Building on Faith (Imam Rauf - GZM)

AS my flight approached America last weekend, my mind circled back to the furor that has broken out over plans to build Cordoba House, a community center in Lower Manhattan.I have been away from home for two months, speaking abroad about cooperation among people from different religions. Every day, including the past two weeks spent representing my country on a State Department tour in the Middle East, I have been struck by how the controversy has riveted the attention of Americans, as well as nearly everyone I met in my travels.

We have all been awed by how inflamed and emotional the issue of the proposed community center has become. The level of attention reflects the degree to which people care about the very American values under debate: recognition of the rights of others, tolerance and freedom of worship.

Many people wondered why I did not speak out more, and sooner, about this project. I felt that it would not be right to comment from abroad. It would be better if I addressed these issues once I returned home to America, and after I could confer with leaders of other faiths who have been deliberating with us over this project. My life’s work has been focused on building bridges between religious groups and never has that been as important as it is now.

We are proceeding with the community center, Cordoba House. More important, we are doing so with the support of the downtown community, government at all levels and leaders from across the religious spectrum, who will be our partners. I am convinced that it is the right thing to do for many reasons.

Above all, the project will amplify the multifaith approach that the Cordoba Initiative has deployed in concrete ways for years.

Winston Churchill correctly identified Islam in his 1899 book, "The River War" in which he describes Muslims he observed during Kitchener's campaign in the Sudan.

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science - the science against which it had vainly struggled - the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.

GIving away NASA, businesses, small business grants, and here’s one:

FYI: NEH GRANTS for ‘Bridging Cultures’

Quote:
“Bridging Cultures grant opportunity As part of its Bridging Cultures initiative, NEH welcomes proposals to plan and implement a program consisting of a forum and a workshop on one of two humanities themes: “Civility and Democracy” or “The Muslim World and the Humanities.”

Civility and Democracy

Civility has always served as a keystone in the American experiment, from George Washington’s “110 Rules of Civility,” to Abraham Lincoln’s appeal for “malice toward none” and “charity for all,” to Martin Luther King’s dream of the sons of former slaves and slave-owners being able “to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

Civility involves our responsibilities to each other as citizens and as members of civil society. Drawing on diverse humanities disciplines—for example, political and cultural history, ethics or jurisprudence—civility might be examined in the following frameworks:
the relationship of civility to the common good;
the relationship between civility and democracy, at various points in time and across cultures;
the sociological and cultural seedbeds of civility;
the ways that civility has served, historically, to bridge cultural divides, both domestic and international.
The Muslim World and the Humanities

The history of the Muslim world is as complex and varied as the diverse nations and peoples who adhere to Islam across the globe. Recent cultural and political dynamics within Muslim countries have increasingly become a focus of scholarly research and public interest. At the same time, many in the public are unfamiliar with the multifaceted history of centuries of Islamic intellectual, political, and cultural traditions that have influenced civilizations throughout the world. The study of diverse humanities disciplines, from comparative literature to regional history, offers the opportunity to shed new light on the impact of Islam on the world and to broaden understanding across cultures. Many different approaches might be taken in exploring such topics from the perspective of humanities disciplines. Some possibilities include, by way of example only, an examination of the influence exerted by cultural developments originating in the Muslim world on the arts, the sciences, and literature elsewhere in the world;
the commonalities uniting and the differences dividing Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, and the grounds for advancing mutual respect; the immigrant experiences of Muslims in the United States, spanning over two centuries of our nation’s history.

In exploring these or other themes, programs should expand public knowledge of the Muslim world, while fostering avenues for cross-cultural understanding.

The forum and the program development workshop
Project proposals for “Civility and Democracy” or “The Muslim World and the Humanities” should consist of two elements: a forum that engages scholars and humanities practitioners in discussion among themselves and with a public audience about one of the two themes; and
a workshop at which humanities practitioners, scholars, and teachers collaborate to devise content, formats, training strategies, and education and dissemination methods for a nationwide or regional program that engages people in communities across the country in reflection on, and discussion of, the forum theme.

The forum and workshop should be integrated intellectually and programmatically.

Successful applicants will be responsible for
planning and implementing all aspects of the academic forum, executing a well-conceived promotional plan to attract public audiences to the forum, recruiting appropriate humanities scholars and practitioners to attend the forum and participate in the workshop, devising an agenda and working structure for the workshop, and
submitting to NEH as the outcome of the forum and workshop a plan for a public program designed to engage a broad, diverse regional or national audience in discussion of the forum theme.

Applicant institutions are encouraged to collaborate with one or more partner institutions as appropriate, to ensure that the requisite scholarly and public programming elements of the project are well conceived and integrated. These might include colleges or universities, libraries, museums, historical societies, or other historical or cultural institutions. Applicants are especially encouraged to include one or more state humanities councils in planning and developing the two-part program.”

(snip)

Each successful applicant for a Bridging Cultures Forum and Workshop program will be awarded a grant ranging from $100,000 to $250,000 in outright or matching funds, depending on the applicant’s preference and the availability of NEH funds.

http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/BridgingCultures.html

Notice that the imam got a reprieve today, courtesy of the news media that focused on nothing but the Florida preacher and his threat or promise to burn korans?

How could anyone not notice? It's all the rave, worldwide. Everyone is chiming in.

But now that the terrorist supporting Imam has the cash committed to move forward with the victory mosque, he's thumbing his nose in our faces. "We're going forward" with this victory mosque, and you can't stop us.

Meantime, all I hear is *crickets* interwoven with the chatter about burning some book written from beyond the dark ages, composed by a lone pedophile, who was obviously experiencing grandiose hallucinations, while holdup in a desert cave. Who then claimed that his own version of Allah's laws, had come directly from Allah, to him.

One has to give him credit. Since this one lone bogus pedophile so called prophet, with his book, has since wreaked havoc upon the planet. Commanding his followers to go forth to conquer, convert, or murder all non-believers.

This Imam, Faisel, is no exception. He is following mohammed's command.

It’s a suicide mission orchestrated by those sworn to protect and defend we the people. Talk about a ruse.

Think about it. Why do we need to build bridges to accommodate those whose mission is to conquer, convert, or murder us? Our govt, and it’s bureaucracies, are on a mission to get us all killed. But why? It’s insane, you say.

I’ll tell you why. Our govt, and it’s bureaucracies have been compromised by the elements who seek to destroy us. These elements have been able to infiltrate courtesy of progressive socialists, along with the laws which have been enacted and enforced by progressive democrats, and limp wristed log cabin rinos. Together, they have combined forces to bring us to the brink of self destruction.

Based upon our current administrations’ spending spree, which is the chosen method utilized for the re-distribution of wealth, the intent has to be to completely collapse our economy, and bankrupt our nation. Which is after all, exactly what OBL said he would do.

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