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Showing posts with label Ground Zero Mosque. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ground Zero Mosque. Show all posts
The developer whose proposal to build a Muslim community center and mosque near the World Trade Center failed amid a national controversy three years ago said Tuesday that he now plans to construct a museum devoted to Islam in the same location.
Sharif El-Gamal, the developer, said through a spokesman that instead of a $100 million, 15-story community center and prayer space, he now planned a smaller, three-story museum “dedicated to exploring the faith of Islam and its arts and culture.” The building would also include a sanctuary for prayer services and community programs.
To make the plan more attractive to neighbors, he said in a statement, he had commissioned a French architect, Jean Nouvel, winner of the 2008 Pritzker Prize, to design the building at 45-51 Park Place, about two blocks from the former World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, and had included plans for a public green space.
“This is a more tailored approach, both physically and programmatically,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a spokesman for Mr. El-Gamal. “It will prove to be an important addition to the neighborhood and to New York City’s arts and cultural community.”
President Obama laid a wreath of red, white, and blue flowers at ground zero on Thursday, honoring the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 2001 terrorist attacks and marking the death of its perpetrator, Osama bin Laden.
The hushed ceremony on a sunny, breezy day was a somber coda to a triumphal week that began with Mr. Obama’s announcement that commandos had killed Bin Laden in his fortified compound in Pakistan.
Now, in the wreath ceremony and in a series of meeting across Manhattan on Thursday, the president had a chance to meet one-to-one with the people whose lives were changed most deeply by Bin Laden — relatives of the victims, as well as firefighters and other rescue workers who lost comrades that morning.
“Obviously, you can’t bring back the friends you lost,” Mr. Obama said to the crew at a firehouse in midtown Manhattan that lost 15 men, an entire shift, at the World Trade Center. “What happened Sunday sent a message: When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say.”
It was Mr. Obama’s first visit as president to ground zero, a patch of lower Manhattan that Bin Laden turned into hallowed ground ...
Okay, the pictures below are from last night's screening and presentation of Pamela and Robert's film, "The Ground Zero Mosque - The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks." The crowd in attendance was mostly baby-boomers and retirees. But folks were passionate and very receptive of the program. This was the first time I'd seen the whole thing through. (I saw the first 10 minutes of the movie at CPAC.) It's an excellent documentary which deserves a wide screening. And during the Q & A, Pamela and Robert again developed their theme of combating the lamestream media's enabling of sharia at home. Of course Pamela's talk was outstanding as usual. She reminded the audience that if we want to preserve our country and our security, we have to do it ourselves. "When you wake up in the morning, after rubbing the sleep from your eyes, ask yourself what are you going to do today to save the republic?" She got lots of applause. And for good reason. It's shocking sometimes to see things in their totality, but the movie does that, illustrating what's essentially media malpractice --- and then Pamela and Robert bring it all home at the wrap-up discussion. Now, while Pamela was pleased to report that so far not a brick has been laid at the Cordoba Mosque, er, Park51 initiative, the battle is far from over. And another protest is planned for Ground Zero on September 11th. We're going to need it. See, for example, the lastest whitewash on the Hamas-backing Ground Zero developer Sharif El-Gamal at the April 5th Los Angeles Times, "The Man Behind the Manhattan Mosque."
The story's at New York Daily News, but notice how the designation includes Geller's "followers." Hey, badge of honor. I hung out with both Pamela and Robert Spencer on the first day at CPAC. I'm probably more than a "follower." Maybe an "evil" co-conspirator for the preservation of American freedom. Oh, that sounds terrible. Can't stand up for liberty these days without being slurred as racist, that's for sure. Anyway, PR Newswire has this, "Human Rights Organization SIOA Vows to Fight Far-Left Propaganda Group's 'Hate Group' Designation":
A prominent national human rights and advocacy organization has vowed to fight against its designation by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a hard-Left propaganda group, as a "hate group."
The day after yet another deadly Islamic jihad terror plot involving weapons of mass destruction was thwarted in Texas, the SPLC issued its latest list of hate groups, including Stop Islamization of America (SIOA).
