Free Republic

A lot more voters are paying attention to the plans to build a mosque near the Ground Zero site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, and they don’t like the idea. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 85% of U.S. voters say they are now following news stories about the mosque planned near Ground Zero. That’s a 34-point jump from a month ago when only 51% said they were following the story.

Representative James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said on Monday at the U.S. Capitol that President Barack Obama publicly expressing support for the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City was “a presidential act worth exercising.” He also said the president “made clear” that the existence of the mosque should be left up to “community standards.” “When it comes to where and how any structure, any sanctuary should be built, we have what we call in this country community standards and community standards ought to be left up to the communities," said Clyburn at a Capitol Hill press conference....

IT’S AMERICA’S TURN TO BE OFFENDED We are told that the world is offended because of America. We have a president who has travelled around the world apologizing for America. Now at an Islamic dinner held at the White House celebrating the Muslim holiday of Ramadan the president openly hailed the building of a Mosque at ground zero despite the affront that such a Mosque would be to the American people. However, let it be known from this day forth that offense runs both ways. Just as the world can be offended because of America, America can be offended because...

VAN SUSTEREN:(Snip) Now, on Friday, President Obama came out strong in defense of Muslims building that mosque. Then Saturday, when things seemed to get a bit heated, the president clarified his statement, saying he would not comment on the wisdom on the decision to build a mosque there. PALIN: Well, you know, it sounds cliched to say that the president is disconnected from the American people on this issue, but how else do you describe it? He just doesn't get it, that this is an insensitive move on the part of those Muslims who want to build that mosque in...

Harry Reid may have deserted Pres. Obama over the Ground Zero mosque, but PBO can count on at least one stalwart defender: Norah O'Donnell. On today's Morning Joe, the MSNBC "correspondent" declared that the prez is deserving of praise for his position. Then, dancing a quantum leap further, O'Donnell accused mosque opponents of acting "like the people who attacked America and killed 3,000 people." View video here.

I think it’s safe to say that President Barack Obama’s speech on the Ground Zero mosque has not been his finest hour. Which is a shame, because it could have been. The issue was a simple, powerful and emotional one: Does a mosque belong at the edge of our national graveyard within the view of 9/11 families as they mourn? Unfortunately, Obama once again voted present. “As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the . . . right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance...

When people seek to build a mosque near Ground Zero, the consensus among MSNBC liberals seems to be that their exercise of First Amendment rights to freedom of religion cannot be questioned. But it was a different story at MSNBC when, hours before and blocks away from where Pres. Obama was scheduled to speak, a man exercised his Second Amendment right to bear arms. Readers will recall the case of William Kostric. He was the New Hampshire man who was part of a protest group in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in August 2009 when Pres. Obama came to town for a...

NEW YORK -- A Hamas leader says Muslims "have to build" a mosque near ground zero. Mahmoud al-Zahar said Muslims "have to build everywhere" so that followers can pray, just like Christians and Jews build their places of worship. Al-Zahar spoke Sunday on "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on WABC-AM. He is a co-founder of Hamas and its chief on the Gaza Strip.

President Obama, with his back-to-back statements on the proposed mosque at Ground Zero, has managed to get himself in a position where Sarah Palin has both the high ground and the practical route to progress. At the Iftar dinner at the White House, the president endorsed the constitutional rights of all religions in America to build houses of worship where they want to on private property. He spoke with his trademark eloquence, but he was off the point. So, as he toured the Gulf Coast, he took a powder, explaining that he was not commenting on what he called “the...

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic congressman who represents ground zero in New York, vigorously defended a group’s right to build a mosque near what was once the World Trade Center. “There’s no way for government to block this,” the liberal congressman said on CNN’s “State of the Union," reiterating a point he made in a statement on Saturday. Asked about polling that shows bipartisan opposition to the project, Nadler said public opinion shouldn’t matter and stressed his fundamental belief that government has no right or business to comment one way or another on an issue of this sort. “We do...

It was something he certainly didn't have to do. But he did it anyway. President Obama stepped into the fray of the single most divisive issue pertaining to terrorism, healing of hurt, religious disagreement, civil liberties, political fracturing, racism, and national security all in one step.

AS-SALAMU ALAYKUM Matt Drudge sending a message?

John Boehner, the Ohio Republican who is the House minority leader, said: ”The decision to build this mosque so close to the site of ground zero is deeply troubling, as is the president’s decision to endorse it.” “The American people certainly don’t support it,” Mr. Boehner said. Representative Peter King, a New York Republican, said that while the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque, doing so needlessly offends too many people. “President Obama is wrong,” Mr. King said. “It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero....