In an Article written for this column by my partner Ira Schwartz last September entitled “Hallowed Ground”, regarding the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11/01, Mr. Schwartz stated:
“Many say the United States simply does not understand the people of the Middle East. I say it is the Middle Eastern countries that fail to understand the people of the United States. Americans can scream and yell at each other, even severely criticize their leaders, but when you threaten us we unite as one behind our government.”
However, what does the United States do when its leader seems to betray the very will of the people and displays no patriotism whatsoever? This is just what seemed to happen over the weekend when the President took a stance in favor of Islamic Terrorism and, as mayor Bloomberg in New York also did, supported the building of a mosque at Ground Zero. Is the entire country going to back our President or is it going to put him in his place?
Well he got the answer to this question the hard way. President Obama has been under constant criticism from the public and by political commentators since making his statements. As a result, he has taken an about face and changed his position completely on the mosque. Maybe he finally gets it? Or, maybe he never truly will. After all, one has to love one’s country to truly understand this. Evidence suggests our leader does not.
The issue here is not whether the building of a Mosque is legal at Ground Zero; the issue is one of respect. Ground Zero is “Hallowed Ground” and should be treated as such. It is a National Memorial to an unprovoked attack on our soil. It should be treated that way both by the populace and by its elected leaders. The populace gets it.
In a free society where all religions are free to practice like in the United States, the building of a place of worship on private property is legal. And, the proposed site of the Ground Zero Mosque is private property. So, legally it is ok. Mr. Obama was correct in this analysis on Saturday. But, as usual, he failed to use his emotion if he has any. He failed to think like an American, if he is one. And, he failed to think about the fallen or their surviving loved ones, if he really cares.
As stated earlier, the question here is not whether building the mosque is legal; it is one of respect. And, to build the mosque on the proposed site is like giving the perpetrators of the most violent attack on American Soil by a foreign power, a monument to their glory and success. It should simply be unheard of. Jihadists always build mosques at the site of their victories and to them this is the greatest victory of all time. We should not allow them to claim this as a victory in such a way.
Last week, a court in New York determined that the building currently standing on the proposed site should not be considered a historic landmark. I simply cannot understand this argument. To those of you who are not aware, the building was damaged on 9/11. In fact, the landing gear of one of the planes that plowed into the Twin Towers hit the building. To me, this building is a historic landmark. It is the equivalent of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor. It should be memorialized for all time as such. It should not be a legal question for the City of New York to declare it as such. It should be a National Monument declared as such by the Justice Department or the Department of the Interior. This is a Federal Question and not one of States’ Rights. You would think President Obama would at least understand when the Federal Government should have the power.
But, our President does not see it that way. He stated on Saturday that the owner of the property has the legal right to build the mosque and that he would not get in its way. Of course, as with most things, Mr. Obama did not anticipate the American populace. After two days of constant complaining about his comments, Mr. Obama is back peddling and is now saying what he should have said earlier. That it is not in good taste and although it is legal, it is not necessarily the right thing to do.
However, in my opinion, this is not enough. Mr. Obama should instruct one of his many czars to start the process necessary to have the land declared a National Monument. If he does not do so, he is simply spitting in the face of the 3,000 that died. And, remember, this is different from Pearl Harbor. These were innocent civilians. Ground Zero was not a military target.
Mr. Obama: It’s about respect and reverence. Maybe it is time you got some.
© 2010 by Frank DeMartini
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Frank;
Let’s please discuss a few essential facts. First, the building being proposed here is NOT a mosque but a community center. Second unless we have decided to deem all of Manhattan as hallowed ground this whole argument is moot. The actual location is two blocks from the ACTUAL ground zero and one would have to strain and peer through buildings to even be able to see the community center from the site of the terror attack. Those are just a few facts that are being skewed right now.
The other issue which is appalling to me presently is the fact that much of the anti-Obama hype right now speaks of a stricter adherence to our constitutional values and his egregious departures from such. So let me understand this; the constitution IS enormously important to you folks UNLESS it interferes with your principles or objectives? Additionally I’ve read time and time again on this blog that what is needed now is less government intervention and more issues being decided on a local level. Yet you write that you want the government to step in on this local issue and take measures which will produce the end result a group of people find appropriate.
Bottom Line: That property owner has every legal right to build whatever he chooses providing the necessary zoning criteria are met. You and many like-minded folks may not agree with that decision but unless you have financial investment in the property you have no say. End of discussion!
