Retired Royal Saudi Navy Officer: No Mosque at Ground Zero

[level_head]

I imagine that he will be called an "Islamophobe" -- though the only real fear of Islam seems to be exhibited by the newspapers afraid to run a cartoon that even mentions Muhammad.

As an aside, the Royal Saudi Arabian Navy was once a client of mine. This retired officer said:
"This is why I think that we Muslims have to carefully consider the

Comments

[richardf8]

As a Jew, I find myself a little disconcerted by the idea that the majority culture can induce in a minority group the feeling that doing something that it is well within its legal rights to do should be avoided for the sake of political expediency. A freedom is not a freedom when extralegal cultural coercion undermines its exercise.

I will also note that those of my co-religionists who oppose this project strike me as short sighted fools. If risk of the majority culture's ire comes to control the free exercise of a minority's rights, then the constitution will haveae ceased to have any bearing at all.

[level_head]

As a Jew, I find myself a little disconcerted by the idea that the majority culture can induce in a minority group the feeling that doing something that it is well within its legal rights to do should be avoided for the sake of political expediency. A freedom is not a freedom when extralegal cultural coercion undermines its exercise.

I agree completely.

I will also note that those of my co-religionists who oppose this project strike me as short sighted fools. If risk of the majority culture's ire comes to control the free exercise of a minority's rights, then the constitution will have ceased to have any bearing at all.

I think you are alluding to "J Street' and the like. To me, these are not fools -- they are actively in the bad-guy camp, with a long-term view hostile to Israel and the United States. They are, in effect, your enemy. And mine.

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[richardf8]

I think you are alluding to "J Street' and the like.

No. I am alluding to right wing Jews who oppose the construction of the Islamic Center. I don't care about Imam Rauf one way or another; I do care that the same ordinance under which Imam Rauf is free to build the center on the land there is the ordinance under which Jews find the freedom to establish eruvs for their communities. Do we REALLY want to set a precedent of "well of course you're within your RIGHTS, but do you really think it's a good IDEA?"

J street is a whole 'nother can of worms, schooled in ignorance and universalism. Should they get their way, and see the fruits of their desires, they will cry out "that's not what I meant at all!" I'd rather not see them get their comeuppance, because it would simply require that too much Jewish blood be shed.

[level_head]

Do we REALLY want to set a precedent of "well of course you're within your RIGHTS, but do you really think it's a good IDEA?"This is not a new precedent. It is the sort of consideration given to every building, of every purpose, constructed within a municipal jurisdiction. It is what has faced so many different attempts to do something constructive on the World Trade Center site itself, resulting in most of a decade's delay

[level_head]

I just attended a memorial ceremony last night for a good friend who was also a Jew -- and who pushed me to develop and exercise my fiction-writing skills. He was a good man, and will be missed. All I could do was offer a sonnet composed for him.

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