by Karen Lugo<\/p>\n
Redcounty.com<\/p>\n
There is still time \u2014 and there are many reasons \u2014 to stop the Ground Zero Mosque. The location of a mega-mosque so close to Ground Zero has focused critical attention on the issue of mosque placements all across the United States. The fact that we are caught with no standards by which to assess this imam\u2019s grand mosque project \u2014 or so-called community center \u2014 spotlights the need for a national mosque litmus test.<\/p>\n
Between a blind fixation on free speech, freedom of association and a general sense that anything called religion gets a pass from government scrutiny, Islamists are free to set up shop in America\u2019s towns and cities with little more than random protests. The Ground Zero Mosque has become a flashpoint for a long overdue national discussion.<\/p>\n
What we must confront is that strict Islamic law, or sharia, is more a political regime than it is a religion. As world-recognized historian and scholar Bernard Lewis writes in\u00a0Islam and the West<\/em>, \u201cThere is only a single law, the shari\u2019a, accepted by Muslims as of divine origin and regulating all aspects of human life: civil, commercial, criminal, constitutional, as well as matters more specifically concerned with religion in the limited, Christian sense of that word.\u201d The western idea of distinct institutionalized roles for church and state \u201cis alien to Islam\u201d according to Lewis.<\/p>\n Sam Solomon and E. Al Maqdis, students of Islamic immigration trends, write, \u201cIslam is neither a religion nor a faith in a personal way as defined and understood in the West. It is a whole encompassing political system, garbed in religious outfit, addressing every aspect of the life of its adherents. More importantly, these authors warn host societies \u201cin interest of national security [to] examine all requests for cultural accommodation from a socio-political angle.\u201d<\/p>\n While permitting mosques is argued as a harmless religious accommodation, it often becomes a series of escalating concessions as participating Muslims seek to absorb and reform the surrounding community. Establishing a mosque, as hub of family and community life, is often just the beginning. As the concentration of Muslims rises, existing residents flee. Muslims have also begun to require communities to tolerate sharia requirements by\u00a0expanding prayers onto public sidewalks<\/a>,\u00a0halal-only food<\/a>\u00a0sales, requiring community pools to\u00a0restrict mixed bathing hours<\/a>, and filing permits to\u00a0broadcast calls to prayer<\/a>. In Paris,\u00a0streets are blockaded<\/a>\u00a0for Friday prayers in two city districts. Once a Muslim enclave is established, the area often becomes \u201cno-go\u201d for others. In Manhattan, there is an annual Muslim Day parade and streets are filled, curb-to-curb, for\u00a0prayer<\/a>\u00a0before the parade starts.<\/p>\n Muslims expecting to build mosques should not be given a blanket religious legal exemption to gather, teach, raise money, and potentially spread Wahhabist radicalism. While some mosques may pass scrutiny, we must subject all to reasonable questioning and accountability. We have made it too convenient for Islamists to hide behind religious or cultural pretext by invoking special First Amendment protections. Also, these organizations should be put on notice up front that community compromises will not be made once the mosque is established. A house of worship is one thing. A center for spreading radicalism and requiring the neighborhood to conform to sharia is another.<\/p>\n Sharia-practicing Muslims have learned to push our intolerance button. Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) executive director, Nihad Awad told Bill O\u2019Reilly that those complaining about the Grand Zero Mosque were just hiding behind the charge of \u201cinsensitivity\u201d as a \u201csmoke screen for bigotry<\/a>.\u201d It is time to defend against these spurious charges of intolerance. Not only are we tolerant, we defend tolerance to the death, and do so around the world. It is just prudent to protect ourselves from a strategy of sabotage. Period. No apologies.<\/p>\n So, as we respond to the utter insult and defiance of placing this Cordoba Initiative Mosque \u2014 reference to AD 711\u00a0Muslim conquest of Spain<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 on the outskirts of Ground Zero, there are some important answers to demand of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife, Daisy Khan. Yet, it has been difficult to even\u00a0pose the questions<\/a>\u00a0as reporter Claudia Rosett has learned. She succeeded in tracking the imam to his office in Malaysia, he informed her that he was too busy to talk.<\/p>\n We are left to speculate as to the source for funds to purchase the land and complete the over $100 million project. We certainly know that somebody will have a huge investment in the implementation of this \u201cinitiative.\u201d Even worse, the imam also refuses to answer questions about his past admiration for the Muslim Brotherhood, his\u00a0advocacy of a Shariah Index<\/a>\u00a0that would rate countries\u2019 compliance with the strict Muslim code, and his\u00a0accusatory statements<\/a>\u00a0about America\u2019s blame for 9-11: “I wouldn’t say that the United States deserved what happened, but United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened . . . . In fact, in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.”