SIOA Executive Director Pamela Geller declared in a statement: "It's outrageous that the SPLC designates a group dedicated to protecting the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and legal equality for all Americans as a 'hate group.' The SPLC, instead of standing for those freedoms, is carrying water for the real haters, the real neo-Nazi Jew-haters: the forces of Islamic supremacism and jihad. The SPLC doesn't even have a category for Islamic jihadi groups. The greatest threat facing our nation, our people, our world, and they are shilling for them."
SIOA Associate Director Robert Spencer pointed out that the Islamic supremacist hate group known as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which the Justice Department designated an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case and has had several of its officials convicted of jihad terror activity, is not listed by the SPLC as a hate group. "That the SPLC would list SIOA and not CAIR as a hate group shows the hollowness and political motivation of the SPLC's classifications," Spencer said.
The Washington Times reported in November 2010 that "the SPLC is a small, hard-left political activist outfit known for promoting a panoply of radical liberal causes. The Center holds itself out as an objective monitor of potentially violent or subversive hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, skinheads and other white supremacists.
"But in recent years - and with increasing abandon - the SPLC has leveraged (abused, really) its rapidly decreasing political capital and waning credibility to target and undermine organizations that, rather than dealing in the business of genuine 'hate,' instead pose a direct threat to the advancement of postmodern secular-socialism generally - and to the Democratic Party specifically. ... In sum, the SPLC has become an extremist wolf in 'watchdog' clothing."
"My group is a human rights group," Geller said. "And these people are taken seriously? This is the morally inverted state of the world."
I'm looking at the list at SPLC, and it includes the 9/11 Christian Center at Ground Zero. Seriously. A Christian Center at Ground Zero is designated as a hate group, but the Park51 jihadis are in the clear. It's like Pamela says, "This is the morally inverted state of the world."
On Saturday the entire film will be screened at Citizens United’s CPAC Theater – Delaware Ballroom: the World Premiere of the AFDI/SIOA documentary film on the Ground Zero Mosque.
He calls Islam a "totalitarian ideology." He compares the Koran to "Mein Kampf" and wants it banned. He says that millions of Muslims who have settled in Europe ought to be deported, taking their "retarded" culture with them.
Such statements have made Geert Wilders the most controversial politician here in the Netherlands and a provocative figure abroad.
But do they also make him a criminal?
For months, Wilders, 47, has been at the center of a messy legal fight that has forced the parliament member to defend himself in an Amsterdam courtroom against charges of inciting hatred and insulting an entire class of people.
Wilders insists that he is being prosecuted — and persecuted — simply for speaking the truth about a dangerous religion and its adherents. His critics accuse him of whipping up public paranoia and jeopardizing the lives and livelihoods of the thousands of Muslims in the Netherlands.
The rancorous legal battle has thrown a spotlight on the growing tensions in societies where freedom of speech and freedom of religion seem to collide. Observers throughout Europe are closely watching the Wilders case at a time when vocal anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment is fueling the rise of right-wing parties and politicians.
The case also resonates in the U.S., which has been dogged by controversies such as the maverick pastor who threatened to publicly burn a copy of the Koran and the heated debate over the proposed building of an Islamic community center near the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York.
Notice the phony tie-in: Protesters in New York are the new Nazis, and the bloody freaking Westboro pastor in Florida is the poster-boy for alleged American racist hatred.
Typical for the left's DEMOCRAT-MEDIA-INDUSTRIAL-COMPLEX. You never get the full story. Not even close. Those who champion freedom and dignity for the individual are slurred as "haters." Those who truly hate, the Muslims calling for "Death to Jews," are glorified as alleged "victims of racist oppressors." It's all totally FUBAR. For example, at the Times'hit piece:
To his detractors, he is also a peddler of fear and hatred directed at the Muslims, who make up just 6% of the population but who Wilders constantly warns are undermining traditional Dutch society by following the dictates of a "fascist book."
