After reading this New York Post report, we hope New York’s Mayor is merely confused: “Michael Bloomberg said it would be unAmerican to investigate the mosque [sic] that is planned for construction near where the World Trade Center once stood.”
We do not ask for an investigation without cause.
The Cordoba Initiative received its largest donation, $576,312, from Qatar, just prior to the purchase of the Burlington Coat Factory:
[On May 17, 2010], representatives of 9/11 [Families for a Safe & Strong America] met with Sharif El-Gamal, owner and CEO of Soho Properties, the corporation that purchased the two buildings where the mosque will be built at 43-45 Park Place, and asked him to name the investors in the mosque project. Mr. El-Gamal refused, citing the advice of his attorneys, stating that “this is private property” and that “we can build this ‘as of right.’” The property was purchased with $4.85 million in cash.
In Arabic, Imam Rauf changed his story as to where that $4.85 million came from. Barring a full and fair accounting of the money to buy and build the Cordoba House, it should be audited and investigated by legal authorities.
That is not all that is wrong with Mayor Bloomberg’s word: un-American. It is misdirected.
We believe in freedom of faith; all have an unalienable right to believe or not believe in something beyond earthly mortality. Imam Rauf often has said of the Cordoba House, “It is not a mosque.” So, what is true? Rauf admits that there would be a place within those walls for the faithful to pray and it falls within what Muslims define as a mosque. His religion, whether we believe in it or not, is not why we object.
It is Imam Rauf who suggests that political Islam, more specifically sharia law, should rule all nations. Our Nation was founded in liberty; we should never stand silent while a discriminatory ideology is promoted. And we should not “tolerate” its promotion under guise of religion overlooking hallowed ground where genocide was committed and brave American heroes fell.
Rauf has openly admitted he will use that site and “the World Trade Center rubble” for “da’wah,” the call to non-believers to Islam. If he was totally honest, Imam Rauf would admit that da’wah is an offer we can not refuse for if we do, the jihad is authorized.
America need not tolerate a 15-story threat two blocks away from where we paid so dear a price for not heeding the warnings from Islamists. We should never accede to their demands to submit — not at Ground Zero or anywhere else.