Dr. Paul A. Ibbetson

Right now at ground zero in New York a battle over the construction of buildings following 9/11 is raging. It is hard to believe that almost nine years following the Islamic attacks that took thousands of American lives, post-9/11 construction has moved at the speed of a dying snail. Even more perplexing than the failure of New York officials to take on aggressive construction projects to breathe life back into areas destroyed by 9/11 is the proposed mega mosque building project only blocks away from ground zero.

It’s times like these that a person has to shake his head and wonder, “Are you just trying to provoke me?” From Voice of America News, Carolyn Weaver reports on the plans of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, president of what has been called the Cordoba Initiative to create a mega mosque and community center near ground zero. In Weaver’s report, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf attempts to frame the mega mosque as though it will be a cultural meeting point for as many non-Muslims as followers of Islam. With the long history of Islamic intolerance of what they consider non-believers, Rauf’s sales pitch demands a high level of scrutiny. To get further compliance, Rauf claims that those who oppose a mega mosque being built on the ashes of 9/11are Islamophobes. This is an insult to America’s dead and deserves a healthy rebuke, which I am ready to give.

Without question Imam Rauf is attempting to crack the political correctness whip on the backs of Americans in the hopes that fear of the bigot brand will allow Islamic expansion into what Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs has properly termed a “war memorial.” The idea forwarded by proponents that unity and tolerance can be achieved by building a mega mosque where Americans were butchered by Islamic radicals has the same tasteful appeal as building a Nazi gift shop at Auschwitz. So why create a religious supercenter in the most inflammatory place it could be built in America?

The answer is to make a religious statement of supremacy by expanding mosque construction in areas of cultural and historical significance. This is not just an issue within the United States. James Delingpole of Human Events talks at length about the Islamic push for mega mosque construction near the site of the 2012 Olympics in England. On Pajamas Media Television in an interview with Baroness Caroline Cox, councilor Alan Craig, who spearheaded the opposition to the London super mosque project, aptly alluded to the fact that the mega mosques go far beyond benign meeting places of worship to what can be interpreted as overt symbols of Islamic expansion.

Once again showing her moxie in the face of the politically correct whips, Sarah Palin called for New Yorkers to oppose the mega mosque at ground zero. After Sarah Palin, GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio stepped up in opposition to the mosque and called for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. If preliminary research on Rauf is any indication, the attorney general would be wise to take a long, hard look at the Imam who is rolling out the construction plans for the super mosque in New York.

As Aaron Klein of WorldNetDaily reports, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf appears to be nothing short of a proselytizing Islamic radical. According to Klein, Rauf has publicly blamed America for 9/11, refused to recognize Hamas as a terrorist group and even was quoted as refusing to admit that Muslims carried out the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Even Rauf’s 2004 book titled “What’s Right with Islam is What’s Right with America” had a radically dark Arabic title when published overseas, “The Call From the WTC Rubble: Islamic Da’wah From The Heart of America Post-9/11.”Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf’s books, in combination with the super mosque project, congeal into nothing short of a two-headed snake that will strike all in its domain or a rabid dog raising its haunch to mark new territory.

Either way it’s dangerous, deadly business that carries the unique, foul odor of anti-Americanism. The American people have no inclination, requirement or duty to be tolerant of such an aggressive affront to the dignity of our dead by those who would perpetuate the same mentality that has brought such pain to our people. The territorial mark of a mega mosque at ground zero in New York should be met with complete and utter rejection.

In 1997, under the direction of Andrew Niccol, people viewed on their cinema screens a sterilized world of growing government perfection. The movie, “Gattaca,” depicted a world where through genetic selection only children with their parents’ desired hereditary traits were given societal acceptance. The children that were born naturally, void of the process called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, were labeled “in-valids” and were treated as societal junk and placed in menial labor jobs. To the elites of this futuristic world, this made for a more productive humanity. Like liberals today, the power wielders of this science fiction story wanted to make their version of a better, more productive and certainly healthier society, and to do that they needed the power of the government. Gattaca was a world of sterilized government control where the “haves” and the “have nots” of social class warfare could be identified with the technological speed of an eye scan, cheek swab or blood test.

