Posted on 09/12/2010 7:04:20 AM PDT by Kaslin
Nine years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, thousands of Americans gathered near Ground Zero in downtown Manhattan on Saturday, raising their voices in protest against a proposed Islamic Mosque and community center just blocks from where the World Trade Center towers fell. The rally, coordinated by Pamela Geller of the Atlas Shrugged blog, and Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, featured repeated denunciations of the plan and exhortations to relocate the mosque.
The crowd and speakers often took aim at American politicians whove voiced support for the plan, such as New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and President Barack Obama, but the most pointed remarks from the podium were directed at Feisal Abdul Rauf, the controversial Imam behind the project. Several speakers listed off Raufs most inflammatory statements, drawing loud boos from the assembled throng. Flanked by bodyguards, keynote speaker Geert Wilders, a Dutch Parliamentarian and outspoken critic of Islam, led the crowd in a sustained chant of No mosque here.
I have not forgotten how I felt [on September 11]. Those scenes are imprinted on my soul, Wilders said. How could anyone forget? After labeling Rauf an extremist and the Cordoba mosque initiative a provocation and humilation, Wilders condemned those who he said are intent on imposing Sharia (Islamic) law in the United States. New York and Sharia are incompatible. New York and America are about freedom, openness and tolerance. We are here today to draw the line, he said to approving applause. A tolerant society is not a suicidal society. It must defend itself against the forces of darkness. If a mosque were built here, some people would feel triumphant, and we should never, ever given them that feeling, he said.
A number of speakers also questioned Raufs stated goal of fostering tolerance, understanding, and building bridges by forging ahead with the effort. If mosque organizers truly want to accomplish those goals, it was argued, theyd bow to the sensitivities of the vast majority of Americans and move the center to a less divisive location. New York radio personality Steve Malzberg assailed Raufs recent warning that not building the mosque as planned might lead to anger in the Muslim world. We dont care, Malzberg said, arguing that if Americans tailor their public policy and behavior to satisfy Islamists, we are finished.
Nationally syndicated radio show host Mike Gallagher shared his perspective with the protesters, saying the controversy isnt really about freedom of religion or the letter of the law, but rather common decency and respect. The plan is probably on solid legal footing, he said, and this isnt anti-Muslim hysteria. [Our message is] that a mosque at this site is wildly inappropriate. Gallagher then addressed President Obama and challenged him on his stance on the issue. The president is definitely not on the same page as most Americans and New Yorkers on this Mosque. Shame on you, President Obama. Shame on you! he thundered, prompting the crowd to begin shouting the phrase in unison.
The protest officially began at 3pm ET with a moment of silence and the playing of Taps. Other elements of the program included moving remarks from 9/11 family members and first responders, an ecumenical series of prayers, and a stirring speech by a dissident from Iran (a Muslim) condemning the current Iranian regime and Islamic extremism. Several small pockets of counter-protesters gathered around the perimeter of the main protest, but did not disrupt the proceedings.
The crowd of several thousand that took up the better part of two city blocks was composed of young and old; black and white. As New York prepares for fashion week, the dominant fashion statement at the downtown rally could best be described in three words: Red, white, and blue. But the crowd was not exclusively American. British Union Jacks, Canadian, Australian, and Israeli flags peppered the crowd, signaling international disapproval of the mosques construction at a location known globally as a symbol of radical Islamic terrorism.
A Norwegian in attendance named Rune Stearo told Townhall he was offended by the mosque and inspired by Saturdays event. There are now millions of Muslims in Europe, and many of them are anti-West, Stearo said. In Norway, if you mention this as a problem, you are called a racist. People try not to think or talk about it, but in America, the discussion is very open. This is a wonderful thing.
There was also another rally that SUPPORTED the Ground Zero Mosque.
Which of the two rallies had more people?
I can’t find the post but the anti mosque crowd far outnumbered the pros I read .
About sums it up.
Good. Fort Cordoba House cannot be built.
“Nationally syndicated radio show host Mike Gallagher shared his perspective with the protesters, saying the controversy isnt really about freedom of religion or the letter of the law, but rather common decency and respect. “
Of course..They have a legal right to build it but it is so “in your face” hurtful and disrespectful to do so.
When we have our young soldiers dying at the hand of Muslims...now is not the time for a temple.
Does anyone know if the MSM or Fox covered this story? I imagine they didn’t. God bless these folks. Somebody knows the score. No “Victory Mosque’’.!!
AP said that the pro-mosque group was 3,000 people.
They said the anti-mosque people were “500 less” or 2,500.
I was aghast! I thought they didn’t count crowds.
I think people covered the GZ demonstrations. They just did not film koran burning.
Without a doubt that one against the mosque had more people by more than one account. However, the MSM played up the “dueling protests” angle to try to give the impression the crowds were equal in size. One account had the mosque protesters at 10 times the size of the supporters.
RE: However, the MSM played up the “dueling protests” angle to try to give the impression the crowds were equal in size. One account had the mosque protesters at 10 times the size of the supporters.
Reminds me of MSM initially estimating the RESTORING HONOR rally at “tens of thousands” or CBS estimating it at about 87,000.
We of course know that based on more accurate estimated and eyewitness accounts (including the stress on the DC subways and train system on that day) that there were AT LEAST 300,000 people and more...
Believing in the people, of this nation,
and God's and the people's wisdom is what
America is Blessed with.
