Ground Zero Mosque Supported by Jewish Activists
A group of Jewish activists and community leaders voiced their support for a planned mosque near ground zero and said opponents, including the nation's leading Jewish civil rights group, are perpetuating misunderstandings about Islam.
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, of the Philadelphia-based Shalom Center, joined about 30 other religious leaders and Jewish activists Thursday at the spot where the Cordoba Initiative hopes to build an Islamic center that will include a mosque, an athletic center, a culinary school and art studios. Waskow says the mosque will help people learn more about Islam.
"Whenever there has been bloodshed allegedly in the name of one tradition or another, it's necessary to say, 'That's not what that tradition is about,'" Waskow, 76, said. "The Cordoba Initiative will keep saying that is not what Islam is about."
The mosque and community center would be located two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. SoHo Properties, a partner in the effort, purchased the property for nearly $5 million. Early plans call for a 13-story, $100 million Islamic center, of which the mosque would be a part.
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Big-name Republicans including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have criticized the plan, saying it is provocative for a mosque to be built so close to a spot where Islamic terrorists killed thousands. Former Rep. Rick Lazio, a Republican running for governor of New York, has questioned where funding for the project is coming from.
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group known for advocating religious freedom, also opposes the project.
"This is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right," the ADL said in a statement. "In our judgment, building an Islamic center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain - unnecessarily - and that is not right."
Waskow, an anti-war activist who has criticized Israel and lobbied for an independent Palestinian state, said he was disappointed by the ADL's opposition of the Islamic center.
"I was really surprised that the Anti-Defamation League opened the door to that kind of hatred," he said. "That door must be closed gently and firmly."
On Wednesday, a conservative advocacy group sued to try to stop the project.
At the rally Thursday, the Jewish leaders prayed, sang and presented housewarming gifts to Daisy Khan, a co-founder of the Cordoba Initiative. They said hundreds of people have signed on online statement in support of the mosque.
Khan said the center "will be dedicated to peace, tolerance and mutual understanding," but would not discuss how the center will be paid for. She thanked the plan's supporters, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. A city community board also voted overwhelmingly last spring to back the project, and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has also said he supports it.
AP Rabbi Arthur Waskow, of the Philadelphia-based Shalom Center, joined about 30 other religious leaders and Jewish activists Thursday at the spot where the Cordoba Initiative hopes to build an Islamic center that will include a mosque, an athletic center, a culinary school and art studios. Waskow says the mosque will help people learn more about Islam.
"Whenever there has been bloodshed allegedly in the name of one tradition or another, it's necessary to say, 'That's not what that tradition is about,'" Waskow, 76, said. "The Cordoba Initiative will keep saying that is not what Islam is about."
The mosque and community center would be located two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. SoHo Properties, a partner in the effort, purchased the property for nearly $5 million. Early plans call for a 13-story, $100 million Islamic center, of which the mosque would be a part.
More Mosque Coverage
White House Dodges "Ground Zero Mosque" Questions
Group to Challenge Ground Zero Mosque Decision
NYC Panel Clears Way for Ground Zero Mosque
Palin "Refudiate" Tweet on NYC Mosque Draws Fire
Proposed Mosque Near Ground Zero Stokes Debate
Big-name Republicans including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have criticized the plan, saying it is provocative for a mosque to be built so close to a spot where Islamic terrorists killed thousands. Former Rep. Rick Lazio, a Republican running for governor of New York, has questioned where funding for the project is coming from.
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group known for advocating religious freedom, also opposes the project.
"This is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right," the ADL said in a statement. "In our judgment, building an Islamic center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain - unnecessarily - and that is not right."
Waskow, an anti-war activist who has criticized Israel and lobbied for an independent Palestinian state, said he was disappointed by the ADL's opposition of the Islamic center.
"I was really surprised that the Anti-Defamation League opened the door to that kind of hatred," he said. "That door must be closed gently and firmly."
On Wednesday, a conservative advocacy group sued to try to stop the project.
At the rally Thursday, the Jewish leaders prayed, sang and presented housewarming gifts to Daisy Khan, a co-founder of the Cordoba Initiative. They said hundreds of people have signed on online statement in support of the mosque.
Khan said the center "will be dedicated to peace, tolerance and mutual understanding," but would not discuss how the center will be paid for. She thanked the plan's supporters, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. A city community board also voted overwhelmingly last spring to back the project, and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has also said he supports it.
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"Controversy is heating up on plans for building a giant, 15-story Islamic community center and mosque near Ground Zero.
Journalist Thomas Friedman and many others including New York's mayor consider the building of a mosque proof of American tolerance that will have positive impact on the Muslim world.
Yet others, myself included, say to the contrary that Radical Muslims and their sympathizers want to raise the giant mosque as a sign of victory of the jihadists over the U.S. Such a mosque would signal to the Islamic world that jihadists' overt and covert attacks against America and its interests are succeeding and should be continued.
Allowing the erection of a Ground Zero mosque would enable jihadists to extend their narrative of success: "First our 9/11 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center, symbol of American power, and now the mosque symbolizes Islam's rise to power within America."
How is the public to know which side is correct? Fortunately, Friedman's hypothesis that the Islamic world respects religious tolerance can be tested.