It would be easy to leave these Orwellian-style cinematic depictions of worlds with governments running amuck at the doors of the theatre if it weren’t for the disquieting reality that society seems to mirror these movies at an alarming rate. One has only to look to recent events to see that it is the modern liberal of today that works feverishly to build the Gattaca of tomorrow. Ed Morrissey of Hot Air reported on July 6, 2010 of New York Governor David Paterson’s attempt to tax the fat out of people, with a high-profile levy on sugary drinks. The ultra-liberal, get-your-Gattaca-here Mayor Gavin Newsom achieved level one of calorie control in his sphere of influence by declaring Coke, Pepsi, and Fanta Orange as in-valid and thus rejecting them from city vending machines and exchanging them for soy and rice milk.

If you think that you can avoid having to choke down Newsom’s rice milk by simply avoiding San Francisco, you are not seeing the bigger picture. Liberals wish to control every aspect of human life. This is a desire based not simply on their warped belief that they know better than average citizens how average citizens should live, but also on the less altruistic reality that liberals like to wield power through government control. Of these liberal builders of a bigger, better and much bolder government of tomorrow are the Obamas. As president, Barack Obama has expanded government control into the private industries, the banks, health care and soon the energy by which all of these entities operate. Michelle Obama, well she wants to build a better tomorrow by way of your children.

As reported in Politico, with Michele Obama’s outlet on LetsMove.gov, the first lady tries aggressively to move beyond simple nutrition education and into the world of liberal mandates when it comes to school food. Michele Obama was quoted by Politico as saying, “Kids are malleable, and they’re also open to learn. We’re the ones that stand in the way.” She further states, “We’re going to have to step it up and make some changes on our own to get our kids where we want them to be.” Within this same vein she spoke about her future plans to eliminate school desserts and push her agenda to the public forefront, at the level of attention given to the AIDS epidemic. In other words, move over Newsom, with you rice-milk-filled city vending machines, it’s the Obamas who wish to draw up the master blueprints to a healthier world through government control. The effects in the schools are moving quickly. Alison Bologna of Fox News Boston reports that children are now being sent home with “fat reports.” The school is reported to be required to calculate the body mass index (BMI) of children to decide what portions they are allowed to eat. The “valids” and “in-valids” at school will now be determined by the governmental BMI.

Is this assessment nothing more than fear mongering, an attempt to falsely portray a soon-coming world of “Obamaca” where only science fiction really exists? Some will say so even as Barack Obama expands the government into every part of the economy and Michele Obama trots school desserts into the parking lot to be shot. I say that any time government mandates supersede education and free choice, we move further away from what America stands for, and what had made this blessed nation great. Freedom—it’s as American as apple pie with all the glorious calories.

From an email recently received by our administrators:

Subj: Censored Protest at Ground Zero

Stop the Mosque at Ground Zero
Part II
June 16, 2010, New York , N.Y. , by El Marco

Americans Stand Up Against Radical Islam in New York.  We Will Not Submit!

Not one major network sent a satellite truck or camera crew to this event. Without bloggers this newsworthy event would have remained unknown to the public and history.

On Sunday, June 6th, a multi-ethnic, multi-racial coalition of Americans opposed to Islamic violence and intolerance rallied at the site of the World Trade Center in New York City .

9/11 families were joined by immigrants from India, Russia, Egypt, Israel, Africa, Iran and Europe to show opposition to the construction of a mega-mosque at Ground Zero. Others flew in from overseas to speak or just to share their particular ethnic communities? experiences at the hands of Muslims.

These are parents and spouses of firefighters killed on 9/11. The rally took place just a minute?s walk from Ladder 10 Firehouse, where their loved ones were stationed for duty that terrible day. Ladder 10 lost seven firefighters.

Crowd estimates ranged from 5,000 (NYPD) to 10,000. The crowd overflowed the police barrier enclosures that ran the full length of two city blocks. This photo shows the enclosure in front of the stage at the intersection of Liberty and Church Streets. The second enclosure ran the length of the next block and can be seen on the other side of the traffic lights.

Thousands of additional participants filled the treed area of Zuccotti Park.

Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller are the founders of STOP ISLAMIZATION OF AMERICA, which sponsored the rally. Ms. Geller is a citizen journalist and blogger who runs the human rights web site Atlas Shrugs. Mr. Spencer is the author of several books on Islam and head of the influential web site Jihad watch. Pamela Geller:

Ground Zero is a war memorial, Ground Zero is a burial ground. We are asking for sensitivity? It is unconscionable to build a shrine to the very ideology that inspired the jihadist attacks at Ground Zero, right there. We are asking the imam Rauf and Daisy Khan to be sensitive. For mutual respect and mutual understanding that is demanded of us every day.

