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A Mosque in New York for a Christian Church in Mecca
Pajamas Media ^ | August 15, 2010 | Leon De Winter

Posted on 08/15/2010 5:59:08 AM PDT by Kaslin

A way for those behind the Ground Zero mosque to show "mutual recognition and respect."

The principal mosque in Rome has a surface area of 30,000 square meters and can hold thousands of believers. The Christian church of Mecca has a surface area of zero square meters and can hold zero believers. In fact, there is no Christian church in Mecca. In other words, Rome is an open city and Mecca is a closed city.

There has never been opposition by Muslims to the exclusive character of Mecca. Their main sanctuary is located there, and it is forbidden for non-believers to cross the city limits. No other sanctuary of any world religion is closed to members of different creeds. The Western Wall in Jerusalem, the Jews’ holiest site, can be visited by anyone — Muslims, Christians, or Buddhists. The Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican, the center of the Roman Catholic religion, is open to any person that wishes to visit its splendor. Hindu and Buddhist temples welcome anyone who walks in, but not the Muslims’ main mosque.

Muslims claim that their religion contains the final message of God and that all other religions express falsehoods, lies, and distortions — which means that adherents to other religions cannot be accepted as equal human beings with the same rights. Churches are banned in Saudi Arabia. In “modern” Turkey, it is, in reality, impossible to renovate an old Christian church, let alone create one. In a traditional Islamic country, adherents of different religions who refuse to accept Muhammad as their prophet have to live a life with restrictions and special rules. They are the so-called “dhimmis” — people who believe in a single God but who should be treated with special restrictions because of their refusal to follow the prophet Muhammad.

In the Western world, Muslims claim the same rights as other believers. Although it is perfectly normal to them that their holiest site is forbidden to non-believers, they demand that nations in which other religions dominate grant them space and opportunity to build their mosques. The idea that this could be reciprocal is virtually unknown in Muslim communities since Islam is the superior creed and, by Allah’s word, should reign over the earth and over all the other religions.

Reciprocity would be like a denial of Allah’s word.

It speaks for itself that Muslims will try to build a mosque close to one of America’s most sacred sites, the area of the World Trade Center. They expect non-believers to step back and bow to their demands. The whole world should be open to Muslims, while in the Islamic world different religions should be restricted and controlled.

In The Jews of Islam, Bernard Lewis writes:

The claim to tolerance, now much heard from Muslim apologists and more especially from apologists for Islam, is also new and of alien origin. It is only very recently that some defenders of Islam have begun to assert that their society in the past accorded equal status to non-Muslims. No such claim is made by spokesmen for resurgent Islam, and historically there is no doubt that they are right. Traditional Islamic societies neither accorded such equality nor pretended that they were so doing. Indeed, in the old order, this would have been regarded not as a merit but as a dereliction of duty. How could one accord the same treatment to those who follow the true faith and those who willfully reject it? This would be a theological as well as a logical absurdity.

The people wishing to build a mosque close to where the World Trade Center towers fell, have called their organization the Cordoba Initiative. On its website, they state:

Cordoba Initiative (CI) aims to achieve a tipping point in Muslim-West relations within the next decade, steering the world back to the course of mutual recognition and respect and away from heightened tensions.

Cordoba refers to the Spanish town of Cordoba. In the 8th century, Muslims conquered the south of Spain and massacred many thousands of non-believers. Around 1100, the Muslim jurist Ibn Abdun formulated the following legal opinions:

No Jew or Christian may be allowed to wear the dress of an aristocrat, nor of a jurist, nor of a wealthy individual; on the contrary they must be detested and avoided. It is forbidden to [greet] them with the [expression], “Peace be upon you.” In effect, “Satan has gained possession of them, and caused them to forget God’s warning. They are the confederates of Satan’s party; Satan’s confederates will surely be the losers!” A distinctive sign must be imposed upon them in order that they may be recognized and this will be for them a form of disgrace.

In 1011, Muslims massacred the Jews of Cordoba. In 1066, in Granada, 4,000 Jews were killed in one day by Muslims. Despite the terrible bloodshed, there were periods of relative tolerance towards Christians and Jews in Al Andalus, but never based upon mutual recognition and respect but always under Muslim sovereignty.

However, the people behind the Cordoba Initiative can make a historic gesture. They should finance and build a multi-confessional center. In their building, they should create a church, a synagogue, Hindu and Buddhist temples, space for unbelievers, and a mosque, equal in size and importance, in order to honor the victims of 9/11. Only then do they show “mutual recognition and respect.”

But the most impressive gesture would be the creation of a church in Mecca. Muslims built a mosque in Rome, they have dozens of mosques in New York City, but they have cordoned off Mecca for non-Muslims. The Cordoba Initiative should build a church or a synagogue in Mecca. That is mutual recognition and respect with a lasting message. A mosque in New York for a church in Mecca.


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1 posted on 08/15/2010 5:59:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Not a good trade.


2 posted on 08/15/2010 6:00:04 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Impeachment !)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

lol, a christian church in mecca? they’d just identify, torture and kill. no freedom of religion there.


3 posted on 08/15/2010 6:00:47 AM PDT by television is just wrong
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To: Kaslin

still not worth it..


4 posted on 08/15/2010 6:02:22 AM PDT by dalebert
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To: Kaslin

A modest proposal.


5 posted on 08/15/2010 6:04:44 AM PDT by pnh102 (Regarding liberalism, always attribute to malice what you think can be explained by stupidity. - Me)
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To: Kaslin

islamic nations don’t want to allow Christian freedom because they know they’d have so many converts.

If given a chance to study the history of islam vs. that of Christianity, far more people would become Christian.

muslim nations are afraid (rightfully so) that if there people were to hear the truth vs. islam, they would lose a lot of people.


