Last night on her Facebook page [see note below], former governor Sarah Palin wrote this:
Earlier today, Mayor Bloomberg responded to my comments about the planned mosque at Ground Zero by suggesting that a decision not to allow the building of a mosque at that sacred place would somehow violate American principles of tolerance and openness.
No one is disputing that America stands for – and should stand for – religious tolerance. It is a foundation of our republic. This is not an issue of religious tolerance but of common moral sense. To build a mosque at Ground Zero is a stab in the heart of the families of the innocent victims of those horrific attacks. Just days after 9/11, the spiritual leader of the organization that wants to build the mosque, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, suggested that blame be placed on the innocents when he stated that the “United States’ policies were an accessory to the crime that happened” and that “in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.” Rauf refuses to recognize that Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of our ally, Israel, and refuses to provide information about the sources of funding for the $100 million mosque. Rauf also plays a key role in a group behind the flotilla designed to provoke Israel in its justifiable blockade of Gaza. These are just a few of the points Americans are realizing as New York considers the proposed mosque just a stone’s throw away from 9/11’s sacred ground.
I agree with the sister of one of the 9/11 victims (and a New York resident) who said: “This is a place which is 600 feet from where almost 3,000 people were torn to pieces by Islamic extremists. I think that it is incredibly insensitive and audacious really for them to build a mosque, not only on that site, but to do it specifically so that they could be in proximity to where that atrocity happened.”
Many Americans, myself included, feel it would be an intolerable and tragic mistake to allow such a project sponsored by such an individual to go forward on such hallowed ground. This is nothing close to “religious intolerance,” it’s just common decency.
We thank Governor Palin.
America was attacked on 9/11, not “merely” Manhattan, some planes, a few big buildings, or Ground Zero.
Yes, we the families of 2,976 people bore the brunt, buried our dead, and memorialized the hundreds and hundreds that to this day have not been found to lay to rest. Yet we had our Nation right there with us as we endured and felt millions and millions of hands helping us to our feet.
We did not choose that day — September 11, 2001.
We will never forget, back down, or stand alone in defense of America’s sacred ground.
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Note — July 22, 2010: Facebook is investigating what may very well turn out to have been a concerted effort to trigger the take-down of Sarah Palin’s original Facebook post. She has re-posted it there and added this note at the end of it:
“The original post of this statement (on July 20, 2010) was somehow unintentionally deleted by mistake or technical glitch.”
Politico reports, “Neither Facebook nor Palin’s camp was immediately sure what happened, but automated systems for reporting abuse have been used effectively in the past to take aim at political speech.”