One test would be to ask mosque leaders to request that Saudi Arabian leaders reciprocally allow churches and synagogues to be built in their country.
A second test would be to ask questions that would clarify if the mosque's proponents are truly moderates or in fact jihadist radicals disguised as moderates. Americans who defend the building of this mosque could ask the mosque's Islamic proponents to publicly post to the media and on their websites answers to the following questions:
1. Islamic law (Shariah) states that Muslims who convert to Christianity must be killed (Redda Law), women in adulterous relationships must be stoned to death, men can beat their wives to discipline them, and homosexuals should be killed.
Are you willing to recommend that these traditional Muslim practices be banned and to condemn countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran which accept such practices as religiously mandated?
2. Several Muslim texts declare that Jews are pigs and monkeys and that killing Jews before "end days" is a religious duty for Muslims.
Are you willing to declare that these texts must be changed and/or reinterpreted and that Islamic teaching of such anti-Semitic values must stop?
3. Muslim texts that are approved by all the schools of jurisprudence in Islam (Shafeii, Hanbali, Maleki, and Hanafi) state that Muslims must declare wars against non-Muslims to spread Islam and those they conquer must either convert to Islam, pay Jizya (a humiliating tax), or be killed.
Are you willing to declare that this belief, used in "Foutohhat Islameia," the early wars to spread Islam, and praised currently in much of the Muslim world, is un-Islamic and unacceptable?
Mosque leaders issue statements such as, "Islam is the religion of peace," "Islam respects freedom of religion," "Islam is the religion that gave them their rights," or "Islam is not anti-Semitic." Their answers to the questions above about Shariah teachings would clarify if it would be unfair to call these leaders jihadist Islamic radicals, or if in fact their statements about Islam are misleading propaganda.
Are Islamic Mosque advocates willing to declare publicly, in English and in Arabic, that their answers to these three questions are yes? If so, let the mosque proceed. If not, plans to build a shrine to Islam near the grounds of the World Trade Center are contrary to America's values should be halted immediately."
Written By: Tawfik Hamid
If we have misunderstood, that Islam condones violence, murder, and maiming, that they have zero tolerance for any other religion, that they ENJOY killing.....then by all means, enlighten us. Then we will show you the facts.
Controversy is heating up on plans for building a giant, 15-story Islamic community center and mosque near Ground Zero.
Journalist Thomas Friedman and many others including New York's mayor consider the building of a mosque proof of American tolerance that will have positive impact on the Muslim world.
Yet others, myself included, say to the contrary that Radical Muslims and their sympathizers want to raise the giant mosque as a sign of victory of the jihadists over the U.S. Such a mosque would signal to the Islamic world that jihadists' overt and covert attacks against America and its interests are succeeding and should be continued.
Allowing the erection of a Ground Zero mosque would enable jihadists to extend their narrative of success: "First our 9/11 attacks destroyed the World Trade Center, symbol of American power, and now the mosque symbolizes Islam's rise to power within America."
How is the public to know which side is correct? Fortunately, Friedman's hypothesis that the Islamic world respects religious tolerance can be tested.
One test would be to ask mosque leaders to request that Saudi Arabian leaders reciprocally allow churches and synagogues to be built in their country.
A second test would be to ask questions that would clarify if the mosque's proponents are truly moderates or in fact jihadist radicals disguised as moderates. Americans who defend the building of this mosque could ask the mosque's Islamic proponents to publicly post to the media and on their websites answers to the following questions:
1. Islamic law (Shariah) states that Muslims who convert to Christianity must be killed (Redda Law), women in adulterous relationships must be stoned to death, men can beat their wives to discipline them, and homosexuals should be killed.
Are you willing to recommend that these traditional Muslim practices be banned and to condemn countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran which accept such practices as religiously mandated?
2. Several Muslim texts declare that Jews are pigs and monkeys and that killing Jews before "end days" is a religious duty for Muslims.
Are you willing to declare that these texts must be changed and/or reinterpreted and that Islamic teaching of such anti-Semitic values must stop?
3. Muslim texts that are approved by all the schools of jurisprudence in Islam (Shafeii, Hanbali, Maleki, and Hanafi) state that Muslims must declare wars against non-Muslims to spread Islam and those they conquer must either convert to Islam, pay Jizya (a humiliating tax), or be killed.
Are you willing to declare that this belief, used in "Foutohhat Islameia," the early wars to spread Islam, and praised currently in much of the Muslim world, is un-Islamic and unacceptable?
Mosque leaders issue statements such as, "Islam is the religion of peace," "Islam respects freedom of religion," "Islam is the religion that gave them their rights," or "Islam is not anti-Semitic." Their answers to the questions above about Shariah teachings would clarify if it would be unfair to call these leaders jihadist Islamic radicals, or if in fact their statements about Islam are misleading propaganda.
Are Islamic Mosque advocates willing to declare publicly, in English and in Arabic, that their answers to these three questions are yes? If so, let the mosque proceed. If not, plans to build a shrine to Islam near the grounds of the World Trade Center are contrary to America's values should be halted immediately.
Written by Tawfik Hamid
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/08/05/6-in-10-new-yorkers-oppose-building-mosque-near-ground-zero/