Freethought Nation

I sure hope they build this Mosque complex in N.Y., gays and lesbians sure need a segregated public restroom to use (enjoy). Most likely they will disappoint, the filth and stench you will find in it will most likely be like that when Mohammad entered the Kabaa and saw 360 stone god status, infuriated by the filth and stench around, he broke all 359 of them, save one, the stone status called Allah was saved because it was the family patron god (Mohammad father name was Abdullah- slave of Allah). Getting derailed here, but the point is, Allah did not send his angles to give “Wahi” to Mohammad and appoint him as his last messenger, Allah is nothing more than a stone status, and when Moslems understand what Amen deceiving Mullahs hidden from them, they will free themselves from the bondage and slavery to a stone status and live in the true creation.

Facts are facts! It is a Mosque!

Religious Freedom and "Rights", do they apply in Islamic Countries?. If any Christian lands at Riyadh Airport with a Bible, that book is confiscated and shreaded on the spot. Remember that Freedon in the USA does not seem to apply to Atheists who are the most hated group in the country. In the Southern States, the Bible Belt, Atheists have been kicked out of their homes and towns.
So who are the religious fanatics that call religious fanitics fanitics?

Robert, I'm from the south (Alabama, skeerd?) and was once an agnostic and I must disagree with your statement about the Bible Belt. Without a doubt, if this did happen it was a very isolated incident. Please tell us about these athiests and provide details where and when this is/was practiced.

Nothing you've said here has changed these facts. And even if it were a mosque, it would be rather moot as it wouldn't even be the closest "mosque" to Ground Zero. And the fact that the point man in this operation happens to be a scumbag, while interesting, is also moot...as is whether the Islamic fundamentalists consider this some sort of victory and if it makes the families of 9/11 victims or Sarah Palin cry. Now I have no love for Islam and am usually in agreement with Pat Condell's videos, but here he's simply wrong. Muslim moderates and liberals died that day too. While this can and has been framed as a religious freedom issue or "Islamophobia", it really wouldn't matter whether this was a mosque, a community center, or a Starbucks. The fact is that it's none of the government's business what landowners build there as long as illegal activity isn't taking place. But on a positive note, I'm glad to see you implicitly attributing the attacks to Islamic fundamentalists as opposed to those blamed by the Zeitgeist conspiracy theorists.

Sorry, but you're denying it won't make it so. I've proved the point with the words and deeds of its would-be founders. No amount of denial and sophistry will change those facts. In reality, your denials are simply more of the same Islamist propaganda talking out both sides of the mouth when convenient. You've just glommed onto their second ploy.

Cheers.

So what if it IS a mosque? So what if it IS at Ground-Zero (which it isn't anyway)? Why shouldn't a group of American citizens construct a lace of worship in their own country? There were also many Muslims who died in 9/11 too.

If you need to ask that question, and if your answer is the commentary that follows, you are not educated enough on this subject.

Follow the links attached, and you will find a different answer based on factual knowledge, such as - from MUSLIMS:


Even the article titles themselves answer your question.

Hmmm, this is pretty simple people. An Islamist writes a book entitled A Call to Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America Post-9/11. The fact that Feisal Abdul-Rauf is an imam, and he wrote this book and he is representing the building of this facility with a mosque that overlooks the place where the rubble fell.
So what would it take to make you realize that your nose was being rubbed in sh*t?
Skepacabra...how close do you think they should get before it is claimed at Ground Zero? Two blocks isn't close enough? I'm sure if they could have purchased property closer they would have. You also claim that it isn't a mosque...maybe you need a new dictionary:
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam (Arabic: masjid مسجد‎ — Arabic pronunciation: [ˈmæsdʒɪd], pl. masājid, Arabic: مساجد‎ — [mæˈsæːdʒɪd][1]), which literally means a place of prostration.

it is a MOSQUE

The only thing in question is

My previous comment didn't make it up. I'm a customer who has purchased books and other materials of yours, Acharya. And I'm quite disappointed you elected not to add my comment, that I feel you're stoking the rightwing war machine by jumping on this bandwagon. You're promoting the Glenn Beck/Fox News warmongering and stupidity, in your desire to attack Islam. Really disappointed to see your political colors, when I appreciate and agree with my of your take on religion.

