In 1939, 1940, and even in early 1941, there were large groups of Americans pleading with the Roosevelt administration not to get America involved in the war in Europe. Although he already had reached a secret accord with Winston Churchill to bring America into the war, Roosevelt appeared to be acceding to popular demands. It wasn’t until deliberate provocation by the forces of the Japanese that Americans began to say, “Whoa, wait a minute; they can’t do that to us, and those guys are allies of the Germans. Hey, Franklin, let’s go kick some butt.”
There were plenty of German sympathizers, plenty of people of German and Japanese descent living in the United States at the time. Parts of the Midwest were especially sympathetic to the cause of Adolph Hitler, to the point of being openly anti-Semitic and blaming the Jews for the depression in the United States.
Today, we seem to be facing a somewhat analogous situation. It is not based on race but on religion. We are a nation founded on freedom of religion. However, that does not mean that religious fanatics can flaunt their religion to the detriment of others. With all due respect to my Islamic brothers and sisters, you are being betrayed by a group of fanatics who are in a jihad with the United States and who will not be satisfied until this country has been destroyed. As part of that jihad, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the head of the Cordoba Institute, wants to build a mosque near where a small group of Muslim fanatics flew two airplanes into a couple of buildings, killing more than 3,000 people. You will have to pardon me but I find it very, very difficult to believe Imam Rauf when he says that the mosque location would help “bridge the great divide” between Muslims and the rest of America.
You may find this difficult to believe…I did until I experienced it firsthand…but there are still people in parts of the South who consider all “northerners” suspect and guilty of “the war for Southern Independence,” or what the rest of us call, the Civil War. We are, in fact, a nation that is already divided on many fronts. I really don’t care what a few Roman Catholic priests may say; I don’t care what some Protestant ministers may declare; heck, I don’t care if Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League should change his mind and say, “Okay,” building anything Islamic within sight of where the World Trade Center stood is just plain “In your face.” I, for one, think that it is totally inappropriate.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of posts and articles regarding the proposed mosque that the Cordoba Institute wishes to build. Most of these, as you might well imagine, are either far to the left or far to the right. The Republican Party has been quick to jump on President Obama’s remarks about freedom of religious practice as an endorsement of the proposed site, which I find to be merely another example of people hearing only what they wish to hear.
It is my understanding, and please correct me if I’m wrong, that Muslims have a history of building mosques on the sites of their conquests. Let me quote from one source: “The Prophet Muhammad himself made the Ka’aba, a pagan pantheon, into a mosque after he captured Mecca in 630 CE. The Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem was deliberately built near the Temple Mount, the holiest places in Judiasm. The Ummayad mosque in Damascus was built on the site of the Church of Saint John. Babri mosque in Ayodhya, India was built by demolishing a Hindu temple at the site of Hinduism’s Lord Rama’s birthplace. They built mosques on the sites of thousands of temples throughout India.”
Are all of these remarks accurate? They are easily checked and they are pretty much on the money. Does this mean Imam Rauf and his followers are trying to continue the tradition of building a mosque on the site of an Islamic conquest? First and foremost, there was no “conquest” involved. A bunch of extremists of one religion took a shockingly large number of lives of people – some of whom were of their same religious beliefs, just not as fanatical – in order to show that they could do it. These were not religious believers; they were nut cases, intent on making a point by killing themselves and others. They were successful; they proved their point, just as they proved their point in Washington, D.C., but just as a group of Americans proved their point in a field in Pennsylvania…”You screw with us and we will take you down; we may die doing it, but we will not allow you to get away with everything you wish to do.”
If, as Imam Rauf claims, “We are Americans, we are Muslim Americans,” and that all his followers want to do is “…bring up our children in peace and harmony in this country,” then why has he and his group rejected New York Governor David Patterson’s offer to help find space for this mosque elsewhere? None of this makes any sense. My contention would be that Rauf is just a more sophisticated Osama bin Laden, with the same ultimate mind set, and that is to undermine America. To me, he is just as much a religious fanatic as those who flew the planes into the World Trade Center and whether or not he likes my words is of no concern to me. Go ahead and build a mosque in New York, Mr. Rauf, but don’t you dare attempt to build it within site – from anywhere in New York City – of the spot where the World Trade Center stood; that is insulting and demeaning to not only those who lost friends and family in the bombing, but to every single American citizen of any religious beliefs, your own included.
When I learned that there were actually “American” Muslims who cheered the bombing of the WTC, I was sick to my stomach. Those people should have been immediately identified and deported from this country. We don’t need this. Yes, we are a country founded on religious freedoms; yes, we are a nation of reasonably tolerant individuals. However, we are also a country that freely elects local, state, and national government to enact laws, to uphold those laws, and to executively manage our nation in times of both peace and war. I will grant that for a number of years we have found it difficult to find the right people to do all of those things; that we have, stupidly I admit, allowed the bullshit artists to become our leaders at all levels. These are people who make promises to get elected and forget to keep those promises once they are in office. Perhaps that should be the new definition of the word, “politician.”
Will the mosque 600 feet from Ground Zero be built? No, I rather doubt that it will. However, by his very actions, Mr. Rauf has helped to further deepen the schism that fanatical Muslims wish to create in America. Very clever, Mr. Rauf, but exceptionally transparent. You call yourself an American Muslim. That is not, repeat, not what you mean. What you are actually saying is that you are a Muslim, born in America, but following what has become for far too many a jihadist religion. Muslims are people of peace. By your very actions, you have demonstrated that you are not a true Muslim. I feel sorry for you, that you have chosen to become a pawn in the hands of the few rather than a leader of those who would follow the true path of your religion.
Dick Bishop
Dick Bishop's Blog 