Muslims on Why No Mosque Should be Built Near Ground Zero

From the founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D. Dr Jasser served in the US Navy for 11 years as a doctor, and became a Lt CMDR. As a devout Muslim dedicated to contesting the ideas of political Islam and organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood, he explains why the huge mosque the Cordoba initiative run by Iman Rauf wants to build near ground zero is wrong in the NY Post today:

I am an American Muslim dedicated to defeating the ideology that fuels global Islamist terror -- political Islam. And I don't see such a "center" actually fighting terrorism or being a very "positive" addition near Ground Zero, no matter how well intentioned.

To put it bluntly, Ground Zero is the one place in America where Muslims should think less about teaching Islam and "our good side" and more about being American and fulfilling our responsibilities to confront the ideology of our enemies.

Khan and Rauf avoid discourse on reform and political Islam. Instead, they simply give us the familiar, too vague condemnation of "extremism and violence." They seem to conveniently view 9/11, al Qaeda and every manifestation of militant Islamism as simply a public-relations problem for "Muslims in the West." Imam Rauf has even gone so far as to bizarrely say that the 9/11 terrorists were "not Muslims."

As controversy over the project has become heated, Rauf's Web site has scrubbed the term "mosque" in exchange for "center" -- again missing the boat of why so many Americans are offended. (Meanwhile, the plans of another local Islamic group to rebuild near Ground Zero only added to the quandary.)

This is not about the building of a mosque or a religious facility. It is not about religious freedom. This is about a deep, soulful understanding of what happened to our country on 9/11.

When Americans are attacked, they come together as one, under one flag, under one law against a common enemy that we are not afraid to identify. Religious freedom is central to our nation - and that is why the location of this project is so misguided. Ground Zero is purely about being American. It can never be about being Muslim.

The World Trade Center site represents Ground Zero in America's war against radical Islamists who seek to destroy the American way of life. It is not ground zero of a cultural exchange.

He's not the only Muslim speaking out against this.  Here's former terrorist Walid Shoebat, who had fought for the PLO in his youth. He has since converted to Christianity, and reveals disturbing contradictions between Ground Zero mosque founder Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf’s English statements and his Arabic comments. At about 5:30 minutes in the video, Shoebat tells us establishing a mosque on any property is viewed to Muslims as being a Muslim embassy, and non-believers are not permitted to dismantle it.





Or as Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch points out:

The placement of mosques throughout Islamic history has been an expression of conquest and superiority over non-Muslims. Muslims built the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in order to proclaim Islam’s superiority to Judaism. The Umayyad Mosque in Damascus was built over the Church of St. John the Baptist, and the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople was converted into a mosque, to express the superiority of Islam over Christianity. Historian Sita Ram Goel has estimated that over 2,000 mosques in India were built on the sites of Hindu temples for the same reason...

The possibility of deception cannot here be ruled out, given that Abdul Rauf has a history of making smooth statements that appear to endorse American principles and values, when on closer examination he is upholding Sharia law, denigrating freedom of speech, and advocating against anti-terror measures.

At minimum, Imam Rauf is duplicitous. At worst, he seeks to undermine our ideals by using our open society and democratic process to impose a type of sharia law for Muslims in America.