Here's a response someone made to Pat's video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPC-isxrhTs

I don't recall any previous comment from you, but if it was full of non-factual insults, such as associating me with Glenn Beck and FOXNews, then that's probably why it didn't make it through.

I'm sorry, but if you are defending Islam, you are sadly misinformed, and if you think that my writings would ever support such a woman-enslaving and infidel-hating cult of violence, you are badly mistaken and do not know my work at all. So, it's okay to criticize and dissect Christianity but not Islam, which is responsible for the deaths of some 270 million people worldwide?

Tears of Jihad

80 million of whom were Indians, brutally murdered by Muslims?

You seriously believe that I would defend and support such an ideology, which considers women to be worth half that of men and that "good women" should be subjugated and beaten?

Islam Quotes

A cult that has as its founder a man recorded in the hadiths not only as having murdered many people but as also having kidnapped sex slaves, and "thighed" a six-year-old girl until he began raping her when she was nine?

Aisha 'thighed,' raped by Mohammed

As far as I am concerned, anyone who defends such an ideology is a reprobate.

Rather than attacking brave people who are standing up to this gang of bullies trying to replace our freedoms with sharia law, perhaps you should study the subject of Islam:

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com
http://www.faithfreedom.org
http://www.islam-watch.org
http://www.jihadwatch.org
http://www.theprophetofdoom.org

Cheers.

Thanks for my comment going up and taking time to answer. I never suggested that you defend Islam. Not sure where you are getting that. I think it's perfectly appropriate for you to attack Islam any time, as well as Christianity, Judaism and the rest of the fantasy, power-driven fantasies.

And I don't care for Islam any more than any other religion. Religion makes everything worse, there is no question.

But my point about focusing any energy on this 9/11 mosque issue is that it's a b.s. rightwing political issue. These characters have a right to build a mosque as much as the child molesting, genocide-supporting Catholic church has a right to build, as does the KKK or whatever awful group you can think of.

To add any fuel to the issue of this particular mosque near the 9/11 location is to support the focused hate-mongering of the rightwing demagogues who are simply attacking for political gain.

Attack Islam all you want. But the mosque thing is about politics, nothing else. But going after the mosque is to join in the Tea Party/Fox-stoked crap, which is purely about politics and if anything, a promotion of Christianity. You've entered into what is at root a pro-Christian, anti-Islam situation when you enter into this context. And I don't think you belong there.

Moreover, from a poll you posted on your site recently, some 60% of your readers who responded said they believe 9/11 was an inside job. If that's the case in the perception of your readers, then what the heck difference does it mean about a mosque? To those readers if 9/11 came about not from Islam hatred, but from neocon drive for oil and the spoils of war, then shouldn't we be focusing on keeping Cheney away from ground zero, as he is probably far more responsible for 9/11 than this inman? At least that's what 60% of your fans probably think. Who cares if this inman wants to build his mosque when 9/11 really has to do with something very different from religion.

You spend a lot of time missing the point, and since I know the point, I will continue to oppose this Islamist flag of conquest with all my might, thank you very much.

The very point of this post is that this MOSQUE is clearly a triumphalist move designed to demoralize the U.S. and to show that Islamists have declared victory in their desire to Islamize the world and impose sharia law. I've cited several MUSLIMS who know that fact, so why on Earth would I change my opinion to fit in with some namby-pamby nonsense?

The only waste of time here is responding to Islamist propaganda trying to prevent us from protesting this patent and blatant victory dance.

And I should add that it does not matter one whit what YOU think happened on 9/11 - Islamists are cheering it as a Muslim victory, while cozying up to the left by blaming the attack on the CIA and Mossad.

Again, I am really not interested in any arguments pushing the Islamist agenda.