All this whole frenzy has managed to do is to alienate a group of people, fellow citizens of this country, and ostracize them just for who they are. What’s next? Shall we gather them up and denounce their citizenships, or put them in internment camps to isolate them from the population at-large? Lest we forget that the whole reason George W. Bush told us we needed to engage in war in Iraq was to free the citizens there and offer them a better way of life. Yes, leave the blood of over 4000 of our own soldiers over there to fight for a better way of life for the MUSLIMS who live in Iraq, but dear god don’t allow those who are actually citizens of our country the same legal rights as everyone else enjoys. Am I the only one who sees the contradiction in terms here?
I’ve heard and read a lot of ridiculous associations with this President and Hitler since he took office. The argument being made here speaks more to a Hitler-esque mindset than anything I’ve seen out of Washington to date.
Deborah,
Let me start by quoting your opening statement, “Let’s please discuss a few essential facts. First, the building being proposed here is NOT a mosque ”
Where do you get your information? The building is a combination community center with a “MOSQUE” built inside. You can Google this and find in 100 places in a row that say it “IS” in fact a Mosque! so your point or points start off badly.
Frank is speaking of a moral situation here and I get if some don’t. I know what you’re saying about letting this interfere with proper decision making and how we want less Government while at the same time wanting the Government to step in and make a change. “Logged and Noted”. However the frustration here is more like when a referee calls the second foul and not the first that provoked it. If our President didn’t get involved in the first place there would be no need to ask anything of him or of the Government. Once again he is stepping in and even though the vast majority of American say “NO” to the Mosque he takes the other side. Thus we have to request that he take another course of action when we would have preferred he stay out of it all together (picture that).
I have defended him since day one and given him the benefit of the doubt on this board as well as others but I for one am done making excuses for him.
The only reason I saw something good in this President was the thought of change. He promised an encrypted voting system so the American people would have a voice on key issues that involved their lives and futures and instead he has bucked the peoples majority on issue after issue and silenced the people when ever possible. Quite frankly…he is a liar. I will have no part of his games. If he does something good…that’s great but he has lost both my confidence and respect. He earned that and so I gave it to him.
Bruce;
The building being proposed is a 13-story structure which will include, among other things, a culinary school and a basketball court. The top one or two floors will be reserved for praying areas.
For the record, I don’t see this as a moral issue at all. It’s about a property owner four blocks away from a tragic event in our history. That property owner didn’t have a thing to do with that tragedy he just happens to share the same ethnic qualities as those who were responsible. Armed with the RIGHT information I’m not sure your polling results on this matter would remain the same. Unfortunately those attempting to fan the flames of dissension ONCE AGAIN have decided to fire up the rhetoric. Actually I’m disappointed that so many don’t research the issues but rather just swallow the lies being fed to them so completely and willingly without a single regard for the truth.
I can find more than 100 pages on the net which state the POTUS is not a US citizen, does that make it a fact?
Deb: it is a mosque. The community center is just a part of it. However, it is also a national monument in the same was as Mount Rushmore and the USS Arizona. Would you plant a “Flag of the Rising Sun” near the USS Arizona. Hell no! Same thing.
There is evidence that these terrorists plant mosques at the sites of the greatest victories.
If you read my article carefully, I am not questioning the legality of the mosque. I’m questioning the morality of it. As you know from my prior posts, I am completely for the Bill of Rights unlike the ACLU which only protects those rights that further its political agenda. This is not a Freedom of Religion issue. It is a moral issue and one of respect. I beg you to agree with this.
Franky,
It’s pretty clear that Deborah is not going to see it that way. She would rather dig through the internet and find pages that say “POTUS is not a US citizen” and make light of the fact that I said the first 100 searches on the subject say it’s a Mosque.
For God’s sake “IT’S A MOSQUE” If it’s built why don’t you mosey on in and explain to those keeling Arabs that is not a Mosque and report back their response.
I think the moral issue is clear here but I have to play the Devil’s advocate for one moment. The attack on The World Trade Center has been compared many times to the attack on Pearl Harbor and some one made comments that it would be like building a Japanese center of some type at Pearl Harbor next to the Arizona. When in fact the first shot at Pearl Harbor was the sinking of a Japanese submarine out near the entrance to Pearl Harbor. We have since found that sunken sub and as far as I know we have not raised it (in shallow water) to return either the sub or the bodies inside because we have deemed it a memorial to the fallen sailors inside. Is that not similar in some ways to this? Just asking..
