Chowraha

3 Reasons the "Ground Zero Mosque" Debate Makes No Sense By:  Gladstone August 20th, 2010 439,991 views I don’t usually write about politics. It’s important, but something I want no part of – kind of like a raw sewage treatment facility. But frankly, I haven’t been this upset in a long time. And it's due to the logic-hating, herd-mentality rhetoric that some have been flinging in opposition to the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque.” For the uninitiated,  there are plans to construct an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan . And, of course, lower Manhattan is where the World Trade Center stood before terrorists destroyed it, thereby murdering 3,000 Americans. I was working in New York City at the time. As was my father. As was my pregnant wife. I remember the day well. And the days that followed. I think most of all, I remember standing on the Staten Island Ferry, coming home with 200 other silent, reverent New Yorkers of every age, race, and religion, as we watched...

From THE NEW YORK TIMES August 17, 2010 Our Mosque Madness By  MAUREEN DOWD WASHINGTON Maybe, for Barack Obama, it depends on what the meaning of the word “is” is. When the president skittered back from his grandiose declaration at an iftar celebration at the White House Friday that Muslims enjoy freedom of religion in America and have the right to build a mosque and community center in Lower Manhattan, he offered a Clintonesque parsing. “I was not commenting, and I will not comment, on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there,” he said the morning after he commented on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. “I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That’s what our country is about.” Let me be perfectly clear, Mr. Perfectly Unclear President: You cannot take such a stand on a matter of first principle and then take it back the next morning when, lo and behold, Harry Reid goes craven and the Republica...

Reporting from Washington — As top Republicans including House Minority Leader John A. Boehner and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich attack plans for an Islamic community center and mosque near the destroyed World Trade Center site, a larger schism is opening up in the GOP over the inflammatory issue. Some Republicans fear that pressing the issue carries risks, diverting attention from bread-and-butter issues and undercutting the party's efforts to broaden its base — just as it is losing ground among other ethnic minorities such as Latinos. "This is a distraction from a winning game plan," said Grover Norquist, a conservative activist who a decade ago worked with President George W. Bush and his political guru, Karl Rove , to cultivate Muslim American and Latino voters to try to build a more diverse and durable Republican majority. "It is very stupid, when Republicans are poised to win an overwhelming victory in November over Democratic spending, to focus at...

The "Ground Zero Mosque" that we have been and will be hearing so much about is not exactly a mosque, nor is it at Ground Zero. Here's why: you can't see Ground Zero -- the former site of the World Trade Center -- from the future site of the Cordoba House. From 45 Park Place, the former Burlington Coat Factory building that will make way for the Cordoba House, it's two blocks, around a corner, to get to the WTC site. Park Place doesn't lie between the construction site and any mass transit stations, so you would need to go out of your way to have it offend you. If you look up  the walking directions  you'll notice that it takes a couple of minutes to walk the distance (approximately a tenth of a mile) between the two spots. Pretty much two minutes exactly when I took the trip with a shaky video camera. Here's the clip, first sped up to 4X speed then slowed down to 1X Read more.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-sledge/just-how-far-is-the-groun_...

The following is an article I am re-sharing from Aman's google buzz, an American citizen and a law student in the USA. The original article was written by   ROMESH RATNESAR  on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010 for TIME. This is a great article in Time that talks about how this obsession in the media and in politics, regarding the Park51 community center, is a distraction from more important things.   There is a line in here about how this mosque/community, if it is built, will be "a symbolic monument to the triumph of Islamism in the United States." This was meant to be a negative statement said by an opposer of the community center. I reply by saying that should this center be built, it will indeed be a monument to the triumph of Islamism in the United States. The triumph of Muslims being fully accepted into America, not just as Muslims, but as Americans.   We Muslims here in America are not just Muslims, but Americans as well. As an American I can say with conviction, ...

A friend has nicely worded his thoughts on Obama's approval of mosque near Ground Zero site. Here it is below: Obama and Mayor Bloomberg (who, incidentally, is Jewish) deserve credit for their courageous stance. The mosque debate may be more symbolic than substantive, but symbols are important, they crystallize and shape ideas, and ideas often drive actions in international politics. It is not easy to take such a position in the America of today. Obama will probably pay a political price for it, but these are the sorts of moments that highlight the best aspects of the United States of America. Sarang --------- August 13, 2010 Obama Strongly Backs Islam Center Near 9/11 Site By  SHERYL GAY STOLBERG WASHINGTON —  President Obama  delivered a strong defense on Friday night of a proposed Muslim community center and  mosque near ground zero  in Manhattan, using a White House dinner celebrating Ramadan to proclaim that “as a citizen, and as president, I believ...

Municipal Land-Use Hearing Update - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 08/10/2010 - Video Clip | Comedy Central A distrust of Muslims is the one thing that unites America from sea to shining sea. Airdate - 08/10/2010

Transcript of Mayor Bloomberg’s Speech on Ground Zero Mosque Posted by  ReligiousLiberty.TV  on August 3, 2010 ·  View Comments   Delivered August 3, 2010 at Governors Island in New York. “We’ve come here to Governors Island to stand where the earliest settlers first set foot in New Amsterdam, and where the seeds of religious tolerance were first planted. We come here to see the inspiring symbol of liberty that more than 250 years later would greet millions of immigrants in this harbor. And we come here to state as strongly as ever, this is the freest city in the world. That’s what makes New York special and different and strong. “Our doors are open to everyone. Everyone with a dream and a willingness to work hard and play by the rules. New York City was built by immigrants, and it’s sustained by immigrants — by people from more than 100 different countries speaking more than 200 different languages and professing every faith. And whether your parents were born here ...

Bloomberg, the mayor of new york city, has stood firmly in support of the mosque and islamic center being built in close proximity to ground zero in spite of some harsh objection to it from some. Bloomberg is a very successful ex-businessman who is worth billions, and is, of course, jewish.  "Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question: Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion?" Bloomberg asked. "That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here. This nation was founded on the principle that the government must never choose between religions, or favor one over another." The video can be found here http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/mayor-bloombergs-ground-zero-mosque-speech-video/19579997

Note: the following is from an email I received today It's interesting and very sad, but not surprising, to note that India, which only last week extended a $1 billion line of credit to Bangladesh has provided zero aid to Pakistan during this terrible flood. The people affected by this terrible disaster are ordinary poor people that have lost everything and are as subcontinental as the rest of us. It is churlish and unbecoming of the Indian claim to represent an entire multi-faith, multi-ethnic civilization. The feelings are mutual; I have seen several Pakistani politicians and commentators express strong, sometimes virulent, anti-India feelings on Pakistani TV channels, and talk of "Pakistan won freedom from "the Hindus"" is not even controversial in Pakistan. Likewise, anti-Pakistan feelings run deep among much of India's urban middle-class, and the extremist attitudes of parties such as the Shiv Sena and some BJP leaders are well-known. Whe...