I'm afraid I totally agree with the Jacko. It is purely political and can in no way be seen as a "victory dance", which implies that 19 Muslim hijackers with box cutters actually flew those planes into the buildings.

Nonsense! 60% of people openly admit they do not believe the official story and many more know in their hearts it is a farce. Why then do you follow the government's official line? Maybe, there is more political mischief to be made that way.

Sorry, but it certainly can be construed as a victory dance, a fact that can easily be discerned if you actually study the subject, including what I have written here. Wishful thinking will not make it otherwise.

Regardless of who you believe committed 9/11 - and there is no doubt in my mind that Muslims were involved, per the numerous "earwitnesses" who were in contact with their loved ones telephonically and other evidence - the fact will remain that millions of Muslims worldwide very much consider this attack as a victory for Islam. Contending otherwise is erroneous - and dangerous in its ignorance.

As I have demonstrated repeatedly using these individuals', especially Rauf's, own words - which you are evidently willfully ignoring - the MOSQUE is for preaching dawa from GROUND ZERO. This nonsensical defense is actually quite condescending to the person whose very book and other actions clearly describe his own intent.

As to who pulled the 9/11 Muslims' strings, that is the subject for another article. I have already explained my position - and I think you even commented on it - so there is no need to suggest that I am promoting the government party line. This article isn't about me. It is about the intents and mindset of the GZM founders and funders.

What I have stated in the article above remains accurate. I guess it needs repeating once again that I have cited MUSLIMS who are saying the same thing: To wit, this is a flag of conquest, a victory dance, an act of "fitna" or "mischief," etc.

The only "mischief" being made on my blog is by commenters who are not particularly well informed or savvy.

Well my dear, you obviously have not looked at 911 in a serious way, or at least without your politically tinted spectacles. Have you read the book by your friend David Icke "Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Centre Disaster"? It will explain a lot.

By the way, Muslims can be as sold on the official story as you are. Many love to feel they have thwarted the Big Satan. Indeed, all believers of the government line have their own reasons to do so. But, as an academic and scholar, I thought you of all people would have had the capacity to see through the smoke screen of lies and deceit.

I have never said anything about being "sold on the official story," and I certainly do not follow the official story, so your rant is just more of your own manufactured outrage to give you a chance to spew at me.

If it makes you feel better, go ahead, but perhaps I should be paid for the therapy, since I do have other things to do with my time.

Untangling the Bizarre CIA Links to the Ground Zero Mosque

By Mark Ames
the Atlantic
September 10, 2010 | 2:36 p.m

So far, the debate over the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero has unfolded along predictable lines, with the man at the center of the project, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, drawing attacks from the right painting him as a terrorist sympathizer with ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

But meanwhile, links between the group behind the controversial mosque, the CIA and U.S. military establishment have gone unacknowledged.

For instance, one of the earliest backers of the nonprofit group, the Cordoba Initiative, that is spearheading the Ground Zero mosque, is a 52-year-old Scarsdale, New York, native named R. Leslie Deak. In addition to serving on the group's board of advisors since its founding in 2004 by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Deak was its principal funder, donating $98,000 to the nonprofit between 2006 and 2008. This figure appears to represent organization's total operating budget—though, oddly, the group reported receipts of just a third of that total during the same time period.

Deak describes himself as a "Practicing Muslim with background in Christianity and Judaism, [with] in-depth personal and business experiences in the Middle East, living and working six months per year in Egypt." Born into a Christian home, Deak became an Orthodox Jew and married a Jewish woman before converting to Islam when he married his current wife, Moshira Soliman, with whom he now lives in Rye.

Leslie Deak's resume also notes his role as "business consultant" for Patriot Defense Group, LLC, a private defense contractor with offices in Winter Park, Florida, and in Tucson. The only names listed on the firm's website are those of its three "strategic advisers." These include retired four-star General Bryan "Doug" Brown, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command until 2007, where he headed "all special operations forces, both active duty and reserve, leading the Global War On Terrorism," and James Pavitt, former deputy director for operations at the Central Intelligence Agency, where he "managed the CIA's globally deployed personnel and nearly half of its multi-billion dollar budget" and "served as head of America's Clandestine Service, the CIA's operational response to the attacks of September 11, 2001."

