PrintAugust 17, 2010
What If It Were the Klan, Mr. Mayor?
Is the Ground Zero mosque kerfuffle really about general principles applicable to all religions? Does Mayor Michael Bloomberg mean it when he says of the proposed Islamic mosque that is intended to loom over Ground Zero, "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? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here."
Oh really? Would that apply to The United Realms of America, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, whose particular religious convictions are reflected and advanced through their "White Christian Church"?
Would Bloomberg and City Council President Christina Quinn and the ten religious leaders* -- who stood with him in lower Manhattan as he was making his speech on tolerance, Lady Liberty as backdrop for picture-taking purposes -- have taken out their pompoms for the United Realms of America the way they have for the Muslim group?
On a whim, I decided to troll the internet for a Klan site to see if I could find something that might test the "tolerance" of the mayor and our other aforementioned moralists.
And it didn't take long. I happened upon the United Realms and ascertained that they prayed at their White Christian Church, and as expected, they aren't very friendly towards blacks, Jews, and other minorities. But they are smart enough not to use the "N" word, or epithets for anyone else, and as expected, they're harshest on Jews, whom they seem to consider false Israelites. And oh, they are about as tolerant of gays (take note, "Queers for Palestine") as are the imams in the West Bank and Gaza, who cause gay Arab men and women to flee for their lives to Tel Aviv. They love their own race and claim to eschew violence except to defend themselves, etc., etc. But amid all the nonsense, there is no doubt that their rallying point is their belief in the Lord Yahweh and his son, Yeshuah, (Jesus Christ), and their White Christian Church.
And it didn't take long. I happened upon the United Realms and ascertained that they prayed at their White Christian Church, and as expected, they aren't very friendly towards blacks, Jews, and other minorities. But they are smart enough not to use the "N" word, or epithets for anyone else, and as expected, they're harshest on Jews, whom they seem to consider false Israelites. And oh, they are about as tolerant of gays (take note, "Queers for Palestine") as are the imams in the West Bank and Gaza, who cause gay Arab men and women to flee for their lives to Tel Aviv. They love their own race and claim to eschew violence except to defend themselves, etc., etc. But amid all the nonsense, there is no doubt that their rallying point is their belief in the Lord Yahweh and his son, Yeshuah, (Jesus Christ), and their White Christian Church.
One other thing: Whatever one may think of the racial and religious views of the person or persons who put together their website -- he, she, or it -- they write well, and they are obviously intelligent. If they came out from under their hoods and toned it down a few notches here and several more notches there, they might appear as moderate as, oh, I don't know...Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan of the Cordoba Initiative. But who can know for sure?
Given that they are a faith-based group, it seems fair to ask Mayor Bloomberg, and the rest of his coterie who accompanied him to lower Manhattan as he was making his plea for tolerance, if that tolerance would extend to the United Realms as it did to the Cordoba Initiative.
So here's a test for Mayor Bloomberg and all the others regarding religious tolerance. Assume that the United Realms of the Ku Klux Klan found a deep-pocketed backer or backers. Then let's say the Afrikaners beat the Muslim activists to Park 51 and decided to buy the property and turn it into a thirteen-story white Christian church and cultural center, with a garish upper exterior, encased in gold leaf finish sure to shine in the afternoon sun, so one couldn't help but notice it.
Suppose that multiple investigations into the United Realms showed them to be innocent of any crime: no incitements to violence, no beatings, no murders, no cross-burning in black neighborhoods. They just happen to be racists. Think the mayor would be making the same speech about tolerance that he did in lower Manhattan? Think Ms. Quinn, and all those religious leaders calling for tolerance, would be standing by his side if he did? Think the Landmark Preservation Committee would have voted the same way on the landmark status of 51 Park Place?
The symbolism wouldn't be too nice, would it, if a thirteen-story white racist church went up two blocks from Ground Zero, looking down on the graves of all those dead African-Americans, dead blacks from the Caribbean, dead Puerto Ricans and other Hispanics, dead Asians, dead Jews, dead Catholics, dead members of every other ethnic and religious group in N.Y.C? Think Mayor Bloomberg and the rest of the tolerance town criers would stand up to Al Sharpton?
Now wouldn't Mayor Bloomberg, City Council President Quinn, and New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (who declared himself in favor of the mosque on day one), despite the Mayor's thoughtless "I don't think we're going to go and start investigating funding sources for religious organizations" when he was talking about the mosque, be falling over each other to demand an investigation of the questionable sources of funding for a white Christian church?
