. They forcibly converted many of the existing Christians and Jews. Under Islamic rule, or under Shari’a law, both Christians and Jews were considered civil inferiors, sub-humans. Muslims routinely massacred them.”
– ’till we/People do not spread the Truth about Islamic/-ist History, the History of (non peaceful) Jihad, how do we expect (Western Non-islamic/-ist) Citizens to rebel against Islamic/-ist Buildings? And against Islamic/-ist Ideology?
Ignorance[*] still dominate Citizens, and ignorant Citizens still (wanting to) believe in the “Peacefulness and Tolerance” of past and present Islam/-ism (Evidences of the Opposite – worldwide – get accurately denied, hided/veiled/covered/shrouded, [*]out of Cowardice/political Correctness or Fear/Terror).
*
– Reliable Human Rights Activists belonging to Islamic “Religion”? As soon as they (Males and Females) will (consequently)
criticize Islamic[**] past and present Jihadi History,
then they’ll be really/truly/trustfully/taqyyialess reliable.
[**]See: Allah, Muhammad, Shahada, Koran, Sunnah/Shia, Hadiths, Sirah, ….
*
Have a delightful Day and Life.
Even if a decent majority of Muslims in this country disapprove of what their Jihadist co-religionists are up to it is better to be safe rather than sorry and end all Muslim immigration to this country. As long as the US government treats Muslim atrocities as isolated criminal events their co-religionists will have the freedom they need to plan and support them, and the aspirations of the former are not far from those of the latter when it comes to building a mosque near Ground Zero. Even if they believe a mosque here is a slam dunk great idea their moral insensitivity shows through like a scantily clad hooker in a packed Sunday church service. In truth the selection of this site is about getting close to one of Islam’s greatest triumphs in the homeland of the great Unbeliever. Worshippers would draw on the triumphant vibes of their co-religionists, or maybe they just want to memorialize the deaths of their martyrs? Either way it doesn’t matter. One just doesn’t know what these people are up to, but it’s safe to say it’s not good.
I’m looking forward to Phyllis Chesler’s stirring condemnation of the kind of people who flock to her essay, condemning “Islime” and playing amateur anti-Imam with Islamist ideology. Maybe a list of questions to be answered by anyone planning to build a church, mosque, or synagogue – or putting up a blog post – anywhere, alongside examination of all their associates for correct political thinking, would help everyone else avoid the “danger of interfaith dialogue,” too.
It’s true that medieval Cordoba, up to 1 million people, didn’t meet contemporary American standards of freedom of conscience, speech, association, and political expression (the ones that Chesler and the Islamophobes would like to set back). Islam was spread by the sword in those days. Like every other religion and culture. In Cordoba, Jews and Christians were second-class citizens. In much of the rest of the world, the “other” was simply not allowed to exist at all. The Mongols would have killed them all and constructed a tower with their skulls. The Byzantines particularly liked to split the tongues and put out the eyes of troublesome dissenters and castrate rivals for power. The Spanish and English would in later years give those who had not been killed or expelled a chance to prove that they had avoided the dangers of interfaith dialogue under torture.
Watching what happens to Everyone else in islamized Contries,
it’s quite obvious that any kind of so called Islamic/-ist Tolerance in (conquered …) Cordoba,
is a Fairy Tale.
For those who like to believe in (dangerous) Fairy Tales (a.k.a. Utopias).
Let Islam show that it respect Others, their Land, their Culture(s),
then we will maybe believe that a tolerant Islamic/-ist Cordoba ever existed.
Bye.
These “dialogues” …
Nobody else needs them but the mohammedans. The rest of us just hang out when one of our theological guys gets a bug to learn the next guy’s doctrine. Usually you don’t ever even hear about it.
You know the sort of stuff I mean, mindfulness meditiation and prayer, a Christian perspecitve, that sort of business.
And nobody is ever very specific about what the mohammedan “dialogue” subject is. It’s always some vague, almost meaningless saccharine verbiage.
I’ll get interested when they declare a dialogue to establish a bible study program or a Buddhist sutra study program for mohammedans.
I’ll get interested when they declare a dialogue to discuss what to cut out of the Hadiths to bring mohammedanism more closely in step with the world’s normal morality.
It’s always phony crap.
I do very much appreciate all the work that went into the detailed and clear refutation that P. Chesler posted.
I find it quite audacious on the part of Muslims to build a Mosque at ground zero. I would have to really stretch my imagination to even given them the benefit of doubt.
Surely, they really aren’t expecting some “interfaith dialog” or what have you ? Are they totally insensitive to the feelings of Americans ?
Doesn’t anyone bother to ask the Imam the hard questions ? (What does he think of Sharia ? What is the reason for 9/11 ?)
If only the folks there had some basic common sense (you know, the kind that made America a great nation), things would never come to this. You’d recognize the obvious threat of radical Islam for what it is.
-A reader from India
Something more to ponder over …
For those who have ever seen an “Interfaith dialog” vis-a-vis Islam, you’d know that it was anything but a “dialog”. It’s an excuse for a show of supremacy.
At the basis of Islam is the fundamental faith that non-Muslims of all varieties (regardless of their individual moral standings) are nothing more than cannon fodder for Allah’s hell. That’s the long and short of interfaith dialog. Everything else is covering that horseshit.
I am reminded of a famous interview with an Imam in pre-independence India. The Imam very emphatically proclaimed that ANY Muslim is far better that Mahatma Gandhi, merely on account of the Muslim’s belonging to the right religion, and regardless of any amount of integrity of the latter.
Oh, why bother.. Americans seem to want their own destruction.
-A reader from India
Thank you for your view and understanding. An American. I am not for building an inter-faith Muslim center near the area of where the WTC was. It is not right there in the middle of the once was WTC as many of the comments say, it is further away then a few blocks. Besides, Muslim’s had nothing to do with the destruction of the WTC. The same group that is stirring up the horseshit mess in the Middle East are the ones that did it, with compliance from the US government at the time. My comment does not make me a fan of the Muslim religion! http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/assembling-the-evidence-for-high-liklihood-of-coming-third-world-war/
jamesat17, don’t you know standridge loves the Jews? Without them he’d have to get an honest job to make money. Lucky for him pedaling hate still makes money. Google all the places where he pedaled his nonsense for some silver.
If you think the WTC bombers weren’t muslims, then I can see why you believe standridge’s strange unsupported assertions.