"More and more people are starting to believe his paranoia," said Rene Danen, head of an anti-racist organization based in Amsterdam. "The fear is planted by Wilders, who says that the Muslims are taking over, that they're a fifth column."
Danen is one of the activists whose official complaint prompted Wilders' trial on charges of inciting hatred and insulting a class of people. These are criminal offenses in the Netherlands, though a conviction would probably result only in a relatively minor fine.
"For us, the main thing is that the judge draws a line," putting Wilders' conduct and speech outside the legal pale, Danen said.
This is pure bullshit, but what can you expect from the completely lame dead-tree press, not to mention the left's racism industry?
I'm still looking forward to meeting Geert Wilders. Once you listen to this man speak you know he has a heart of gold. He's truly one of the West's most vital champions of liberty and defense of democracy. Here's the speech from New York's SIOA rally:
Bravo to Bill O’Reilly for telling it like it is. Today he told Whoopi and Behar that Muslims killed us on 9-11… because Muslims killed us on 9-11. Of course, Behar and Whoopi were so outraged at such a statement they actually walked off the set. Ah yes, what tolerance the left has.
BONUS: From the left-wing Democrat extremists at ThinkProgress (particularly odious comments highlighted):
After O’Reilly’s Rants About How ‘Muslims Killed Us On 9/11!’ Goldberg And Behar Walk Off Stage
well good job, better yet you should have made him leave!!!!
but bill the dill will think this is a victory!!
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This is how every pundit and politician that lies and spews misinformation should be treated, they should be mocked and ridiculed, even if like O'Reilly they feel no shame.
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They should have replied "Saudi Arabians killed us on 9/11".
Good for them walking off.
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And they should have reminded the idiot that he works for the Saudis!
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Good on you, ladies!
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O'Reilly is something else. Shameful performance. That outburst was akin to his rants about Dr. Tiller.
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The 'culture warrior' is culturally illiterate.
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They should have turned off his microphone and the lights as he does when someone doesn't cowtow to his obscene rants of hate on his worthless show. I saw him do it once in 2002 and haven't watched him since.
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This is where the English language is so pitifully inadequate for people such as O'Reilly.
Muslims did and did not kill "us" on 9/11.
Extremist Muslims killed people on 9/11. O'Reilly is not part of the group that died, nor did every Muslim join the fight to kill innocent people on 9/11.
I'm not expecting any sort of apology out of O'Reilly here, but I ask that he, for his own good, clarify his statement. If he refuses to, it will just show just how close-minded he can be with the English language.
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Dear Barbara Walters, It is impractical to expect people to entertain bigots. Walking away IS the best solution to such idiocy.
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I wonder what the blond christofascist Elizabeth Hasselbeck was jumping up and down about.
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Hell Mr. O'Reilly we were attacked by MEN! We should ban all males over 18 from the WTC site. What a f---ing propagandist hack.
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This is a good thing. I think sometimes these guys get so used to their environment on FOX that they forget what the real world is like. It's good that these views are getting air time on more widely seen venues. Folks like O'Reilly don't realize that the majority of people don't share their views outside the studios of FOX.
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I spent over twenty years of my life supporting and defending the Constitution.. including the right to freedom of speech.... but O'Reilly, Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh and all the other anti-USA hate speech azzhats out there should be told to STFU or go to jail for sedition and inciting violence.
Republicans are enemies of the United States.
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Once again, Bill O'Really has proved he is still a Scum Sucking piece of Sh!t.....he never disappoints.
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People like Bill-0 who act is if they speak for all Americans are douche-bags! Of course I speak only for myself
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Saying that "Muslims" killed Americans on 9/11/2001 is comparable to saying that "Christians" burn crosses to intimidate others. Most Christians would be appalled to be compared to members of the KKK, and most Muslims are appalled when compared to the monsters who hijacked planes and flew them into crowded buildings.
Of course, there are people who aren't interested in facts, nor are they interested in intelligent debate. They merely want to scream their bigotry and close their ears to reason. There is no way to convince them of anything other than their current mindset. O'Reilly is one of these people. The only way to deal with them is by removing oneself from their presence, as Whoopi and Joy did.
