American Glob

I’m sure progressives will have no problem with this at all and the next time someone wants to use taxpayer funds to build an Evangelical church in Greenwich Village they’ll think it’s a swell idea…

(Reuters) – The Muslim center planned near the site of the World Trade Center attack could qualify for tax-free financing, a spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu said on Friday, and Liu is willing to consider approving the public subsidy.

The Democratic comptroller’s spokesman, Scott Sieber, said Liu supported the project. The center has sparked an intense debate over U.S. religious freedoms and the sanctity of the Trade Center site, where nearly 3,000 perished in the September 11, 2001 attack.

“If it turns out to be financially feasible and if they can demonstrate an ability to pay off the bonds and comply with the laws concerning tax-exempt financing, we’d certainly consider it,” Sieber told Reuters.

I wonder what New York’s elected officials think about this idea…

Spokesmen for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor David Paterson and the Islamic center and were not immediately available.

Well that’s a surprise.

Read more at Memeorandum.

Hat tip to Andy McCarthy of National Review who’s featured in the video below.

In his post at NRO’s The Corner, McCarthy comments on this exchange:

Last night, I was on David Asman’s Fox Business Channel show, Scoreboard, debating Imam Dawoud Kringle of the New York State prison system, a GZ mosque supporter. Imam Kringle, who seems like a nice enough fellow, reeled off the usual talking points about how Islam forbids terrorism and, therefore, if someone commits an act of terrorism that act is, by definition, un-Islamic.

Then came the moment of truth: the very simple question, “Is Hamas a terrorist organization?”

Talk about “Talking Points.”

Raise your hand if you already want to puke every time you hear the term “bridge builder.”

Read more at Memeorandum.

Now why would someone who volunteers for an organization that supports the Ground Zero mosque attack a Muslim man with a knife? Could it be because he’s a leftist who was trying to create a narrative of anti-Muslim violence that could be blamed on opponents of the mosque? Politico reports…

The apparent anti-Muslim assault on a New York city cabbie by a man shouting “Assalamu Alaikum. Consider this a checkpoint” produced an immediate round of recriminations over its connection to opposition to a New York Islamic Center and an apparent rising tide of Islamophobia.

But as often at the intersection of politics and violent crime, the story doesn’t appear to fit any easy stereotype: The alleged assailant, Michael Enright, is — according to his Facebook profile and the website of the left-leaning media organization Intersections International — a student at the School of Visual Arts and a volunteer for Intersections, which recently produced a statement of support for the Park51 project and is funded by the mainstream, liberal Collegiate Church of New York.

Intersections did not respond to two messages, and the group does not appear to be picking up the phone. Enright did not respond to a message through his Facebook account.

If this attack was a hate crime against an innocent human being just because he is a Muslim, it is an absolutely horrible and cowardly act.

If it was a false flag attack by someone who claims to be open minded and tolerant, but would butcher an innocent human being to indict his political opponents, isn’t that worse?

Check out what other bloggers are saying about this at Memeorandum.

If you’re a proponent of the Ground Zero mosque, I want you to listen to the newly discovered audio below of the Imam behind the proposed mosque and I want you to defend it.

Defend his suggestion that the United States is worse than Al Qaeda. Defend his use of the N word.

Defend it. I dare you.

More at Memeorandum.

This is not funny.

Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol says the plans for a mosque near Ground Zero are going nowhere and he seems pretty darned confident about it.

A column in the August 16, 2010 London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid, director of Al-Arabiya TV and the paper’s former editor, “A House of Worship or a Symbol of Destruction?” should mean the end of plans for a mosque near Ground Zero. Mr. Al-Rashid supports President Obama’s stand for the mosque in principle (as he supports Obama-like or even beyond-Obama-like policies with respect to the Middle East). He’s no neocon. But his practical case against building the mosque is irrefutable. It should lead well-meaning liberals to join with us dastardly conservatives (well, it would be too painful for them to join with us—they can simply act in parallel, on their own, while continuing to denounce us) in calling for the organizers to shelve the plans for a mosque at this site.