6 posted on 08/15/2010 6:07:21 AM PDT by boycott (CAL)
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To: Kaslin

“A mosque in New York for a Christian church in Mecca” is more extreme a point than is needed to show up this bogus, religious freedom argument. Just tell these conniving Muslims to go to Mecca, and try putting up a mosque anyplace they want. This isn’t about restricting religious freedom. It’s about not letting scumbags make a mockery out of the people murdered by Jihadists. Obamao has made himself the chief scumbag.


7 posted on 08/15/2010 6:10:22 AM PDT by pallis
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To: television is just wrong

Islam is the enemy. They will not build a Mosque at ground zero. It will not happen. True Americans will not allow this. No woman will respect any man who works on the project, and no man will allow other men to build it.

If there is a tipping point, this is it. This is the line. This is the line. Bloomberg, Obama and the rest of these feeble minded liberals can say all they want... but this is the line.

This lying bas*ard of a president has paid no dues, has not lived his life as a young American. He knows nothing about me or the friends I grew up with. He knows nothing about the TV shows we watched, the Little League try outs, the Scouts, that first date...Proms etc. He is not one of us.
If there was any doubt, there is no doubt now.

This is the line. Where do you stand? You are either with them or not....If you believe in building the Mosque at ground zero you are with them....if not, you are with us.

Islam is our enemy, we will not allow Sharia law in this land of ours.


8 posted on 08/15/2010 6:11:02 AM PDT by nikos1121 (Praying today for -23, better yet -24......)
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To: Kaslin

Expect fairness? Won’t happen. The American left is on the side of the headchoppers.


9 posted on 08/15/2010 6:11:33 AM PDT by Leftism is Mentally Deranged (Annoying liberals is my goal. I will not be silenced.)
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To: Kaslin

Islam is a disease that will soon be wiped off the face of the earth by the Second Coming of Christ.


10 posted on 08/15/2010 6:13:56 AM PDT by thethirddegree
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To: Kaslin
Sorry. I'm not interested in a church in Mecca; or a synagogue either. Mosques are military installations. The existing ones should be destroyed and no new ones should be tolerated. What's next, a new Bund Hall? Maybe across the street from Temple Emanuel? Bloomstein will tell us it's okay because we believe so much in Freedom of Association here.

ML/NJ

11 posted on 08/15/2010 6:15:20 AM PDT by ml/nj
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To: nikos1121

where do I stand? www.obamacrimes.com I question the legitimacy of this presidency. You are right he is not one of us. People got wrapped up in what they called the election of a first African American president. Unfortunately, we have lived to find out what a mistake that one was (I did not vote for him) Now we are all stuck with this horrible disaster of a usurper in the white house.

How little respect we have for ourselves to have allowed this to happen as he destroys everything we stand for.


12 posted on 08/15/2010 6:16:29 AM PDT by television is just wrong
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To: television is just wrong

It would be like a huge mouse trap.

Go in to worship and get crushed on the way out.


13 posted on 08/15/2010 6:20:25 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: Kaslin

Cordoba became the center of the Islamic empire in southeastern Europe. The islamists built a temple on the ruins of a cathedral as a sign of islam’s dominance over Christianity.

As soon as I heard this project used the name “Cordoba” in it, I knew this project was nothing more than a middle finger to all Americans that islam will eventually dominate you like they did on that fateful September morning.

I believe there are enough angered people out there who will not let this project move forward. If they build, it will be destroyed.

This mosque will not exist.


14 posted on 08/15/2010 6:21:11 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (Too many conservatives urge retreat when the war of politics doesn't go their way.)
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To: television is just wrong

I grew up in Chicago. I can tell you that the trade unions of New York, the Firemen, the Police, the people there who lost loved ones, will not let this Mosque be built.

They can scream and hollar, and call for religious rights and freedom, but if these politicians do NOT stop this, we the people will stop it.

This is the line. Islam is the enemy. We will not let them build this atrocity on hallowed ground. It will never happen.

For them, it will be a giant photo op...A crumbling Twin Towers in the background...A giant Mosque now in the foreground....

ARe we stupid, are we brain dead to what is happening in this country? Everyday this bast*rd in the WH tries something new.

Every frigging day there is something.

I pray for a total reversible in the house and senate to republicans, and then the total ouster of the liberal republicans in our mists. That will assure that the next Supreme Court justice will NOT be another Kagen or Sotomyer...

This is the line. Where do you stand?


15 posted on 08/15/2010 6:23:19 AM PDT by nikos1121 (Praying today for -23, better yet -24......)
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To: thethirddegree

Yeah, well, until such time as it does, the rest of us are reviewing other options.


16 posted on 08/15/2010 6:23:51 AM PDT by j.argese (Liberal thought process = oxymoron)
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To: Kaslin

Time to resurrect the crusades. The way western history is taught, it’s very much forgotten that the crusades were defensive wars that pushed the muslims back to the middle east.


17 posted on 08/15/2010 6:25:37 AM PDT by Desdemona
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To: Leftism is Mentally Deranged

The president of our country is on the side of the headchoppers.


18 posted on 08/15/2010 6:30:17 AM PDT by La Lydia
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To: Kaslin

That would be one giant leap.

Maybe start with baby steps.

How about, for example, letting a Christian and/or Jew just step into Mecca?


19 posted on 08/15/2010 6:33:54 AM PDT by HearMe
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To: Kaslin

False dichotomy. There are plenty of mosques in New York, and if they need another, they can rent some vacant commercial space and open one.


20 posted on 08/15/2010 6:42:20 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("Large realities dwarf and overshadow the tiny human figures reacting to them.")
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