'No regrets' on mosque issue, Obama says.posted by ericb at 2:36 PM on August 18, 2010 [13 favorites]
Sam Stein On Ground Zero Mosque Imam: A Voice "We Should Be Elevating, Not Downplaying".
Nancy Pelosi Calls For Probe Into Funding Of Opposition To 'Ground Zero Mosque'.
9/11 family member Ted Olson breaks from the GOP on NYC mosque: Obama ‘was right about this.’
Grover Norquist Says Mosque Controversy Is Bad For Republicans.
Joe Scarborough Takes On Newt Gingrich's Mosque Comments: 'It's Deplorable, It Is Sick Politics'.
Rove Equates Building Of A Mosque Near Ground Zero With A Neo-Nazi Meeting At A Jewish Hotel.
"A Prayer Room. If Park51 is a Mosque, then the Intel office in Cairo is a Mosque, and the Motorola office, and the Audi office. They all have 'prayer rooms' so that devout Muslims can ... pray. It's what Muslims do, several times a day. They usually look like offices. They're usually labeled 'Prayer Room.'posted by ericb at 2:51 PM on August 18, 2010 [14 favorites]
Every Western company in a Muslim country has a Prayer Room. Are all of these offices really Mosques?
..the Pentagon may be a Mosque as well. (Gasp!)"*
Geller argues the building where the Cordoba House is sacred because it was hit by landing gear on Sept. 11, 2001, and doesn't buy arguments about some of the more seedy buildings in the area desecrating the memory of those killed nine years ago.—TPM talks to Pamela Geller.
"Strip clubs didn't bring down the towers. It's faulty logic."
Why can't these Muslims just accept that the 1st Amendment doesn't apply to their fake religion, just like the Irish Catholics and Mormons* did before them?
Strip clubs didn't bring down the towers. It's faulty logic.
This seems like a repeat of the Terry Schiavo debacle - Congress is up for reelection so let's all latch on to a non-federal issue and make a national debate about it.
Three-quarters of voters have been following the news about the proposed Muslim community center and mosque in lower Manhattan at least somewhat closely, up significantly in two weeks. Opposition remains strong against building the mosque, 63-27 percent, however, by a margin of 64-28 percent voters say that the developers of the Cordoba House have a Constitutional right to build it.posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 5:02 PM on August 18, 2010
The group’s latest fundraising report with the State Attorney General’s office, from 2008, shows exactly $18,255 – not enough even for a down payment on the half of the site the group has yet to purchase.posted by Jaltcoh at 5:19 PM on August 18, 2010
The group also lacks even the most basic real estate essentials: no blueprint, architect, lobbyist or engineer — and now operates amid crushing negative publicity. The group’s spokesman, Oz Sultan, wouldn’t rule out developing the site with foreign money in an interview with POLITICO – but said the project’s goal is to rely on domestic funds. Currently, they have none of either.
“They are in the process of hiring an architect — but here’s the thing, you’re not going to get the architect or the engineer because they don’t want to be involved in this,” Sultan, the new media consultant hired to handle some of the projects imaging — mostly via Twitter — told POLITICO.
So with all this gasbagging, what do they propose to do about it? Eminent Domain? It's private property, it's zoned for the purpose, all permits are already approved.A week or so ago they sent some people to bitch during the historic preservation committee (or whatever), which basically told them to fuck off.
Norquist is right and wrong. Sure, nobody's defecting over the Republicans over this, but he doesn't seem to understand there's a substantial portion lining up with Joe Beese and Glen Greenwald at the exit to defeatThis isn't about a few Dems bailing because the democrats don't have a spine. Although I suppose it might affect some Muslim voters who feel betrayed. But what this is really about is motivating the base. It's (symbolic) red meat for the base. Just like their bullshit about the 14th amendment (creating TERROR BABIES)
What this affair really needs is a Murrow Moment. Here it is: Keith Olbermann on GZM — as good as Edward R. Murrow on Joe McCarthy.Oh god. Olbermann's cheezy 'special comments' are the last thing anyone needs. I mean I realize that some people like them, but they come across as so affected and silly. If you want righteous indignation expressed in a modern and sincere way John Stewart is probably the best example. Ironically, Olbermann is the one who sounds like a clown. I can hardly stand listening to these things, despite the fact I agree with almost all of them.
The answer is yes. And the deep irony is that these people would be their natural allies on issues on the social side of conservative issues. At least, at the opportune moment, which will be well past by the time the xenophobia subsides.I saw some statistic the other day that Bush actually got 80% of the Muslim vote in 2000. That's not much but Michigan is a pretty big swing state.