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WTF ! Who keeps giving lunatic O'Reilly air time which equates into some credibility???? Big mouth bully O'Reilly is a proven evil extremist Bigoted Hate monger who is a disgrace of a human being and should be treated as a dangerous. poisonous snake.
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WTF ! Who keeps giving lunatic O'Reilly air time which equates into some credibility???? Big mouth bully O'Reilly is a proven evil extremist Bigoted Hate monger who is a disgrace of a human being and should be treated as a dangerous. poisonous snake.
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I'm sorry but Barbar WaWa is wrong; you cannot have a conversation with someone that refuses to look at the common sense facts before them. To say the terrorists attack was an attack by Muslims is to say that the McVeigh attack was an attack by Christians. To label and entire people, race, creed or religion because of the acts of one, two or even 50 people is beyond stupid, but then prejudice is exactly that - beyond stupid.
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Still waiting to hear what poll Bildo cited as having 70% of Americans opposing the cultural center at 51 Park Row, NYC . .
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Demonizing Muslims has been a boon in promoting the military occupations of countries whose resources we covet .
The Muslims are to the American fascist what the Jews were to the Nazis !
Who exactly in either party is opposing militarism by our nation abroad , a nation which spends as much as the entire planet combined on it's so called defence ?
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That is just plain hateful.
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Billy O'Really is nothing more than a "HATE MERCHANT", that's all he will ever be, because that's all he have ever been. His viewers tune in each day to get their 'Daily Dose' of Hate, like a run of the mill crack addict.
His "PRODUCT" is consuming him like a Cancer.
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I just watched the whole segment.
Billdoh O'liely IS the pinhead, as Barbara Walters suggests at the close, "Maybe it is you who is the pinhead."
Joy and Woopie came back AFTER Barbara made him apologise for his bigoted statement against ALL Muslims.
And Hasselback was quick to DEFEND O'Liely by saying that Obama, early on in his term, refused to use the word "TERRORIST" and instead said terms like Muslim extremists or radical Islamists and THAT is why people now closely align Muslims with terrorists.
Yea, right Liz... Bigots R-U!
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We have all the evidence we need to prove that Zionist crackpots are responsible for 9/11. Everything has been prepared but the gallows.
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The fact that individuals like this can spew bigotry and claim righteousness is disgusting.
Love that cognitive dissonance from the crowd as well in the ensuing moments
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This is a choice between whether we want to be grownups or whiny children, whether we want to accomplish a goal or just stomp and scream and get attention (and make some megabucks doing it).
Any thoughtful observer, and many who have spoken out on the subject, knows that having responsible, modern, moderate Muslims come to the forefront in America and help us all to understand their point of view and way of life is going to work out much better in the end that having the screamers dominate the scene. From everything I read, the New York mosque would be a blessing to the community... already is, in fact. Wanna have it replaced with half a dozen hysterical bloodthirsty madrasas teaching kids to live only to die for hate?
Face it, if a significant number of them are totally alienated, to the extent of wishing us dead and working to make it so, we are doomed, or at least in for a miserable existence. We should be joining with the (so far) great preponderance who are sensible, peace-loving people and trying to move forward, not listening to the haters who only want to stir up more trouble, mostly for their own benefit....
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Tim McVeigh. Isn't that an Irish name, just like O'Reilly? Oh my God, the Irish bombed the Murrah Federal Building! And as I typed that, I remembered "I.R.A.," Irish Republican Army. I believe they were also involved in some terroristic acts.
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OMG Muslims killed people on 9/11, O'Reilly is so wrong, we all know it was Presbyterians from Sweden that did the dirty deed.
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I am so sick and tired of hearing about how 70% of Americans don't want the Community Center located where it is planned to go. Let me make this clear, The Bill of Rights is not subject to majority opinion. Period.
I've been following Atlas Shrugged since 2005. If anyone would have told me then in five years she'd be heading a national anti-Muslim movement and would be profiled in the NY Times, I would have thought it was a joke. She was always at the very fringe of the hysterical war bloggers, set apart from the worst genocidal hatemongers only by her pulchritudinous crudity. In this insane political period, she's thoroughly mainstream. Wow. Just wow.