For the record …I don’t agree with either of them but some times when you do something a certain way it sets the pace for similar situations. My Uncle Frank was on the USS Oklahoma (thought for years he was on the Arizona) and that sub was coming to kill him and everyone else. No friends of mine!
Frank,
You know what will happen if that Mosque is built? It most likely won’t be without protests from the victims families, as well as individuals that will without a doubt try and demo it to the ground! It will however be a great site for our FBI agents on surveillance.
“We Muslims know the Ground Zero mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation”
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/Mischief+Manhattan/3370303/story.html#ixzz0wtOtymHv
Nobody disputes their right to build and we certainly don’t want the government to intervene. But we know and they know this is a test “F-U” directed squarely at our society.
Lynn; I so desperately wanted that article to be based on truth and fairness and then my eyes fell upon the following words; “bleeding heart liberals like Mayor Bloomberg”.
There’s a statement which will cause all to walk over to your side of the argument, won’t it? I can’t and won’t see it like you folks do, I’m sorry. I will defend your right to say anything you want to, just please respect my right not to embrace it. It’s just that simple..
If the shoe fits … What precisely, do you object to? The characterization of Bloomberg or the recognition of what this mosque really means?
Fine Deborah. You have every right to close your eyes, put your fingers in your ears and shout, “Lalalalalalalalalalaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”. You have every right to see the truth and deny it.
The rest of us are looking around with eyes wide open, doing research, getting all sides, like this guy:
MORE ON THE MOSQUE
By Neal Boortz @ August 18, 2010 8:53 AM
Some are asking why the Imam who is behind this Mosque isn’t speaking out more.
Why isn’t he?
Why SHOULD he?
Why in the world should Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf insert himself into this controversy when he has the Mayor of New York, the President of the United States, the New York Times and so many others arguing the case for him? If I had that much firepower behind my plans I would lay lot too!
Since the Imam isn’t talking about the Mosque … maybe you can just rely on some of the things he has already done and said. Perhaps you might like to consider the support he has shown for the Islamic terrorist organization known as Hamas. Maybe you might even want to read his book. In America his book is titled “What’s Right with Islam is What’s Right with America.” Or maybe you might like to read that very same book in Arabic! They didn’t use the same title .. the book is the same, but the title is different. If you get the Arabic version of the Imam’s book the title will be “A Call for Dawa from the World Trade Center Rubble” Now the only part of that phrase you might not understand is the word “Dawa.” So let’s replace that word with one that infidels will understand and re-state the title to the Imam’s book:
“A Call For The Spread of Islam From the World Trade Center Rubble”
Yup .. that’s the guy behind the World Trade Center Mosque! That’s the guy your taxpayer dollars are being spent to fly around the world on some sort of strange diplomatic mission. A Muslim Imam who wants to gather Muslims in the rubble of the World Trade Center to pray for the spread of Islam. How very wonderful.
Now remember .. a part of that rubble was the very building that is going to house this Mosque in New York City. The landing gear from the aircraft Muhammad Atta flew into Tower One crashed through the roof of the building in question. Who knows? Maybe they’ve saved some rubble from that very building to enhance their prayer for the spread of Islam experience.
Letting them build that mosque there and under the pretenses surrounding the situation will only show them we are weak and divided which is what they count on.
It’s like both parents not being in sync while disciplining a child. They learn divide and conquer pretty quickly.
We need to send a strong message here but its so sad that politicians are so weak and only worry about votes and elections and not class and dignity. The American way is drying up day by day right before our eyes and it’s sad to know our own spineless politicians are the cause.
This Feisal Abdul Rauf whom you question why he would “insert” himself into this situation is the property owner. He is the only one who actually belongs there, all others weighing in pro or con are the ones inserting themselves unnecessarily.
Also are you or anyone else on this blog aware of the fact that he has been working with the FBI for the past decade to help them crackdown on domestic terror threats to our country? Kind of blows those whole “they’re out to get us again” or “they want to rub it in our faces” theories right out of the water doesn’t it?
Honestly I am really not interested in the semantics of this whole issue in as much as I am interested a person’s god-given rights. FOR ME, the emotion and sentiment should not take precedence over a person’s rights as a property owner. I’m sure leaders such as Castro or Chavez would take a different stance but ours is not a government which is run like theirs and I don’t want it to ever become that way either.
I’ve read many comments over the last few months, some enlightening and some very saddening to me. Still I continue here, not to affect anyone’s way of thinking or degrade them for their beliefs. I come here in my attempt to see all sides of that proverbial coin and engage in an open dialogue regarding those “sides”.
