On Where to Build the Ground-Zero, Multifaith Center

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In his 7 September 2010 op-ed article in The New York Times, the Islamic cleric who seeks to build a “community center in Lower Manhattan” (originally called the Cordoba House and commonly called “the Ground-Zero Mosque”), Feisal Abdul Rauf, states:

My life’s work has been focused on building bridges between religious groups and never has that been as important as it is now.

His description of the new “bridge” he proposes includes:

Above all, the project will amplify the multifaith approach that the Cordoba Initiative has deployed in concrete ways for years…  Our initiative is intended to cultivate understanding among all religions and cultures.

Our broader mission – to strengthen relations between the Western and Muslim worlds and to help counter radical ideology – lies not in skirting the margins of issues that have polarized relations within the Muslim world and between non-Muslims and Muslims.  It lies in confronting them as a joint multifaith, multinational effort.

In an 8 September 2010 interview with Soledad O’Brien, Rauf added:

You must remember, Soledad, and Americans must remember, that what we do is watched all over the world… If you don’t do this right, anger will explode in the Muslim world.  If this is not handled correctly, this crisis could become much bigger than the Danish cartoon crisis, which resulted in attacks on Danish embassies in various parts of the Muslim world.

So, thereby, Rauf threatens us with Muslim madness:  if we in the West don’t behave “correctly”, if Muslims don’t get what they want, then once again, psychologically immature Muslim maniacs will throw temper tantrums.

Well, Mr. Bridge Builder, I have a suggestion for you:

•  Whereas, in general, Western tolerance is already exemplary;

•  Whereas we in the West (who have freedoms of speech and of the press) are already able to learn as much about other cultures as we desire;

•  Whereas we in the West are beginning to understand, quite well, thank you very much, some of the errors and evils of Islam, including its blatant intolerance of unbelievers in Islamic balderdash (e.g., the Koran’s injunction for Muslims to “kill the infidels”);

•  Whereas you claim that your goal is to “cultivate understanding” in a “multifaith, multinational effort”, “to strengthen relations between the Western and Muslim worlds”; and

•  Whereas the King of Saudi Arabia, the “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques”, has been promoting “interfaith dialogue” and surely would provide you with financial support to build your “multifaith center” ($100 million being mere pocket-change for him);

Therefore, I strongly recommend that you don’t try to build your “interfaith center” anywhere near where Muslim maniacs murdered thousands of innocent civilians – including anywhere in New York City, in America, or in the West – but instead, build it where it’s obviously so sorely needed:  at the Ground Zero of Intolerance, Mecca.

Stated differently, if you truly want to “promote tolerance” and “counter radical ideology”, then I recommend that you stop “skirting the margins of issues that have polarized relations within the Muslim world and between non-Muslims and Muslims”, and instead, put all your efforts into trying to show Muslims how civilized people live.

www.zenofzero.net