One does not celebrate a victory by planting one’s flag on the soil of the enemy unless he is occupying that land or intends to occupy it. If the Mosque is to be built in New York next to Ground Zero, then we might as well move Iwo Jima Memorial to Japan.
Some 25 years ago, I met at the infamous Le Fouqet in Paris with a Saudi national businessman who was very close to the al-Saud. It was a business meeting but because of few drinks the Saudi had, the conversation quickly turned to politics. Knowing I held a US passport as well as a Saudi one, he had a message for the US: Saudi Arabia will become the most powerful country and we will conquer all lands.
It was almost comedic hearing a Saudi, half inebriated, claim world dominance.
The connect between his words and reality were so far apart, I did not give it too much thought at the time, nor did I fully understand what his words meant. These were the words of a drunkard fool after all. Saudi Arabia controls Makah and Medina, the two Holiest Places in Islam. This means that 1.5 billion Muslims turn their heads and kneel for Saudi Arabia five times a day as a reminder of their piety but more importantly their submission.
What the Saudi businessman was telling me twenty five years ago was “It’s not the oil stupid, it’s religion”. If we let Saudi Arabia fund and build the Mosque in New York as a token of their triumphalism over the US for 9/11, we are in fact not applying the Freedom of Religion laws but rather, we are giving my religion the chance to conquer New York by planting its flag of victory.
Mayor Bloomberg is focused on one set of laws when he should be investigating every religious edict or Fatwa of Islam that emanated from our scholars the last 25 years. But what if religion acts like a conquering army? How could we reconcile this fact with our laws? Being an American, laws will always prevail, but being a Muslim also, I have a warning: We will conquer you if you do not change your laws accordingly.
The US better reconcile between Freedom of Religion and Islam as a conquering army. The two cannot co-exist for long.
COMMENTS
To keep talking about religion misses the point. islam is not a religion. it is a political ideology like communism, fascism and nazism.
Danny.. If you play Baseball, Islam is in the Middle of its curve ball trajectory. Eventually, wiser people will steer it to be the religion of peace it ought to be the way Christians steered away from the Inquisition.
It was religion that first taught men to look beyond his tribe, his village, his country. Rituals and paractices often change or are lost through time or geographical context. But the fundamental values of all Abrahamic religions remain the same since their foundation, meaning love, Peace, charity and mutual respect.
All religions are equal and none is more equal than the other… Rituals and practices are all a matter of geographical context according to climate and landscape (deserts, forests, mountains, seaside, riverside, ice and snow). Many of these practices and rituals change or are lost over time. But they all transmit the same values (those that are not adulterated by fundamentalisms) love, peace, charity and mutual respect.
Religion should be private, intimate, like love (the love of God), which generally we learn as children and practice as adults. The 'fundamentalists' of any religion, try not to allow us the intimate practice of our religion. They want to 'channel' our love of God to other ends, usually political objectives in order to obtain control and power, which have nothing to do with the concept of love. Often, the ignorant, will start worshipping some dictator or crook, and his or her original good intentions have been diverted to fanatism and or hysteria.
Very well said.. Thank you
I am still not sure if the election of President Obama was a good choice.. Nevertheless, I am sure that if part of Jerusalem were to be controlled by Muslims, foreign, non Muslim temples would have the same fate as those in Saudi Arabia, West Bank PA controlled towns as well as in Hamas controlled Gaza which destroyed all churches and sinagogues after Israel, as a Peace gesture, left Gaza in 2005.
I fully support Jerusalem to be under the control of Israel. We, Muslims, tend to build over other peoples’ Temples and Churches to erase their history. Until we admit to this “theft” as Germany admitted its role in the Holocaust, we will never have peace with the west and other civilizations. Incidentally, in addition to erasing cultures, we also do not admit our mistakes (i.e. Turkey’s Genocide of Armenians). Thank you for your comment. Farid
After escaping the WTC on 9/11, what so angered me is that our leaders never bothered to educate themselves about the teaching of islam. They still continue to allege that islam is a peaceful religion when in actuality the koran teaches intolerance, violence, bigotry, anti-Semitism, mysogony. They are building this mosque at Ground Zero for the same reason they built their mosques on the Temple Mount above the ruins of the two Temples in Jerusalem. Building this mosque at Ground Zero will be a tremendous victory for the jihadists over the US infidels – why else did they name it Cordoba Center? It refers to the mosque built atop the remains of a church in Cordoba after Soldiers of Allah conquered Spain.