There’s a hair-trigger sensitivity in the Muslim world, you can’t run the cartoons, you can’t say Mohammed, this is offensive. This is an offensive mosque. To build a shrine, an Islamic flag of conquest on the sacred ground the cherished site, of a conquered land. This is historic, this is Islamic history. It’s what they do. The St. Sofia in Turkey, the al-Quds, at the holiest Jewish site in Israel. Not here. This is where we take a stand. We must take a stand. We must say no.

I do not believe that the landmarks commission controlled by Mayor Bloomberg, is going to stop this mosque. It’s not going to happen. Here’s Omar Muhamedi, on his human rights council, a CAIR lawyer, who sued the airlines and the Jane and John Does that saw something and said something on those airplanes, if you remember. That’s who’s on his human rights commission. It aint gonna happen with Bloomberg. We have to make it happen. You have to get involved. (Pamela Geller)

Police enclosure on left, with crowd flowing out of park on right. The new Tower 7 and World Trade Centersite are in the background. The green tent, center, is located immediately behind the stage.

Port Authority and NYPD officers kept watch over the rally and were well aware of the need for heightened security at this event. One of their own Port Authority officers, WTC Sergeant Alan T. De Vona was on duty at the World Trade Center on 9/11, 2001, and was one of the first to help victims of the terrorist attack. He spoke these words to the SIOA rally:

It’s almost nine years. I’m hoping that America is watching. I’m hoping that America is remembering. Because, make no mistake. September 11 was an act of war. And thank the military that has lost almost 5,000 troops from that day, defending us. I don’t know what to say to jar America’s memory. I want America to remember.

Port Authority Police and FDNY firefighters are seen here gathered beneath this banner.

The issues at stake will certainly affect the heart of American freedom, democracy, cultural values and tolerance. America is a tolerant country that allows for the free worship of all its citizens. But our tolerance has limits. Do we have to tolerate intolerant Islamic ideology and Muslims who preach intolerant Islam?

Hindu human rights activists Narain Kataria, Prasad Yalamanchi and unidentified friend came from Mississippi and Chicago with banners and fliers highlighting the radical statements of imam Rauf and his jihadist roots.

Stephen Dyer and Gary Jules journalism students at York College, with Pamela Geller. Not one major network sent a satellite truck or camera crew to this event. Without bloggers this newsworthy event would have remained unknown to the public and history.

Pamela Geller is greeted by Hindu human rights activists Prasad Yalamanchi and Narain Kataria.

Bhupinder Singh Bhurji, Pamela Geller, and Robert Spencer. Singh Bhurji is the president of the NAMDHARI SIKH FOUNDATION. The foundation is a member of the Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam (HRCARI). HRCARI is a coalition of Hindus, Sikhs, Christians from Sudan, Egypt and Iraq, moderate Muslims and Jews — who are victims and targets of radical Islam around the globe. He said, at another rally:

Radical Islamists are killing people in India, trying to dominate that nation. And here too they come with violence against “infidels.” We are “infidels united,” standing together, brown, black and white, against this epoch’s fascist movement. Radical Islam wants to dominate entire world. They want everyone to surrender. Islam radical or otherwise. They want to put the Islamic flag on White House.

Because of Islamic terrorism, America and the world have seen massive new security measures become a way of life. Anyone openly critical of Islam, or terrorist ideology, must surround themselves with security, or live in hiding. Those courageous enough to confront Islamism are criticized by the cowards and appeasers of the left who seek safety by supporting the enemy. Moderate Muslims were silent when Theo van Gogh was brutally murdered in Amsterdam, just as moderate Muslims in the United States are generally reluctant to speak out against violent Islam. Moderate Muslims also face great danger in speaking out.

Geller and Spencer will press on despite the danger. They hope to inspire Americans to stand up and say enough of political correctness and work to stem the galloping islamization of America and Europe.

Friends,

Have you seen anything about this story on the evening news?
Of course you haven’t! So please forward this email to all those you know who feel the way you and I do about this country . . .

Thank you…

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