Besides Pavitt, Brown and a third advisor, banker Alexander Cappello, the Patriot Defense Group is so secretive it doesn't even name its management team, instead describing its anonymous CEO as a former Special Forces and State Department veteran, the group's managing director as a former CIA officer experienced in counter-terrorism in hostile environments and the group's corporate intelligence head as a "23-year veteran of the U.S. Secret Service who worked on the personal security details of former Presidents Bush and Clinton."

Patriot Defense Group's primary business involves leveraging its government connections and know-how. The firm is divided into two divisions: one that "focuses exclusively on the needs of the U.S. military and law enforcement communities as well as the requirements of friendly foreign governments," and a corporate division, which "provides business intelligence and specialized security services to corporate clients and high net-worth family enterprises."

So, to recap: From 2006 to 2008, R. Leslie Deak worked as a "business consultant" to this super-secretive security contractor with ties to the CIA and counterterrorism forces, and in those same three years he also donated nearly $100,000 in seed money to the foundation now advocating the construction of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque.

Interestingly, during the same three-year period during which the Deak Family Foundation was financing the Cordoba Initiative, Deak also donated a total of $101,247 to something called the National Defense University Foundation. The National Defense University is a network of war and strategy colleges and research centers (including the National War College) funded by the Pentagon, designed to train specialists in military strategy. The organization recently announced a November 5 dinner gala in honor of Defense Secretary and former CIA chief Robert Gates. Sponsors include Northrup Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and...the Patriot Defense Group.

Deak also sits on the NDUF's board of directors, the chairman of which is Mark Treanor, the former general counsel for Wachovia bank from 1998 through its collapse in 2008 and a major bundler of campaign donations for the McCain-Palin ticket in 2008. Wachovia, now owned by Wells Fargo, was recently fined $160 million for laundering "at least $110 million" in Mexican drug money between 2003 and 2008, while Treanor was Wachovia's general counsel, though the figure is likely higher since Wachovia admitted it didn't put any controls on at least $420 billion—that's billion—in cash moved through its network of Mexico currency exchanges.

Which leads to another odd coincidence: Laundering money for drug lords is what brought down Deak & Co., the company run by Leslie Deak's father, Nicholas Deak, years ago. The elder Deak, a former top intelligence commander during World War II for the OSS (the forerunner of the CIA), was the founder of Deak-Perera, which became for a time one of the world's biggest foreign currency and gold dealers. But in 1984, a Presidential Commission on Organized Crime accused the firm of acting as a money laundering operation for Columbia drug cartels, who reportedly brought sacks of cash containing tens of millions of dollars into Deak's Manhattan offices. By the end of 1984, Deak & Co. had declared bankruptcy, and a year later, Nicholas Deak was murdered in the company's headquarters at 29 Broadway by a deranged homeless woman.

After the firm went bankrupt and Leslie Deak was left on his own, the corporation was broken up and sold off in pieces. One company that traces its beginnings to the defunct Deak empire is Goldline International, a business concern well known to fans of Glenn Beck as well as California investigators. Goldline is to Glenn Beck what General Electric was to Ronald Reagan: The company sponsors Beck's TV and radio shows as well as his touring act, and Beck is its public face. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, along with the Santa Monica City Attorney's office, are currently investigating Goldline for defrauding customers by railroading gullible customers into buying their most debased products.

Speaking of Glenn Beck, it has been reported that Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the second-largest shareholder in News Corp., the parent company Fox News, which airs Beck's program, is also a major funder of Imam Rauf's projects, as Jon Stewart viewers heard all about last week.

Coincidences happen, of course. (For instance, Pamela Geller, the blogger who's become the leading voice denouncing the mosque project was once, bizarrely enough, associate publisher of The New York Observer.)