We Muslims do have a history of many attempts to try and erase the history of others and the Temple is one good example. Did you know that Cordoba boasted 700 Mosques at the height of Islamic occupation? Partially to erase Christianity. I think every Mayor of major Metropolis, every Governor, and leading legislators including Federal Judges in all 50 States should have scholars on their staff whose job is to explain and educate their leaders about extreme Islam whose interpretation today leads us to wage wars and engage in violence. Thanks for your comment.. F
Farid – I’m a secular Jew…an actual member of the Association of Humanistic Rabbis. I’m not a big fan of any fundamentalist religion, including Islam. However, this country guarantees freedom of worship and unless we’re prepared to repeal the Bill of Rights, the Cordoba House should be built wherever it is legal to do so. Period. That’s what makes this the United States and not Saudi Arabia or Iran.
As long as extremists are planted amongst us and whose aim is to continue killing and forcing us to submit to Shariah and their ill-treatment of women, we should be cognizant of this fact and always on-guard. The very same people that want to possibly fund this Mosque have destroyed the home Prophet Mohammad was born in in Makah in collusion with the Wahabbis of Najd. If you can fully grasp why and understand the reasons, maybe you will see what we are facing.
As a Muslim, I can assure you that if we let them win, there will be no US Constitution to defend and our notion of Freedom of Religion will be exchanged for Shariah-compliant laws. It’s already starting to happen slowly. I applaud you for respecting what I believe is correct but not at the expense of losing the very same laws we uphold to defend ourselves. Thanks for your comment .. F.
I m a Jew from the Middle East, you have wonderful thoughts about secularism, humnanism ,
But i ve to desappoint you , concepts such as secularism, humanism do not exist in the Middle East where Islam rules and less freedom of religion
If you don't want the country you live in right now becomes Saudi Arabia or Iran ,
"No Mosque on Ground Zero , don't bring Middle East "Fundanmentalim" on US soil"
This "Kurtuba" house won't build brigde between civilisations
Thank you for your comment and kind words. I will be writing soon about your concept, which may have a truth to it. But the matter is very complicated. Like Shrek (Glad he is not a pig =:), Islam is like an onion that needs peeling once in a while. Farid
what is your REAL religion, Farid? Are you secular, a Christian? “self-hating Muslim” ?
Your conspiracy-minded analysis is bigoted inane drivel, on a par with the “Jews control the media” rants or “any Catholic U.S. president must take his orders from the Pope”.
I am a secular Muslim who wants to see my religion not kill so many people everyday in its name.
Maybe you should read my Blog one more time because from your description of who I am, you have a convoluted notion.
Thanks for commenting..
kattar amthalak ya Farid!
The clash of civilizations does exist. It’s not political, religious or social. It concerns the genders. Women! Whilst ‘western women’ continue considering the ‘oppressed’, ‘enslaved’, Iranian and Middle-Eastern women as a natural ‘cultural’ occurrence, nothing will happen… But as soon as ‘western women’ wake up and realize that if they do nothing, they themselves eventually risk the same fate as their Eastern brethren, and start to act, (humanitarian and political intervention), as soon as the oppressed women of our world, about 75% of the global female population, realize they can have a better life, than many adjustments will have to be made in most oriental societies and religions, and this is when the real clash o civilizations will start!…
That’s a good angle. But sometimes, it works through different dynamics. The same people who voted for Obama in the US have saved South Africa from Apartheid. But when it comes to Islam, they’d rather deal with Muslim oppressors and rulers than save our community from inevitability. But I think you’re right about your observations of women acting to save other oppressed women. Thanks for your comment.. F.
That’s a ceratvie answer to a difficult question
first thing to grasp: Islam is not a religion. It is a politic.