http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39073267/ns/us_news

Imam: Moving Islamic center will embolden extremists
'Anger will explode in the muslim world' if situation is not handled carefully, says imam behind proposed NYC facility.

Yet another factually impaired post. Iman is speaking of the perceptions Islam extremists will use to make it's moderates into extremists...all this rhetoric is just stoking the fires. The bigots and the other haters may get our troops and the Afghan troops attacked. That's not how we can leave the Middle East and leave intact an operating government.

You people are aiding the religious extremists. For shame!

Yet another factually impaired post. Iman is speaking of the perceptions Islam extremists will use to make it's moderates into extremists...all this rhetoric is just stoking the fires. The bigots and the other haters may get our troops and the Afghan troops attacked. That's not how we can leave the Middle East and leave intact an operating government.

You people are aiding the religious extremists. For shame!

^^^ walking right into the trap ... like a typical bigot.

Extreemist Christians are just as dangerous ... not to mention extreemist Socialists and Fascists and Libertarians ...

tossing aroung the Muslim thing is no different than tossing around a Jewish label or a Black label or a Moron label ... although Morons sort of fit into every group of people much like a-holes.

You people who are willing to back down at the threats of the Muslims just crack me up!!

I dont think you should belong in this country. This country is the home of the free and the home of the BRAVE...not the home of the cowards!!

Let the Immams declare more extremism...since when have they NOT been extremists anyways??

F' em!!

Let them make their threats. I know plenty of Marines who are just chomping at the bit to get more of these extremists out in the open so they can take them out!!

Hooray for the USA and the BRAVE people who will stand up to every threat the filthy Muslims can throw at us!!

F' the cowards who are soiling their underwear worrying about "tolerance" and "religious freedoms".

An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Fight fire WITH fire!!

But unfortunately everything is about money now, and the instead of leaders in office we have political snakey cowards that just want to line their own pockets and worry about themselves....we are no longer a "land" of anything. Everone is so self-absorbed with what THEY think right, and don't give a damn about the rest...

But that was proven in florida when a group of 40+ guys and girls watched a girl get raped in broad daylight and didn't even lift a finger just because they didn't want to get involved...after all it wasn't their problem.

You are right, we are SUPPOSED to be the home of the brave...but we are not. To many bleeding hearts, to many people who 'just don't want to get involved' and a government who is even taking away the rights of cops to enforce laws because they want the votes of a particual group...not giving a shiot about the country, all they want is another term.

The US has to live in the world community. That is the price paid for being a world power. Where as the Islamic countries view most of the world with hate and murder in their eyes. Trying to figure out the best way to kill as many of the infidels as possible in one shot. The US has to worry what the rest of the world is thinking of us. And burning the Koran isn't the way to do it...all that will do is inflame them further and us without a way to spank them...it's a lost cause for the moment. Until the world unites and says in one clear voice that this type of behavior will not be tolerated...it will perpetuate.

Is it right? No. Is it what any religion, not just Islam, supposed to teach? No. But this is what we face as a nation. And until the Muslims open their eyes and realize that the backward belief systems they have in place today in their world isn't the way to operate in the 21st century, they will always be at war with the infidels.

Eventually, they will become extinct or so isolated and remote they just fade away, like the dinosaurs for lack of the the ability to adapt.

And no Dragoness it has nothing to do with haters, bigots, intolerance or any other of your pets that you use. It has to do with us, as a people feeling helpless to defend our families in our own country. In fact, Americans have shown themselves to be one of the most tolerant peoples of the world.

Supposedly a big bang eliminated the dinasours....I now understand that we have the capability to direct that 'big bang' just a thought

What is the real truth?

This extremist dude claiming not building the Terror Tower will pisss off the muslim?

Or these folks who see it as a plan that is obviously provocative and confrontational – and it’s hard to imagine that Rauf didn’t know that long before it became public.”


Muslims across the U.S. and around the world are speaking out against building an Islamic center and mosque near the mass murder site at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.

Many Muslim voices are echoing conservative critics of the Cordoba Initiative’s attempt to build the 13-story facility just 600 feet from where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood.

Their statements show the emptiness of a handful of Arab and Muslim Republican activists who, in a well-publicized letter defending the Ground Zero mosque, purported to speak for the interests of “the Arab and Muslim community in America.” They also eviscerate claims that critics of the project are motivated by prejudice and hatred toward Muslims.

Even before the six GOP Muslim and Arab-American activists signed the August 17 letter, Muslims in the U.S. and abroad were criticizing Imam Feisal Rauf and his $100 million Cordoba Initiative project. Some Muslims called the mosque plan a deliberate provocation, a political gesture to thumb one’s nose at the “infidel,” and equivalent to building a Christian church where Serbian troops slaughtered 6,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, Kosovo.

“American Muslims who support the proposed mosque and Islamic center near ground zero are facing skeptics within their own faith – those who argue that the project is insensitive to Sept. 11 victims and needlessly provocative at a time when Muslims are pressing for wider acceptance in the U.S.,” the Associated Press reported.

This report and others like it dealt a body blow to the argument of GOP activists David Ramadan, Sherine El-Abd, Randa Fahmy Hudome, George Salem, Suhail Khan, Samah A. Norquist, who signed the letter, and her husband Grover, whose Americans for Tax Reform organization distributed it.