But add to this array of unexpected connections the work of Imam Rauf on behalf of the U.S. government—which includes serving as an FBI "consultant" and being recruited as a spokesperson by longtime George W. Bush confidante Karen Hughes, who headed up the administration's propaganda efforts in the Muslim world—and a compelling picture begins to emerge. Bush's favorite Imam, with backing from a funder with connections to the CIA, the Pentagon and the currency trading company that now sponsors rightwing firebrand Glenn Beck, proposes to build a mosque around the corner from the site of the most devastating terrorist attack ever visited on America. In the name of "[cultivating] understanding among all religions and cultures," he puts forth a project that offends a majority of Americans and deals a significant setback to the broader acceptance of Muslim-Americans. It's a little like Billy "White Shoes" Johnson claiming the only reason he moonwalks after scoring a touchdown is to lower tensions on the football field and raise the other team's spirits.

Whether the Cordoba Initiative ever gets its way with the Ground Zero Mosque, it may well have a lasting legacy at odds with its stated intention: By damaging the very moderates and progressives who actually view New York, and the nation as a whole, as a tolerant melting pot, and strengthening the position demagogues on both sides, it will almost certainly deal a setback to interfaith relations. It will also help to hobble the Democratic party. Which just might have been the point all along.

Either that, or it's merely a coincidence that this controversy has erupted now, during crucial mid-term elections. In which case we can all go back to what we were doing before—either denouncing the Park51 Mosque as an affront to Americans, or championing it as a symbol of our fundamental rights-playing our accustomed roles in a drama that seems too perfect, somehow, to believe.

http://www.observer.com/2010/politics/untangling-new-intrigue-behind-g round-zero-mosque


'Ground Zero' Imam: 'I Am a Jew, I Have Always Been One'

Aug 19 2010, 11:13 AM ET

The right-wing campaign against the so-called "Ground Zero mosque" includes vicious personal attacks on the Muslim cleric who leads the Cordoba Initiative, the organization behind the plan. I know Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, and I know him to be a moderate, forward-leaning Muslim -- yes, it is true he has said things with which I disagree, but I have never expected him to function as a member of the Zionist Organization of America.

In 2003, Imam Rauf was invited to speak at a memorial service for Daniel Pearl, the journalist murdered by Islamist terrorists in Pakistan. The service was held at B'nai Jeshurun, a prominent synagogue in Manhattan, and in the audience was Judea Pearl, Daniel Pearl's father. In his remarks, Rauf identified absolutely with Pearl, and identified himself absolutely with the ethical tradition of Judaism. "I am a Jew," he said.

There are those who would argue that these represent mere words, chosen carefully to appease a potentially suspicious audience. I would argue something different: That any Muslim imam who stands before a Jewish congregation and says, "I am a Jew," is placing his life in danger. Remember, Islamists hate the people they consider apostates even more than they hate Christians and Jews. In other words, the man many commentators on the right assert is a terrorist-sympathizer placed himself in mortal peril in order to identify himself with Christians and Jews, and specifically with the most famous Jewish victim of Islamism. You can read the full text of his remarks on the B'nai Jeshurun website, but here is an especially relevant portion:

"We are here to assert the Islamic conviction of the moral equivalency of our Abrahamic faiths. If to be a Jew means to say with all one's heart, mind and soul Shma` Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ahad; hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, not only today I am a Jew, I have always been one, Mr. Pearl.

If to be a Christian is to love the Lord our God with all of my heart, mind and soul, and to love for my fellow human being what I love for myself, then not only am I a Christian, but I have always been one Mr. Pearl.

And I am here to inform you, with the full authority of the Quranic texts and the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, that to say La ilaha illallah Muhammadun rasulullah is no different.

It expresses the same theological and ethical principles and values."

Jeffrey Goldberg - Jeffrey Goldberg is a national correspondent for The Atlantic. Author of the book Prisoners: A Story of Friendship and Terror, he has reported from the Middle East and Africa. He also writes the magazine's advice column.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/08/ground-zero-imam-i -am-a-jew-i-have-always-been-one/61761/