The U.S. Government Builds a Mosque.

Daniel Pipes' Weblog ^ | Feb 24, 2004 | Daniel Pipes

[tubavil]

Weblog
The U.S. Government Builds a Mosque
February 24, 2004

The U.S. Government Builds a Mosque. An Agence France-Presse dispatch, dated today, reads "Matachina: The Madrassa of Martyrs Rebuilt by the USA Remains Empty." It describes a mosque complex in a town near Khost in Afghanistan's southeast. The unnamed reporter tells of finding a stone stele by the side of the road announcing (I am translating here from French) the "Matachina Mosque, rebuilt in 2002 with the assistance of the American people."

The U.S. government has helped pay for a mosque!?

Apparently so. The news report explains that at least 34 persons - combatants, religious students, women, and children ? were killed in the U.S. bombardment of the mosque and its adjoining Koranic school on November 16, 2001, in the midst of the American offensive against the Taliban. The new building, paid for by the U.S. Army, is said to be "practically identical" with the previous one, including a wooden door decorated with arabesques out of bronze.

If this report is true, it is a scandal, and an important one. Yet again, it appears, American governmental agencies are giving special treatment to Islam, whether endorsing of the faith or cutting breaks for it by selling land at less than 10 percent of its market price when the purpose is mosque construction. Such privileged treatment is simply not permissible and must come to an immediate end.

As an ironic post-script, the AFP report quotes a nearby soldier in Matachina saying that "Nobody ever comes to this mosque." The journalist elaborates: "Not a resident steps foot in it. Barely rebuilt, the mosque is already abandoned. The faithful prefer to pray elsewhere." So, not only did the U.S. Army illegally build a mosque, but the money it spent on cultivating good was wasted. (February 24, 2004)

Feb. 25, 2004 update: For an (imperfect) English translation of the above item, see http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1488957,00.html.

[Spruce]

Pave the roads and deliver the mail. Let them build their own temples.

[dagoofyfoot]

This is outrageous!!!!

[dmanLA]

Double outrageous!!

[PokeyJoe]

Stick a cross on and call it a church.

Every heathen within 20 miles will be protesting Christians taking over a Mosque, demanding justice, and death to America.

I'm going to Vegas. You can bet on anything in Vegas.

[yonif]

As long as the militant Islamic ideology runs rampant, we should not aid the spread of it.

[henderson field]

The Founders were Protestant-Christians but we can't put the Ten Commandments on public property. Now our tax money is paying to build a mosque. Alert the ACLU - I'm sure they'll do something about it.

[TheBattman]

At a time when the Left is doing everything they can to chase Christianity out of every facet of American life (starting with public), the taxpayer is footing the bill for a temple to worship Satan?

Why am I not surprised?

[yonif]

U.S. to finance Muslim schools: $157 million to 'improve' education in Indonesia

[BobS]

If the Moslems don't want it, let's turn it into a disco, bar, whorehouse, 7-11, Pizza Hut, liquor store, McDonalds, etc.

[BobS]

Or use it as a base for a good old California-style strip-mall with all of the above.

[BobS]

We are trying to make reparations for a war accident that happened. Maybe no one is around to use the facility? Or do they not know our intentions? We should tell their religious leaders to bless the building before we turn it into a bath-house!

[JSteff]

"Stick a cross on and call it a church"

The can build a mosque but to build a church would be against seperation of....

never ming, you know.

[John Beresford Tipton]

This is not "Building" a mosque, it is about *RE*placing one destroyed by mistake by the US.

It was obviously considered better that the alternative, leaving a bombed out mosque that a Taliban could hang a sign on saying:
"Here the bloody thirsty infidels killed our women and children"

[mrsmith]

Rebuilt by the Army for psyops/pacification.

Bin Laden got a lot of mileage out of accusing us of intentionally bombing this mosque in a videotape he released during the war.

An AlQueda compound was nearby.

[PROUDAMREP]

Caution! This report came from the FRENCH press. Something else that may be untrue and planted to create more adversity for Presidsent Bush.

[Tamzee]

It doesn't look to me like America is into franchising Islam quite yet, not to worry... they rebuilt a mosque we bombed by accident near a military target.