9/11, Cordoba House, Debra Burlingame, El-Gamal, Ground Zero, Imam Rauf, sharia, Shariah

9/11 Families Reject Towering Mosque Planned for Ground Zero Site

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 24, 2010
CONTACT: Debra Burlingame: 914.844.3146 Media@911familiesforamerica.org

9/11 Families Reject Towering Mosque Planned for Ground Zero Site

New York, May 24, 2010 — 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America (9/11 FSSA) adamantly rejects the plan for a mosque to be built atop a planned 15-story structure that would tower over the site where nearly 3,000 people were killed by Islamic terrorists.

According to the project’s leader, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the mosque and “Muslim-led community center” is to be called the Cordoba House, named after the historic period when the Islamic Caliphate in Cordoba ruled much of Europe and non-Muslims lived as second-class citizens under Islamic rule.

Victims’ families view the imam’s expressed plan to “leverage” the mosque’s proximity to Ground Zero to engage in proselytizing and to “grow the Muslim community,” as shockingly insensitive to the history of the site where their loved ones were slaughtered in the worst terrorist attack by extremist Muslims in America’s history; following the attack, 20,000 body parts were recovered in a nine-month operation to remove 1.8 million tons of rubble from Lower Manhattan.

“Imam Rauf is a Muslim cleric who, immediately after 9/11, blamed the attacks on U.S. treatment of Muslims, asserting that Osama Bin Ladin was ‘made in the U.S.A,'” said Debra Burlingame, co-founder of 9/11 FSSA, whose brother was the pilot of the American Airlines flight which was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon. “We do not accept the Cordoba organization’s view that we need Imam Rauf to lecture us about religious tolerance in a city still dealing with the consequences of the attack that he claims we brought on ourselves.”

Last Monday, representatives of 9/11 FSSA 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.

Imam Rauf is now publicly stating in a professionally-organized PR campaign that the building will be a community center, “not a mosque.” However, Mr. El-Gamal showed 9/11 FSSA members architectural renderings in which a mosque, located on the top floor of the 15-story building, would have a commanding view of the entire Ground Zero neighborhood.

Equally troubling is the fact that, while the stated purpose of the project is to engage in interfaith dialogue and cultural egalitarianism, Imam Rauf embraces Shariah, the Arabic word for Islamic law, a sociopolitical system of jurisprudence based upon the Koran which supersedes man-made law and which rejects the Constitutional doctrine of the separation of church and state. Islamic countries that embrace Shariah and political Islam are known for brutal policies that discriminate against women, gays, and religious minorities. Shariah law is entirely incompatible with the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment and would violate 1st Amendment protections of speech, assembly and the free exercise of religion.

We feel that the attempt to use our loved ones’ deaths and the painful legacy of 9/11 still felt by New Yorkers to engage in a campaign to reverse America’s core doctrine of religious freedom — and to do so under the guise of interfaith understanding — is a gross insult to the memory of those who were killed on that terrible day.

9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America asks concerned Americans — regardless of race, color, creed, or ethnic origin — to join us in denouncing this effort to chip away at America’s bedrock principle of religious freedom.

9/11, Cordoba House, Debra Burlingame, Ground Zero, Imam Rauf, World Trade Center

Planned Ground Zero mosque imam wants sharia law in America

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The ‘Cordoba Initiative’ has announced plans to build a $100-million plus mosque overlooking Ground Zero at the World Trade Center. Its leader, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, says it “will serve as the platform to launch a broader vision of Muslim-West harmony and interdependence.” As he has made clear, Rauf supports supplementing our Constitution by making sharia law optional — optional at least for now — for Muslims living here in America. Debra Burlingame and Robert Spencer discussed this last night on-air with Sean Hannity:

View text transcript of video here

Before their sparing any semblance of investigative reporting, the editors at the New York Daily News expressed their support this morning for a Muslim “cultural center” within Ground Zero’s kill zone. Missing from their editorial is an explanation of Rauf repeatedly stating “300 Muslims were killed on 9/11.” To be fair, even they dispute his saying “This is not a mosque.”

“A plan to build a mosque and Muslim cultural center two blocks from Ground Zero has unleashed a virulent and un-American wave of religious intolerance. As a fundamental matter of principle, houses of worship are welcome in New York. Whether they be churches, synagogues, temples or mosques, whether they be modest storefronts or soaring cathedrals, they have a home here. Islam included – and even downtown. There is no doubt that many in this country distrust the religion that was twisted malignantly into the force behind 9/11. And some, in blind ignorance, hate. Among those are Mark Williams, the Tea Party leader, who attacked the concept of a mosque near Ground Zero by describing Islam and the Prophet Muhammed in the most repugnant terms. … A new 13-story building, named Cordoba House, would include a mosque, classrooms, a fitness center and pool, as well as a theater. It was modeled after the 92nd St. Y, which has both a community center and prayer space. … In fact, Cordoba House is two blocks away. Had it been closer, the point would be the same: All religions have equal rights.”

The news side of the News might try looking into whether Rauf agrees with their editors. They would soon discover that, to his way of thinking, one religion is more equal than others. Here is Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, in his own words, after Christian churches were firebombed and angry protests took place in Malaysia this past January:

“Most recently that anger has surfaced in Malaysia, where 60% of the people are Malays. The High Court’s ruling that Allah is not exclusive to Muslims led to the fire bombing of some churches and protests among Malays, who fear Catholics are trying to manipulate the word to win Malay converts. This should not be. Islam and Christianity are at their roots religions of peace and tolerance. A certain amount of competition will always exist among religions. Good competition is to compete in good works. Bad competition is trying to undermine the other faith. To live harmoniously in that competition requires everyone to understand the consequences of their actions. My message to the Christian community in Malaysia is that using the word Allah to mean the Christian God may be theologically and legally correct, but in the context of Malaysia, it is socially provocative.”

So, regardless of the laws of that land, Imam Rauf believes the minority Christians in Malaysia brought the attacks upon themselves. (Concerning 9/11 and provocation, back in 2001 Rauf told 60 Minutes, “[U.S.] policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.”) Rauf ended his advice with an inside glimpse of his “broader vision” for America:

“Our model should be the Prophet Muhammad when he worshipped [sic] in Mecca before Islam had taken hold. He did not pray the noon and afternoon prayers in a loud voice lest that would incite anger of the unbelievers.”

Frankly, we have not read and do not care what Mark Williams allegedly said or wrote; what the News’ problem is with him is their problem, not ours.

What I and many others are opposed to is a sharia-compliant anything — mosque, prayer center, or cultural center — anywhere within sight or sound of where sharia-compliant Muslims destroyed 2,752 people and took away their equal rights forever, including the rights and lives of 22 (non-hijacker) innocent Muslims.

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Notes —

The original Malaysian title for Imam Rauf’s book was ‘A Call to Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Da’wah From the Heart of America Post-9/11’. Robert Spencer explains:

“Da’wah is Islamic proselytizing. And in the Islamic law, da’wah precedes jihad. You call the nonbelievers to Islam. And if they refuse to accept it, then you initiate the jihad against them. But the whole goal of both da’wah and jihad is to impose Islamic law or Sharia upon the nonbelievers as a political system, not as a religious one.”

The full Community Board 1 of lower Manhattan will meet at 6 PM on May 25, 2010, at the Three-Legged Dog (a theater group’s headquarters) at 80 Greenwich Street to review and vote on the plans for the ‘Cordoba House.’