For example, Akbar Ahmed, Professor of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, says he sympathizes with those who object to the mosque’s planned proximity to Ground Zero. “For most Americans, 9/11 remains as an open wound, and anything associated with Islam, even for Americans who want to understand Islam – to have an Islamic center with so much publicity is like rubbing salt in open wounds,” Ahmed told AP.

The current Miss USA, Rami Fakih, who is the first Arab-American to wear the crown and is a practicing Muslim, agrees with the critics. She told CBS Inside Edition, “It shouldn’t be so close to the World Trade Center. We should be more concerned with the tragedy than religion.”

Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, told The Daily Caller that the Ground Zero mosque “is not a humble Islamic statement. A mosque such as this is actually a political structure that casts a shadow over a cemetery, over hallowed ground. 9/11 was the beginning of a kinetic war, it is not an opportunity for cultural exchange. It was the beginning of a conflict with those who want to destroy our way of life.” Jasser added, “I am in no way looking to infringe on First Amendment issues. I approach this as a Muslim that is dedicated to reform.”

Shi’ite Muslim Stephen Schwartz, executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism, wrote an article called “A Muslim Case Against the Mosque” on his blog. In it, he argued that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s plan to build the Ground Zero center was not to promote reconciliation and understanding. Instead, says Schwartz, “the plan is obviously provocative and confrontational – and it’s hard to imagine that Rauf didn’t know that long before it became public.”

“That’s one big reason why American Muslims, like other Americans, should reject the project – particularly if they really want to adhere to traditional Islamic principles. I say that as a Muslim convert since 1997,” Schwartz wrote on August 3. “Traditional, moderate Islam teaches Muslims living in non-Muslim-majority societies to obey the laws and customs of the countries in which they reside. They must avoid conflict with their non-Muslim neighbors whenever possible.”

Schwartz isn’t for pushing the First Amendment to the point of antagonizing people – to him, the issue should be courtesy toward one’s neighbor. In this case, he seems to agree with non-Muslim conservative critics that the mosque near Ground Zero is insensitive to others.

Muslims from other countries are chiming in their support for the critics. “Building a mosque there will increase hatred between Muslims and non-Muslims in the West,” Gamal Awad, a professor at Cairo’s Al Azhar University, told the Los Angeles Times. “It will further connect Islam with a horrible event.”

On August 9, more than a week before the controversial GOP letter defending the plan to build the mosque as planned, the Muslim Canadian Congress posted an article that questioned Rauf’s motives and demanded that he not proceed with the project.

In an official letter to Rauf, the Muslim Canadian Congress stated, “Many Muslims suspect that the idea behind the Ground Zero mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation, to thumb our noses at the ‘infidel.’ We believe the proposal has been made in bad faith and, in Islamic parlance, is creating ‘fitna,’ meaning ‘mischief-making,’ an act clearly forbidden in the Qur’an.”

“The Qur’an commands us Muslims to ‘Be considerate when you debate with the People of the Book’ – i.e., Jews and Christians,” the Muslim Canadian Congress told Rauf, citing chapter 29, verse 46 of Islam’s holiest book. “Building an exclusive place of worship for Muslims at the place where Muslims killed thousands of New Yorkers is not being considerate or sensitive, it is undoubtedly an act of ‘fitna.’”

Rauf is no moderate. He says the United States is worse than al Qaeda.

The Canadian Muslim group rejected Rauf’s claim that the mosque will increase tolerance for Muslims, asking him, “Do you not understand that building a mosque at Ground Zero is equivalent to permitting a Serbian Orthodox Church near the killing fields of Srebrenica [Kosovo] where 6,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered?”

Wrong. It was indeed sanctioned by billions of Muslims worldwide.
Not directly, but they did nothing to stop it, and they cheered when they seen what happened.

I recall seeing masses of filthy Palestinians and Iranians in the streets dancing and jumping for joy when the towers fell.

They have a national holiday that they celebrate where they burn our flag and chant "Death to America".

Where are all these so-called "moderate" Muslims and "peaceful" Muslims at?? Why do they not speak out against their own kind??....because deep down inside, they believe in the hateful, racial teachings of Islam.

I have seen *almost* no Muslims speaking out against other Muslims. I have seen no condemnation by Muslims towards other Muslims for their extremist views.

I have seen no marches in the streets, or protests in FAVOR of peace by Muslims. But I have seen marches and protests by Muslims in FAVOR of violence and killings.

You weak knee's liberals go ahead and support these viscious murderers. Go ahead and keep covering for them and being their appologists for them.

The rest of America will not stand for their (or yours) BS.

While you're ready to submit yourselves and your freedoms to these killers of humanity, and killers of human rights.....we the people (the REAL Americans) will fight them tooth and nail. We will use their very own tactics against them and worry about tolerance later.

We will stand up for our rights and our country and our Constitution....all while you liberals will be giving away the farm.

But we knew about it before it was going to happen.
So you think that if the NYPD or the NYFD would have been keen to the info before hand, that they would'nt try to evactuate those buildings beforehand??

I think they would have done their best to keep everybody out of harms way.