Building a Mosque near Ground Zero Creates a Monument to Terrrorists

Undermining Dee Perez-Scott's and President Obama's comments on the Ground Zero Mosque, the director of a Dubai-based, Arab television network writes that most of the world's Muslims couldn't care less about building a mosque near Ground Zero and that plans to do so would only create a "monument" to terrorists.

Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, director-general of Al-Arabiya TV, wrote a
column in the Aug. 16, 2010, London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat arguing
that President Obama was wasting his time championing construction of
the proposed mosque, which Al-Rashed says the majority of world's
Muslims don't want anyway.

"I can't imagine that Muslims [actually] want a mosque at this
particular location, because it will become an arena for the promoters
of hatred, and amonument to those who committed the crime," writes
Al-Rashed in the column, which was translated by the Middle East Media
Research Institute. "Moreover, there are no practicing Muslims in the
area who need a place to worship, because it is a commercial district.
Is there anyone who is [really] eager [to build] this mosque?"

He adds, "I do not think that the majority of Muslims want to build a
monument or a place of worship that tomorrow may become a source of
pride for the terrorists and their Muslim followers, nor do they want
a mosque that will become a shrine for the haters of Islam."

New York Islamic leader Faisal Abdul Rauf, president of the Cordoba
Initiative, is leading the plan to build a proposed 13-story, $100
million Islamic cultural center and mosque near the corner of Park
Place and West Broadway – about two blocks from the site of the 9-11
terrorist attacks.

Al-Rashed, whose network competes with the more extremist-friendly Al
Jazeera TV, condemns Rauf's plan.

"The individual who submitted the building application – I do not know
whether he [really] wants [to build] a mosque that will promote
reconciliation, or whether he is [just] an investor looking for quick
profits. Because the idea of a mosque right next to a site of
destruction is not at all an intelligent one," Al-Rashedwrites . "The
last thing Muslims want today is to build a religious center that
provokes others, or a symbolic mosque that people will visit as a
[kind of] museum next to a cemetery."

President Obama has released a pair of statements in regards to the
planned mosque, qualifying support for the religious freedom of
Muslims to build the mosque – even in the shadow that was once cast by
the World Trade Center – with a hint that the location of the proposed
construction may not be the wisest choice.

Al-Rashed's column addresses the president's comments as well:

"U.S. President Barack Obama took a difficult position when he
supported the construction of a mosque on a site where 3,000 U.S.
citizens were killed by Al-Qaeda terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001,"
Al-Rashedwrites . "Though the president's position was correct in
principle, that is, in terms of the principle of freedom of worship, I
think he took a political stand [on an issue] that is unnecessary and
unimportant, even for the Muslims. This mosque is not an issue for
Muslims, and they do not care about its construction."

Al-Rashed's comments prompted commentary from William Kristol, editor
of The Weekly Standard:

Al-Rashed's statement, Kristol writes, "should mean the end of plans
for a mosque near Ground Zero. Mr. Al-Rashed supports President
Obama's stand for the mosque in principle. … But his practical case
againstbuilding the mosque is irrefutable. It should lead well-meaning
liberals to join with us dastardly conservatives … in calling for the
organizers to shelve the plans for a mosque at this site."

WND reported earlier this week that Mahmoud al-Zahar, a co-founder of
Hamas who is regarded as the chief of the group is Gaza, says the
mosque must be built.

"We have to build the mosque, as you are allowed to build the church
and Israelis are building their holy places," he said during a radio
interview with Aaron Klein, WND's Jerusalem bureau chief and host of
an investigative radio show on New York's WABC Radio.

As Muslims, "We have to build everywhere," al-Zahar said. "In every
area we have, [as Muslims] we have to pray, and this mosque is the
only site of prayer, especially for the people when they are looking
[to be] in the group, not an individual."

He also said that Muslims around the world, including those in the
U.S., are united in a common cause.

"First of all, we have to address that we are different as people, as
a nation totally different. We already are living under the tradition
of Islam. ... Islam is controlling every source of our life as regard
to marriage, divorce, our commercial relationships. ... Even the
Islamic people or the Muslims in your country, they are living now in
the tradition of Islam. They are fasting, they are praying."

Link to article: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=192585


-- Chuck Morse