And how does Christina Quinn, for one (probably the most well-known and powerful gay politician in New York City), make a speech the day after the California ruling on gay marriages asking for the same in New York State after having stood beside the self-righteous mayor of NYC on the mosque issue? How does she rationalize her silence in the face of homophobic Islamists? Is it possible that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf -- the force behind the mosque, who won't condemn Hamas, who compared shariah to the Declaration of Independence, who is a member of the Perdona Global Peace Organization, a major player in the "Free Gaza Movement," and a man who claimed "U.S. policies were an accessory to the crime that happened" (9/11) -- is actually a liberal on homosexual rights? About as likely as the head of Hamas is an orthodox Jew. But since the subject is allegedly tolerance, wouldn't it be nice if Ms. Quinn publicly asked Mr. Rauf what he could do to improve tolerance for gays among those in the American Muslim community? But there she stands, back-to-back with the mayor and up against the prejudice which she has been battling her whole life, and utters not a peep.
And wouldn't Andrew Cuomo, running for governor of New York with an apparent veil of invincibility, who declared his support almost immediately for the Ground Zero mosque, have immediately announced an investigation of the funding of a white Christian church? Why isn't he curious about the seemingly secretive nature of the funding behind the mosque project?
After all, one of the leaders of CAIR, Nihad Awad, is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case, in which money allegedly meant for charities in the Middle East was illegally sent to Hamas instead. But so far, Mr. Cuomo appears not at all curious about where the mosque backers will come up with a hundred million more dollars for the Islamic Center, and not very curious where the first five million dollars came from already.
Islam lives to, and loves to, dominate. In 2002, the Islamacists in Nazareth attempted to illegally build a mosque, taller than and next to the Basilica of the Annunciation, one of Christendom's holiest sites, whose lower church contains the grotto which, tradition holds, was the home of Mary and the site of the Annunciation. Christians worldwide protested, and an Israeli government reluctant to get in to the middle of the dispute eventually did, ruling in favor of the Christian claims, and tore down what had been built of the mosque.
As for radical Muslims, who have grown in number in America, many have come not to enjoy democracy American style, but to dominate. And just like in the old days, when immigrant Italians couldn't contend with the mafia because they could be killed, those Muslims (and nobody has any idea what the numbers are) who wish to integrate and be loyal Americans can't contend with the many radicals who have infiltrated our country. So the Muslim radicals, the Islamicists, build when the opportunity presents itself -- not necessarily just mosques in which to pray, but mosques which are an expression of Islamic domination, wherever they can accomplish it and whenever they can get away with it.
The latest is in Santa Clara, California, part of the Bay area. There, a local mosque has been given the okay to build a 64-foot minaret. This was approved by the Santa Clara Planning Commission after the design had earlier been approved by the City's Architectural Review Board. A few people protested, most prominently a local business man who said that first, the minaret did not fit in with the prevailing look of the community, and second, that property values in the industrial area near the mosque would go down. His arguments were rejected unanimously by the Planning Commission.
Does the Santa Clara Planning Commission and their Architectural Review Board appear to be a mirror-image of Mayor Bloomberg and the NYC Landmarks Preservation Committee, or does it just look that way? Well, we can't be sure, but here is something we do know: Every poll taken so far shows nearly 70% of the people of New York City, and in fact the rest of the country, do not want a mosque near Ground Zero. So whatever the wishes of the citizens of Santa Clara might be, either the City Planing Commission and the Architectural Planning Board reflect those wishes, or, like in New York, they are overriding them.
The fact is, however, that in New York City, no matter the wishes of a large majority of the citizenry, the people behind the mosque have a legal right to build. But why make it so easy for them? We are at war with radical Islam, and their adherents are growing in America, but liberals, with rare exceptions, have just gone brain-dead when it comes to recognizing and dealing with that harsh reality. Like the British governments which preceded Churchill's and pretended Hitler was no problem, they just refuse to accept reality.
Or maybe it's like the Israeli government's initial hesitation to act in accordance with Israeli law regarding the Basilica of the Annunciation, and the Bloomberg administration going along with the Cordoba mosque, and the Santa Clara Commission pushing through the minaret. No one wants any trouble with their Muslim population. Nobody is looking for any fatwas!
So sadly, showing great respect for the mosque group that has shown none to New Yorkers and the rest of America, the present Governor of New York, David Paterson, is nevertheless offering to help the Cordoba Initiative people in finding another space if they please, please won't build near Ground Zero. Think he would make the same offer to a white Christian church?