<\/p>\n Prosecutor of the Blind Sheikh after the first World Trade Center attack, Andy McCarthy says in his new book\u00a0The Grand Jihad\u00a0that the \u201cFramers gave us a Constitution that guarantees freedom of conscience, not freedom from examination. You can believe whatever you wish to believe, but you do not foreclose your beliefs from inspection by labeling them \u2018religion\u2019\u2014 even if the label is accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n Our religious liberty legal standards require that any law that specifically targets a religion must demonstrate a compelling governmental reason for singling out the particular religious practice. First, we should ask whether all Muslim organizations qualify as religions as distinguished from socio-political organizations \u2014 and then we must determine whether the government\u2019s national security interest is sufficient to challenge the group\u2019s right to assemble.<\/p>\n The Ground Zero Mosque should be an easy initiative to defeat since the funding and imam present questions and suspicions on many levels. Whether there is the will to mount the public pressure needed is another question. When one considers that the Brits were able to block the erection of the Mega Mosque whose minarets were intended to dominate the London skyline for the 2012 Olympics, it should be easy for Americans to marshal the will to stop a mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Karen Lugo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Karen Lugo Redcounty.com There is still time \u2014 and there are many reasons \u2014 to stop the Ground Zero Mosque. The location of a mega-mosque so close to Ground Zero has focused critical attention on the issue of mosque placements all across the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[565],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-mx","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1370,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/top-muslims-condemn-ground-zero-mosque-as-a-zionist-conspiracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1397,"position":0},"title":"Top Muslims Condemn Ground Zero Mosque as a ‘Zionist Conspiracy’","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim PJ Media In a recent\u00a0article, I argued that the Ground Zero mosque is counterproductive to Islam. The following day, on August 5th, the Egyptian newspaper\u00a0Al Masry Al Youm\u00a0reported that none other than Al Azhar \u2014 one of Sunni Islam's most authoritative institutions \u2014 agrees. My translation of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1402,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ground-zero-mosque\/","url_meta":{"origin":1397,"position":1},"title":"Ground Zero Mosque","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Why it is counterproductive to the Islamist cause. by Raymond Ibrahim PJ Media While vexing to many, the\u00a0mega mosque\u00a0set to be built two blocks from Ground Zero has produced one interesting but unintended consequence: like the 9\/11 strikes a decade before it, the \"9\/11 mosque\" is also creating a stir,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1399,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/dershowitz-vs-hanson-on-the-anti-defamation-league-and-the-ground-zero-mosque\/","url_meta":{"origin":1397,"position":2},"title":"Dershowitz vs. Hanson: On the Anti-Defamation League and the Ground Zero Mosque","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Frontpagemag.com [Editor\u2019s note: Alan Dershowitz submitted an article to Frontpagemag.com criticizing the Anti-Defamation League\u2019s opposition to the plans for a mosque to be built at Ground Zero. We decided to run the piece with a rebuttal by Victor Davis Hanson. An extra round between the two follows.] Anti-Defamation League Should\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2010"","block_context":{"text":"August 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/august-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1480,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-two-faces-of-the-ground-zero-mosque\/","url_meta":{"origin":1397,"position":3},"title":"The Two Faces of the Ground Zero Mosque","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim PJ Media Depending on whether Islamists address Americans or fellow Muslims, the same exact words they use often relay diametrically opposed meanings. One example: when Americans hear Muslims evoke \"justice,\" the former envision Western-style justice, whereas Muslims naturally have Sharia law justice in mind. Islamists obviously use\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1379,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-cynical-brilliance-of-imam-rauf\/","url_meta":{"origin":1397,"position":4},"title":"The Cynical Brilliance of Imam Rauf","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Almost everything about the proposed Ground Zero mosque was cynically brilliant. Start with the notion of a \u201cCordoba Initiative.\u201d In the elite modern Western mind, Cordoba has been transmogrified into a mythical Lala Land of interfaith tolerance. To invoke the city is to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2010"","block_context":{"text":"August 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/august-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1372,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/islam-idiots\/","url_meta":{"origin":1397,"position":5},"title":"‘Islam Idiots’?","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner One might understand why Newsweek recently sold for a dollar and apparently went the way of\u00a0Harper\u2019s\u00a0from David A. Graham\u2019s \u201cThe Islam Idiots.\u201d As a self-proclaimed nuanced expert on Islam, he bashes conservative critics of the Ground Zero mosque project (among them Andy McCarthy and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2010"","block_context":{"text":"August 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/august-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1398,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397\/revisions\/1398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}