The majority of the people know losing
is not an option. America's Giant (majority)
who oppose the mosque may yet win in a no win
situation. God does move in mysterious ways.
Shhhhhhh, we're told. Don't protest the Ground Zero mosque. Don't burn a Koran. It'll imperil the troops. It'll inflame tensions. The "Muslim world" will "explode" if it does not get its way, warns sharia-peddling imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Pardon my national security-threatening impudence, but when is the "Muslim world" not ready to "explode"?
At the risk of provoking the ever-volatile Religion of Perpetual Outrage, let us count the little-noticed and forgotten ways. Just a few months ago in Kashmir, faithful Muslims rioted over what they thought was a mosque depicted on underwear sold by street vendors. The mob shut down businesses and clashed with police over the blasphemous skivvies. But it turned out there was no need for Allah's avengers to get their holy knickers in a bunch.
The alleged mosque was actually a building resembling London's St. Paul's Cathedral. A Kashmiri law enforcement official later concluded the protests were "premeditated and organized to vitiate the atmosphere."
Indeed, art and graphics have an uncanny way of vitiating the Muslim world's atmosphere. In 1994, Muslims threatened German supermodel Claudia Schiffer with death after she wore a Karl Lagerfeld-designed dress printed with a saying from the Koran. In 1997, outraged Muslims forced Nike to recall 800,000 shoes because they claimed the company's "Air" logo looked like the Arabic script for "Allah."
In 1998, another conflagration spread over Unilever's ice cream logo -- which Muslims claimed looked like "Allah" if read upside-down and backward (can't recall what they said it resembled if you viewed it with 3D glasses).
Even more explosively, in 2002, an al-Qaida-linked jihadist cell plotted to blow up Bologna, Italy's Church of San Petronio because it displayed a 15th century fresco depicting Mohammed being tormented in the ninth circle of Hell. For years, Muslims had demanded that the art come down. Counterterrorism officials in Europe caught the would-be bombers on tape scouting out the church and exclaiming, "May Allah bring it all down. It will all come down." That same year, Nigerian Muslims stabbed, bludgeoned or burned to death 200 people in protest of the Miss World beauty pageant -- which they considered an affront to Allah. Contest organizers fled out of fear of inflaming further destruction.
When Nigerian journalist Isioma Daniel joked that Mohammed would have approved of the pageant and that "in all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them," her newspaper rushed to print three retractions and apologies in a row. It didn't stop Muslim vigilantes from torching the newspaper's offices. A fatwa was issued on Daniel's life by a Nigerian official in the sharia-ruled state of Zamfara, who declared that "the blood of Isioma Daniel can be shed. It is abiding on all Muslims wherever they are to consider the killing of the writer as a religious duty." Daniel fled to Norway.
In 2005, British Muslims got all hot and bothered over a Burger King ice cream cone container whose swirly-texted label resembled, you guessed it, the Arabic script for "Allah." The restaurant chain yanked the product in a panic and prostrated itself before the Muslim world. But the fast-food dessert had already become a handy radical Islamic recruiting tool.
Rashad Akhtar, a young British Muslim, told Harper's Magazine how the ice cream caper had inspired him: "Even though it means nothing to some people and may mean nothing to some Muslims in this country, this is my jihad. I'm not going to rest until I find the person who is responsible. I'm going to bring this country down."
In 2007, Muslims combusted again in Sudan after an infidel elementary school teacher innocently named a classroom teddy bear "Mohammed." Protesters chanted, "Kill her, kill her by firing squad!" and "No tolerance -- execution!" She was arrested, jailed and faced 40 lashes for blasphemy before being freed after eight days. Not wanting to cause further inflammation, the teacher rushed to apologize: "I have great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone, and I am sorry if I caused any distress." And who could forget the global Danish cartoon riots of 2006 (instigated by imams who toured Egypt stoking hysteria with faked anti-Islam comic strips)?
From Afghanistan to Egypt to Lebanon to Libya, Pakistan, Turkey and in between, hundreds died under the pretext of protecting Mohammed from Western slight, and brave journalists who stood up to the madness were threatened with beheading. It wasn't really about the cartoons at all, of course. Little-remembered is the fact that Muslim bullies were attempting to pressure Denmark over the International Atomic Energy Agency's decision to report Iran to the UN Security Council for continuing with its nuclear research program.
The chairmanship of the council was passing to Denmark at the time. Yes, it was just another in a long line of manufactured Muslim explosions that were, to borrow a useful phrase, "premeditated and organized to vitiate the atmosphere."
When everything from sneakers to stuffed animals to comics to frescos to beauty queens to fast-food packaging to undies serves as dry tinder for Allah's avengers, it's a grand farce to feign concern about the recruitment effect of a few burnt Korans in the hands of a two-bit attention-seeker in Florida. The eternal flame of Muslim outrage was lit a long, long time ago.
The Islamists have America exactly where there want them. Arguing with one another over a Islamic center . The Muslims know how to twist, turn, manipulate and win out over the irresolute nitwits that have already let down the guard even when looking at the hole of evil at ground zero.
You back away from the manipulative bullies you will lose one of the most important fights for all Americans. Stiffen your spine and just say no.
The news report I heard yesterday (ABC News ?) said there were “1,000 mosque supporters and 100’s of mosque protesters”. The videos I saw somewhere on the net showed tons of people on the protest side. I saw homemade signs, flags, etc. The supporters’ side showed people singing protest songs off of sheets of paper and pre-made signs.
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