The article Bill Kristol is referencing can be read HERE.

You can also read more commentary on this subject at Memeorandum.

From last night’s edition of the O’Reilly Factor. Charles Krauthammer dissects Obama’s attempt to have it both ways on the Ground Zero mosque in the brilliant fashion which can only be delivered by the K man.

Quote at 3:52… “He’s not a leader.” Watch it all…

Probably not, but it’s a question worth asking.

Glenn Beck rented the Kennedy Center in New York for an event and was told by the center that prayer is not allowed. The Kennedy Center eventually relented but that doesn’t change their knee-jerk anti-Christian reaction.

In the video below, Glenn Beck explains what happened. Via The Right Scoop who notes…

This is unbelievable. Beck says that even though they rented the Kennedy Center for use on 8/27, they were told that they could not pray in the facility. That is beyond shocking. Apparently they finally relented, but I’m guessing that it’s only because of who he is. Had it been you or me, we’d probably be in handcuffs after we disobeyed and prayed anyway.

But I would like to remind you that the President can still have a Ramadan dinner at the White House.

I look forward to reading all the liberal blogs as they defend Glenn Beck’s rights to practice his religion despite the obvious bigotry and narrow mindedness of the Kennedy Center. You know, everything they’ve said about anyone who opposes the Ground Zero mosque.

Read more at Memeorandum.

The reaction from 9/11 Families For America is perfectly understandable. I’m fortunate in that I didn’t lose a loved one on 9/11, yet I was equally stunned by President Obama’s position on the subject of the so called Ground Zero mosque. 9/11 Families released a statement yesterday…

New York, NY, Aug. 14 — Barack Obama has abandoned America at the place where America’s heart was broken nine years ago, and where her true values were on display for all to see. Since that dark day, Americans have been asked to bear the burden of defending those values, again and again and again. Now this president declares that the victims of 9/11 and their families must bear another burden. We must stand silent at the last place in America where 9/11 is still remembered with reverence or risk being called religious bigots.

SNIP

We are stunned by the president’s willingness to disregard what Americans should be proud of: our enduring generosity to others on 9/11–a day when human decency triumphed over human depravity.No one who has lived this history and felt the sting of our country’s loss that day can truly believe that putting our families through more wrenching heartache can be an act of peace. On that day, when 3,000 of our fellow human beings were killed in barbaric act of raw religious intolerance unlike this country had ever seen, Americans did not turn outward with hatred or violence, we turned to each other, armed with nothing more than American flags and countless acts of kindness. In a breathtakingly inappropriate setting, the president has chosen to declare our memories of 9/11 obsolete and the sanctity of Ground Zero finished.

Of course Obama, with his finger eternally poised in the political wind, is already walking back his position…

Speaking to reporters today, President Obama drew a sharp line under his comments last night, insisting that his defense of the right to build a mosque does not mean he supports the project.

“I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding,” he said.

Oh, OK.

What’s that old saying about trying to put toothpaste back in the tube?

More at Memeorandum.

You may remember New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg from his insightful comments back in May, when he suggested the Times Square bombing attempt was probably done by someone who was opposed to ObamaCare.

Of course, we found out later it was Islamic terrorist wannabe, Faisal Shahzad.

Now that there are plans to build a giant mosque just steps from the site of the 9/11 attacks, Bloomberg the useful idiot is sharing his intelligence once more, by defending the idea.

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says it would be un-American to investigate a mosque that is planned for construction near where the World Trade Center once stood.

Bloomberg was asked Monday about GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio’s demands last week that Democratic rival Andrew Cuomo investigate the mosque being developed near the Sept. 11 attack site.

The mayor has defended the mosque plans before. On Monday, he said investigating or vetting religious organizations goes against what the nation stands for.

Lazio has refused to say whether he opposes the mosque being built near the site. He said he is concerned that not enough is known about the funding sources.

HT to Dan Riehl.

Plans for the mosque to move forward face their “likely only” challenge in New York City tomorrow.