Park51 will be a community center to serve the needs of the world's greatest city, a city that continues to inspire and amaze. It will be a world-class house of culture and art, education and recreation, for every New Yorker to find something to benefit from. A facility where you can find children's swim classes, photography exhibitions, Pilates sessions, Spanish-language lessons and an amazing gym.That seems to be implying that he wants to build a mosque. Otherwise, why mention mosques with no quotation marks?
We're determined to build something all New Yorkers can be proud of, because we're part of this city. We see our future here, and our children's future, too.
Muslims have lived, worked and worshiped in New York for centuries. Today, the tristate area hosts about 1 million Muslims. Mosques have been serving lower Manhattan for decades.
"I won't vote for you! I won't! I won't! Ok. I'll vote for you."A threat's only as good as the willingness to carry it out. An idle threat not to vote is just silly; the threat made good is self-defeating. What's the payoff here again?
The Cordoba Initiative hasn’t yet begun fundraising for its $100 million goal. The group’s latest fundraising report with the state attorney general’s office, from 2008, shows exactly $18,255 — not enough even for a down payment on the half of the site the group has yet to purchase.[via]
The group also lacks even the most basic real estate essentials: no blueprint, architect, lobbyist or engineer — and now operates amid crushing negative publicity. The developers didn't line up advance support for the project from other religious leaders in the city, who could have risen to their defense with the press.
"Many fellow conservatives say they understand the property rights and 1st Amendment issues and don’t want a legal ban on building the mosque. They just want everybody to be “sensitive” and force, through public pressure, cancellation of the mosque construction.posted by ericb at 9:59 AM on August 23, 2010 [4 favorites]
This sentiment seems to confirm that Islam itself is to be made the issue, and radical religious Islamic views were the only reasons for 9/11. If it became known that 9/11 resulted in part from a desire to retaliate against what many Muslims saw as American aggression and occupation, the need to demonize Islam would be difficult if not impossible. [...]
It is repeatedly said that 64% of the people, after listening to the political demagogues, don’t want the mosque to be built. What would we do if 75% of the people insist that no more Catholic churches be built in New York City? The point being is that majorities can become oppressors of minority rights as well as individual dictators. Statistics of support is irrelevant when it comes to the purpose of government in a free society—protecting liberty. [...]
This is all about hate and Islamaphobia."
John Bolton (...) is one of those think tank-ensconced nuts who is surrounded at all times by sycophantic fellow nuts who think he is the bee's knees, so it's really only natural that he is "flattered" that some of the nuts think he should be the president of the entire United States
"Donald Trump's offer to buy an investor's stake where a mosque is planned near ground zero is falling flat.posted by ericb at 2:58 PM on September 9, 2010
Wolodymyr Starosolsky is a lawyer for the investor in the real estate partnership that controls the site. He says Trump's offer is 'just a cheap attempt to get publicity and get in the limelight.'
In a letter released Thursday by Trump's publicist, Trump told Hisham Elzanaty he would buy his stake in the lower Manhattan building for 25 percent more than whatever he paid.
Trump says he's making the offer not because he thinks the location is spectacular, but because it would end 'a very serious, inflammatory, and highly divisive situation.'
Critics say building a mosque so close to where Islamic extremists brought down the World Trade Center would be an insult.
Trump had also attached a condition to his offer: He said that as part of the deal, the backers of the mosque project would need to promise that any new mosque they constructed would be at least five blocks farther away from the World Trade Center site.
... It's unclear how much control Elzanaty has over the property, which is owned by an eight-member investment group led by Soho Properties.
A spokesman for Soho Properties general manager Sharif El-Gamal and his nonprofit group, Park51, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Earlier in the day, the organization sent a statement to The Associated Press affirming that Soho Properties controlled the real estate and that Elzanaty was one of several investors.
El-Gamal and other people associated with the Islamic center have refused to detail the ownership structure of the real estate partnership that holds the site.
Elzanaty's lawyer did not immediately return a phone message Thursday. But in a pair of interviews with the AP this week, Elzanaty said he had invested in the site with an intention of making a profit and was willing to sell some of it for private development. He also said he supported building a mosque on at least part of the property."
« Older Twenty-somethings today don't quite fit the defini... | "This is a blog documenti... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
MuslimsAmericans outraged about senator's opposition to plan"posted by yeloson at 2:31 PM on August 18, 2010 [8 favorites]