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Re: Obama backs mosque near Ground Zero
Obama backs mosque near Ground Zero
by Eric Werner / AP
WASHINGTON '“ President Barack Obama on Friday forcefully endorsed allowing a mosque near ground zero, saying the country's founding principles demanded no less.
"As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country," Obama said, weighing in for the first time on a controversy that has riven New York City and the nation.
"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," he said. "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable."
Obama made the comments at an annual dinner in the White House State Dining Room celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The White House had not previously taken a stand on the mosque, which would be part of a $100 million Islamic center two blocks from where nearly 3,000 people perished when hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001. Press secretary Robert Gibbs had insisted it was a local matter.
It was already much more than that, sparking debate around the country as top Republicans including Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich announced their opposition. So did the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group.
Obama elevated it to a presidential issue Friday without equivocation.
While insisting that the place where the twin towers once stood was indeed "hallowed ground," Obama said that the proper way to honor it was to apply American values.
"Our capacity to show not merely tolerance, but respect towards those who are different from us '” and that way of life, that quintessentially American creed, stands in stark contrast to the nihilism of those who attacked us on that September morning, and who continue to plot against us today," he said.
Obama harkened back to earlier times when the building of synagogues or Catholic churches also met with opposition. "But time and again, the American people have demonstrated that we can work through these issues, and stay true to our core values and emerge stronger for it," he said. "So it must be and will be today."
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent who has been a strong supporter of the mosque, welcomed Obama's words as a "clarion defense of the freedom of religion."
But some Republicans were quick to pounce.
"President Obama is wrong," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. "It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero. While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much."
Entering the highly charged election-year debate, Obama surely knew that his words would not only make headlines but be heard by Muslims worldwide. The president has made it a point to reach out to the global Muslim community, and the over 100 guests at Friday's dinner included ambassadors and officials from numerous Muslim nations, including Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Seated around candlelit tables, they listened closely as Obama spoke, then stood and applauded when the president finished his remarks.
While his pronouncement concerning the mosque might find favor in the Muslim world, Obama's stance runs counter to the opinions of the majority of Americans, according to polls. A CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week found that nearly 70 percent of Americans opposed the mosque plan while just 29 percent approved. A number of Democratic politicians have shied away from the controversy.
The group behind the $100 million project, the Cordoba Initiative, describes it as a Muslim-themed community center. Early plans call not only for prayer space but for a swimming pool, culinary school, art studios and other features. Developers envision it as a hub for interfaith interaction, as well as a place for Muslims to bridge some of their faith's own schisms.
Opponents, including some Sept. 11 victims' relatives, see the prospect of a mosque so near the destroyed trade center as an insult to the memory of those killed by Islamic terrorists in the 2001 attacks. Some of the Sept. 11 victims' relatives, however, are in favor.
The mosque has won approval from local planning boards but faces legal challenges, and New York's Conservative Party is planning a television ad campaign to pressure a New York City utility to use its power to block the project.
Re: Obama backs mosque near Ground Zero
Anyone with the money to build there should be allowed to unless they don't adhere to the rules and regulations of NYC.
What's it matter anyway? We're all living on land the white man stole from Indians that the white man also slaughtered.
Where's the outrage over that?
Besides, it wasn't just Christian white people who died that day. People of a multitude of races and origins did.
Re: Obama backs mosque near Ground Zero
Do you even know what a mosque is?
I sure do. Been in one too. And i'm perfectly fine with mosques, and people who are Islam. I've had friends, co-workers, schoolmates, all muslim in origin, and Islam by religion.
But this is an intention spit in the face of that day. This is trying to stir and start shit just for the sake of it.
Anyone with the money to build there should be allowed to unless they don't adhere to the rules and regulations of NYC.
What's it matter anyway? We're all living on land the white man stole from Indians that the white man also slaughtered.
Where's the outrage over that?
Besides, it wasn't just Christian white people who died that day. People of a multitude of races and origins did.
This has nothing to do with race.
A terrorist attack, in the name of Islam, who killed over 3,000 Americans, has a mosque, three blocks from where it happened.
You don't feel in anyway that this is a spiteful play? At all?
I don't see any of this is a terroristic threat, i'm just saying it's in ENORMOUS poor taste.
Religion is a choice, not a right. And what I mean by that is, you have a right to freedom of religion, but you don't have a right to respect of that position and that religion.
Re: Obama backs mosque near Ground Zero
Well, if I was president, I wouldn't build places of worship. I would ban it. All of it. Causes more problems than it solves.
Didn't he say he was commenting generally, and not specifically on this building? Since when does Presidents involve themselves in building? I thought it was a comment directed to your countrys free choice of will and to practise your religion, whatever it is, whenever in the States.
I don't support a mosque there, no, but I don't think he commented specifically towards this mosque.
Re: Obama backs mosque near Ground Zero
Besides, it wasn't just Christian white people who died that day. People of a multitude of races and origins did.
Exactly, and if people think your any different worse/better than the average Muslim (on the grounds that they are in fact muslim) then Al Quida's plan wokred, they have incited enough hate from outsiders against their religion that the men of their religion will have no choice but to fight back to protect themselves and their beleifs
FUCK - YOU
Drop into a mosque have a look around chat to some of the people there and after they welcome you in, see how it affects your opinion. There are more white christian terrorists in the world today than there are muslim ones
Re: Obama backs mosque near Ground Zero
Listen, my opinion on religion might be a bit hard for some to swallow..but.
Of all big religions, Islam is the worst. It's much younger than christianity, and never went thru an "awakening" as christians went thru a few hundred years ago. Christianity in Europe isn't much of the religion that it started out to be. We've ignored the bad parts, and focused on the good parts. However, it's not more than 50 years ago some communites in my country banned dancing because it was a sin. Religion puts chains to you, it tells you to do this and that. Muslim girls likes to wear hijabs, thinking they do it out of their free fucking will, while the origins of the hijab comes from men who simply decided women should cover themselves. Yeah, free will my ass.
Islam still holds many of these primitive ideas which the rest of us just finds absolutely offensive and downright annoying. From their mosque blasting out some guy yelling like he's having a seizure to all their "rules of living". While many muslims are liberal and doesn't care that much, the majority does, because in those countries where Islam holds strength, they simply never went through that "freedom of speech" type of thing. No enlightenment, and no room for debates on religion. It simply sticks to them like glue. Their religion is like my national pride. It won't let go.
Norwegians are morphing into a group of athiests. Just like the Swizz and the Dutch. We've put religion behind us as something primitive and something that holds no ground in the modern world. Many muslims are on the level of what christians were here at least 100 years ago. It just clashes. It doesn't work. And I never understood why they wanna come here to a country full of athiests with their religion. It's like a society within a society.
But anyhow, I despise religions. I despise them all, but I despise Islam the most.