It's ugly jealousy, that's for sure. The post's URL reads "mainstreaming-genocidal-insanity."
Digby suspects Pamela Geller wants to round up Muslims for the camps? That's a little much, and no doubt Pamela's wall-to-wall Sunday coverage was too. Pamela's havin' a huge impact (I'm sure King Charles dropped a load as well). I saw the Times' write up early Saturday, so it took a little while to make the blog cycle. Pamela repudiated the report, saying "It is full of distortions, inaccuracies and lies from beginning to end." She liked the interview, however, which was published separately. See Atlas Shrugs, "The New York Times: Outraged, Outrageous and Unhinged."
I've picked up a quite a few nasty left-wing trolls since the flame war with the Sadly No! commies. One particularly despicable dickhead is the prick at "Thinking Meat", one of the more unbelievably messed up websites I've ever seen. Anyway, I've deleted his previous comments in the moderation queue, but like most nihilist trolls, he's persistent. He's attacking me as "racist" at his blog, but we naturally hear not one peep about Barack "Gangsta" Obama's endorsement of the most bigoted stereotypes of hip hop rappers. And for some whacked reason this Neanderthal thinks he's pwned me on my earlier remarks about Imam Rauf, where I noted: "No one's really digging down deep, which is that Imam Rauf has praised sharia and alleged that America deserved it on September 11." In a follow up comment, in the style of JBW, he writes:
I was right, of course. You don't have the guts to post Rauf's actual words.
No, much much easier to 'paraphrase' them, so that you can portray him as 'saying' anything you need him to 'say'.
"We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al Qaida has on its hands of innocent non-Muslims. You may remember that the US-led sanctions against Iraq led to the death of over half a million Iraqi children."
And Imam Rauf said the U.S. had it coming in September 2001, on "60 Minutes":
As for sharia, the Imam published [a defense of sharia] at Huffington Post last year: "What Shariah Law Is All About."
That's all the attention you get, Unthinking Freak. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Like Reppy, exDLB, Bonejob Keefe, Truth 101 and the rest you commie refuse. Stay the hell away from this blog. You are the scum of the earth.
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UPDATE: exDLB has responded, but he ignores the orginal criticism from Pinhead Thinking Meat. Here's my quote from the original post, with the key phrasing in bold: "No one's really digging down deep, which is that Imam Rauf has praised sharia and alleged that America deserved it on September 11." Note: exDLB is correct on my wording, and I have edited my statement above, because I was half asleep when I wrote it and that's not what I meant to write. So to recap: (1) Imam Rauf indeed "praised" sharia, the point Asswipe Thinking Meat claimed was a fabrication, and (2) exDLB ignores the YouTube clip I posted and the link to Discover the Networks --- and that's because exDLB is a liar and his post just spews more progressive anti-Americanism:
The crime perpetrated on the United States on 9/11 was heinous. Over 3000 US citizens and others lost their lives. The sanctions put in place and kept in place during the Bush I and Clinton administrations did lead to the deaths of over a half million Iraqi children. That was one of the reasons given by bin Laden for the 9/11 attacks. Rauf does not say the 9/11 attacks were justified. What he’s saying is no different than what Chalmers Johnson, Andrew Bacevich and many other conservatives have said. The attacks were blowback.
When someone issues a denial of their main point as a preface (both Imam Rauf and exDLB) that's a de facto acknowledgment that they're engaging in the exact allegations in which they've initially denied. So, listen carefully at the video. Imam Rauf indicates that Americans "have been accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world," and that "in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA."
"Made in the USA."
In other words, you made your bed now sleep in it.
Anti-Americans all of them, which is why I will resist their nihilism and destruction.
This video was posted at a hate site dedicated to threatening and smearing Pamela Geller. I did not want to link to the hate site, so I am reposting this video here for reference. I believe that it is vitally important to document and bring to public attention the viciousness and hatefulness of Islamic supremacists and their allies in the U.S., and the danger they pose to free citizens. This video illustrates all of that with revolting and chilling vividness.