That process does not include “close your eyes, put your fingers in your ears and shout, “Lalalalalalalalalalaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”. Comments like those merely minimize the level and tone of the discussion.
Okay Deb semantics aside….This is the same Feisal Abdul Rauf who loudly proclaimed that he does not believe Hamas is a terrorist organization then after 9/11 said America was to blame for it. Facts not semantics. Truth be told he is also the same Abdul Rauf that has PUBLICLY, though not quite as loudly as he proclaimed the above, tried to build “a bridge” between our two cultures. However he is also the Abdul Rauf who refuses to disclose the source of the funds to build this “Community Center”. Quite frankly there are too many contradictions by this man to take him at his word and the FBI is not known for making very good “Character assesments”. If this man wants to be trusted then he needs to speak the truth and be open about his affairs. So far, in my opinion, he has done neither. No one is disagreeing about his right to build this building they are just disagreeing with his motives.
I agree completely with Lynne Repko in her response to Deborah. Our whole society seems intent on being politically correct and going over board to view this situation as a black and white endeavor. ie: They own the property so mthey have a right to do what they want. I don’t see it that way. 3000 people lost their lives on that fateful day and as Americans we owe respect to their memory. To calously stand by with a blase attitude while the Muslims erect an in your face monument is simply unacceptible.
Ira; I am grateful for your response and the opportunity to continue this discussion on a more civil note.
Mr. Rauf is not the first or only person to say that America was to blame for 9/11. When. G. Bush Sr. took our troops into Iraq back in the early 90′s many in the middle east felt it was unfitting to do so as they considered the battle area “sacred ground”. It was shortly after when Osama Bin Laden proclaimed he would find vengeance for such an act, a fact commonly known both here and in the middle east. That is the origin of the proclamation you speak of. As to your comment regarding Mr. Rauf’s inability or lack of intent to divulge where the money is coming from for this venture, is this required of all developers in our society when a new structure is being proposed?
The only way this issue will be resolved to meet the cries of all those who deem it objectionable is to make the entire Island of Manhattan an historical landmark, or perhaps even the entire State of New York. Unless and until this is done, the man has a right to do as he chooses within the zoning guidelines, in my opinion,
PS For the record I do not agree this is an “in your face” structure when there currently exists in close proximity to the ground zero an actual mosque; no basketball court, no culinary school, just a prayer center, which has stood there for over 70 years. I suppose now we should insist that be torn down?
Actually the Mosque you are talking about was build in the early 1970′s. I just happeed to be there when it opened. And I did not say Rauf was the first to use that phrase only that he said it. And according to the Islamic radicals all of the Muslim countries are Hallowed Ground when it comes to infidels. Which includes you and me. And don’t you think it strange for a man that wants to better relations between our two cultures to publicly say the things he said. And if he has nothing to hide why won’t he devulge his funders. As I said to many inconsistancies.
Bruce, Politicians should stay completely out it.
If the imam refuses to budge, there’s nothing we can do about it and it would be wrong to attempt to force him to do otherwise. However, this isn’t about his property or religious rights, it’s about what is right.
I’m so very gratified to see people finally recognizing and speaking out against the destruction of our principles. It’s great to see people think about what they believe in, take a stand and be unafraid to express their views, as they have the right to do.
We certainly don’t have to remain silent when some religious imperialist control freak jabs a stick in our eye.
Lynn,
If you read my earlier post I also said Politicians should should stay out of it. But beings Obama is already in it (of course he is) I would ask him to reconsider his position. I also stated we would rather he stay out all together.
I was only saying that politicians are the reason for the entire country to be going down hill the way it is. No class, no dignity and no moral compass. Only a never ending election and the pursuit of popularity.
Darn- That’s you isn’t it-eyeswideopen.! Remember me- Fred67. You haven’t changed one bit- still the same old leftwing hack sticking up unequivocolly- even when usually completely wrong- for all things liberal, Obamaish, and frankly, stupid. You’re pathetic argument about the Mosque is not only insulting to millions of Americans, New Yorkers, and right minded people, it reeks of incorrect facts. And you know it. Why don’t you take a really close look at the current polls pertaining to the Mosque, Obama’s job performance, The Democratic Congress performance, ETC. When you’re done you can either apologize for insulting our intelligence or head out to the nearest brain store, because your’s is in serious need of repair or replacement. Shame on you!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-dPSh–CHU&feature=player_embedded
This is a song about the proposed mosque. This situation is about to explode and that is not necessarily a good thing.