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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

On Mosque: White House Digs Hole and Keeps Digging

The big story yesterday involved the Ground Zero Mosque proprietor, mam Feisal Abdul Rauf, and some very explosive comments he made in Australia about five years ago. The comments were first discovered by Pamela Geller.



Whatever chances there were that this Mosque would get built officially ended with this news, even if no one will admit to it yet.

That said, the White House has dug in. The same Imam is on a State Department sponsored junket all throughout the Middle East. Here's what the State Department said about the comments.

"We are aware of those remarks," said State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley. "I would just caution any of you that choose to write on this that once again you have a case where a blogger has pulled out one passage from a very lengthy speech, if you read the entire speech, you will discover exactly why we think he is rightfully participating in this international speaking tour."

Lot's of people have had quotes taken out of context. That said, when you make such an accusation you also have a duty to explain the context. The State Department has failed to do so. Instead, they have attacked Geller and claimed that we are repeating the Shirley Sherrod incident.

The problem for the White House is that the full transcripts are available and Rauf says what he says and the context is there. They continue to defend him at their own peril.

7 comments:

AG said...

Since when did that scoundrel Pamela Gellar become so credible, anyway?

mike volpe said...

That's totally beside the point. The video speaks for itself and there are transcripts. You are trying to smear Geller and it is nothing more than misdirection.

Anonymous said...

I just heard Frank Rich comment on this on the radio, he wrote an article earlier this week in NYT. He's right, its discriminatory, rascist and against the First amendment to stop this Islamic cultural center and a one room prayer room being built. The US is not free until everyone gets justice- blacks, women, minority, gays and yes even Muslims.

mike volpe said...

That's totally beside the point. No one is saying that they don't have the right. Those that oppose it believe it's totally insensitive, possible nefarious, and would cause untold pain to the families of those that lost loved ones in 9/11.

In Skokie, there is a relatively new Holocaust museum. For years, Skokie had the most, per capita, Holocaust survivors.

No one doubts that someone would have the right to build a German cultural center next to the Museum. No one would doubt that the citizens of Skokie would demand it not get built. No one would doubt that most would find this to be totally inappropriate.

You are making a straw man argument.

AG said...

And once again, you're making a ridiculously poor analogy. Germany, and the German people, are DIRECTLY responsible for what happened to European Jews. They chose Hitler as their leader, they served in his armies, they supported him.

Al Qaeda was elected by, appointed by, supported by, approved of by, ABSOLUTELY NOBODY BUT THEMSELVES. The fact that they are Muslim is ABSOLUTELY IRRELEVANT. You simply cannot claim it is 'insensitive' to build this Islamic center without blaming all Muslims for 9/11.

Sure, *maybe* some of the 9/11 victims' families oppose it (although that's debatable), but since when do we let the sensitivities of people who are inherently embittered by everything Islam from dictating what is right for the rest of us? You don't strike me, Mike, as the kind of guy who would agree with James Brady that because he was paralyzed by a gun that all guns should be outlawed.

At the end of the day, we're talking about a place where Muslim Wall Street folks, hardly the kind of people who can be considered Al Qaeda sympathizers, want to worship on their lunch breaks.

And no, believing that the Middle East would be a better place if the US simply stopped killing people is not an endorsement of terrorism.

mike volpe said...

First,it's not that they are opposed to it but that this Mosque will bring them pain. Second, the German people as a whole aren't responsible for Hitler. Almost no German alive today was even alive then let alone voted for him. Frankly, even those that did aren't responsible for his mass murder any more than you are responsible for our massive deficit.


Yet, it's still no less insensitive to put up this Mosque than is my example. Al Qaeda killed in the name of Islam and you think a symbol of Islam there is fine.

Anonymous said...

America does not understand the the muslim menace by few until they demand a separate country {say detroit} for themselves. Chechnya, Kashmir, Indonesia, western chinese provinces and many others have the same theme i.e independent country for themselves with sharia law. My brother in law had a nice solution for the 9/11 site and the controversy. Let them build and give 24 hr notice for anyone who doesn't want to have the 72 virgins and want to leave, and bomb the place. As radical as this may sound, I guess he was sick and tired of the menace by few in his country.