Check the whole thing. It turns out that Daisy Kahn has allegedly received one death threat, by phone, and the New York media has been all over the story with front-page news. Pamela, on the other hand, is the target of an endless campaign of eliminationist threats, and media coverage? Not so much.
you will burn in hell and suffer a painful torment for making Islam (the religion of God All Mighty) seem as tho it is an evil religion when in fact it is a religion of peace. I pray you see your torment in this life your next life is for certain fire. and it is a painful abode
salaam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh
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YOU LYING SACK OF SHIT CUNT FOR REINFORCING THE PERCEPTION OF AMERICA AS A TERRORIST NATION BY YOUR FUCKING LIES ABOUT THE "GROUND ZERO MOSQUE." YOU ARE THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE I HAVE SEEN AT WORK IN A LONG TIME. ARE YOU PROUD OF YOURSELF????? YOUR ACTIONS HAVE PUT OUR TROOPS ABROAD IN MORE DANGER AND OUR CIVILIAN POPULATION AS WELL -- ONCE THEY READ WHAT YOU SAY AND THE SHITSTORM YOU CREATED, THEY WILL ADD MORE FUEL TO THE FIRE IN THEIR WAR AGAINST AMERICA.
YOU ARE A FUCKING CANCER!!!!!!
BITCH!!!!! CUNT!!!!!!!! ASSHOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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GRAND JEW KILLER (kill-the-jews@hotmail.com) has left you a comment :
kill all the jew asswipes. bomb entire israel. they dont have a place on earth, they should live in hell. all supporters of the jews all u motherfuckers go to hell!!!
If you ask me, and I don't claim any particular expertise on Islam, I'd say that Christiane Amanpour seems to have a crowd full of jihadi-enabling Muslims, and between Daisy Kahn and the Muslim cleric down front, all you're going get is the "we're moderate, were so American, blah, blah ..." No one's really digging down deep, which is that Imam Rauf has praised sharia and alleged that America deserved it on September 11. Frankly, Rauf is not much different than Anjem Choudary, the unapologetic jihadi and Islamist activist (at about 11:00 minutes). He says U.S. bombings of Sudan, etc., are to blame for 9/11, as well as American support for the "pariah state" of Israel. Daisy Kahn offers a half-hearted rebuttal. But that's the standard line among "moderate Muslims: Deny the radical agenda while simultaneously funnelling money to Hamas, global jihad, etc., through terrorist front organizations like Holy Land. And here's this from Choudary's Wikipedia page:
Choudary is a vocal critic of the UK's involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has praised the terrorists involved in the attacks of 11 September 2001, and 7 July 2005. He believes in the implementation of Sharia Law throughout the UK, and marched in protest at the Jyllands-Posten cartoons controversy, following which he was prosecuted for organising an unlawful demonstration. He was also investigated, but not charged, for his 2006 comments regarding Pope Benedict XVI. Choudary has received little support from the mainstream UK Muslim population, and has been largely criticised in the media.
The show's a setup. And as far as "moderate Islam" goes, I don't believe a word from Daisy's mouth. I've been busy over the weekend blogging the socialist rally in D.C., and I missed the Sunday morning screening of This Week. But Pamela's been all over this, here and here, for example. And she's got an interesting piece at Big Journalism as well: "My War Against the Mosquestream Media."
This is guerrilla warfare in the information battlespace, in the war of ideas. These media opportunities were hardly perfect, but they were something. Why make perfect the enemy of the good? They were better than the traditional blackout on our freedom- defense initiatives. It was a shot, and I was taking it and running with it, no matter how disgusting it all was.
From the media’s perspective, the Ground Zero mosque was an historical phenomenon. For the first time, a major news story became the most important national and international news story without the media. Think about that. Unlike the fringe pastor in Florida, who tweeted a Qur’an threat and the media descended like locusts to a Florida backwater to create a news story, a narrative, the Ground Zero mosque was not shaped by the media, not covered by the media — not at first anyway.
