Ground Zero Mega-Mosque Developer Loses Court Fight, Owes Con Ed $1.7M In Rent

The mega-mosque project planned at Ground Zero continues to run into major 'difficulties', and all the massaging by New York City's farcical Mayor Bloomberg can't help.

First there was the exposure of Imam Rauf as a rabid Islamist who favors sharia in the with major ties to some very questionable people. Next, there was Imam Rauf's failure to raise the estimated $100 million from the Arab world it's going to take to build this atrocity and his subsequent exit from the project.

And finally, the developer behind the Mosque, Egyptian-born Sharif El-Gamal just lost an important battle in court, which upheld a $ 1.7 million judgment in favor of New York utility Con Ed for back rent:

Chalk one up for Con Edison in its battle over back rent with the mosque developer at 51 Park Place.

The Post has learned that in June, State Supreme Court Judge Richard Braun upheld the $10.35 million appraisal price obtained by the utility, which it used to calculate the rent.

Con Ed argues that it is owed $1.7 million in back rent and $47,437 a month in rent for the building that sits on its land. But Sharif El-Gamal, the Park51 Mosque developer, contends Con Ed’s math is bad and that it owes $881,519 in back rent and $25,875 a month going forward.

“We were confident that the appraisal process was sound. We are pleased with the court’s ruling,” said Con Ed spokesman Allan Drury.

What's in question here is rent on Con Ed’s substation at 51 Park. It's over at the same site where El-Gamal’s group bought the old Burlington Coat Factory at 45-47 Park Place in 2009 for $4.8 million, a deep discount after it was rendered uninhabitable by the 9/11 attacks.

El-Gamal was an ex-waiter at the Sarafina Restaurant in New York City just a short time ago and later an apartment rental agent who worked part time on commission who somehow managed to save up $5 million to become a real estate developer overnight. He has a rather interesting past (delinquent taxes, loan defaults a prostitution bust, assault beefs). He's obviously a front man for a group of people who remain unnamed.

One of them whom isn't a secret is El-Gamal’s partner, Nour Mousa, who just happens to be the nephew of former Arab League leader Amr Moussa, who headed the League at the time the Ground Zero site was purchased. When the Mob does this, they call it ‘conduit financing.’

Needless to say, El-Gamal's attorneys plan to appeal. But for now, the Ground Zero Mosque appears dead in the water.

Ground Zero Mosque Seeking $5 Million In Federal Funds To Build

And why not? If the infidels are willing to let someone with Imam Rauf's background build a mosque at Ground Zero, why not ask them to pay jirzya for it?

Earlier this month, Sharif El-Gamal, the waiter-turned-developer for the Ground Zero Mosque applied for around $5 million in federal grant money set aside for the redevelopment of lower Manhattan after the 9/11 attacks.

(note: the article linked to is by The Daily Beast’s John Avlon, who's sympathy and approval of the Ground Zero Mosque are apparent)

The application was submitted under a “community and cultural enhancement” grant program administered by the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation (LMDC), which oversaw $20 billion in federal aid allocated in the wake of 9/11 and is still currently doling out millions in remaining taxpayer funds for 'community development'.

While Imam Rauf and the Ground Zero Mosque's developers had a right to apply according to the grant guidelines - religious organizations can apply “as long as the request is for a facility or portion of a facility that is dedicated to non-religious activities or uses”- I doubt very many non-Mulsims are going to be allowed freely into the facility unless they're prospective reverts. Non-Muslims are ordinarily only allowed into mosques by invitation.

And the question remains...if the Ground Zero Mosque is supposed to be dedicated to healing wounds and building interfaith bridges, why needlessly antagonize people not only by building a mega-mosque at Ground Zero but by making them pay for the privilege?

The answer of course is that the Ground Zero Mosque was never intended to 'build bridges' but to be a symbol of Islamist triumphalism, especialy given Imam Rauf's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Will they get the grant? Hard to say.

The normal range for these grants is between $100,000 and $1 million, so a $5 million request suggests that Imam Rauf and his friends are pushing the envelope just to see what they can get.

And also, the grant criteria requires a demonstration of the project's financial feasibility. The Ground Zero Mosque is projected to cost $100 million to build, and unless Imam Rauf's recent trip to the Muslim world at the State Department's expense was very successful and he can show concrete proof of that, the mosque won't meet HUD guidelines, which are based on project completion rather than start-up.

On the other hand, we have a president who favors the Ground Zero Mosque ( depending on what week it is) and who has said that he considers one of his main jobs while in office to defend Islam.

Some strings might very well end up being pulled.

Stay tuned..

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Salt In The Wound - Ground Zero Mosque May Get Public Financing

Believe it or not, the proposed Ground Zero Mosque may actually qualify for public financing.

According to New York City Comptroller John Liu, the Ground Zero Mosque not only could qualify be he's willing to consider approving a public subsidy.

Liu's spokeshole Scott Seiber said "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."

Imam Rauf and his people hope to obtain a total of $70 million in tax-exempt debt towards the construction costs to build the mosque. The city's Tax laws would allow the funding if Imam Rauf and his supporters can prove the mosque will benefit the general public (!) and their religious activities will have separate funding.

Strange times we live in.Strange, suicidal times.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Lies, Islamic Apologists And A Synagogue In Lebanon

Fareed Zakaria has long been embedded as the resident Islamist apologist for outlets like CNN, MSNBC, and Time.

While he's always been a major force for taqiya (dissembling to advance Islam,) his latest offering,in an attempt to strengthen the case for the Ground Zero Mosque is so disgraceful that it bears some exposure to the light of truth.

Zakaria's little snippet concerns the restoration in Beirut,Lebanon of the Magen Abraham synagogue, which Zakaria presents as an example of Islamic tolerance and a model for Americans to follow on the Ground Zero Mosque:

"The synagogue is just now emerging from a painstaking restoration project. When the repairs began over a year ago, the temple was literally a shell of its former self. So why did this nation, often teetering on the brink of religious hostilities and hostilities with Israel, restore a Jewish house of worship? To show that Lebanon is an open and tolerant country.

And indeed, the project is said to have found support in many parts of the community, not just from the few remaining Jews there, but also Christians and Muslims and Hezbollah. Yes, Hezbollah -- the one that the United States has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

Hezbollah's view on the renovation goes like this. "We respect divine religions, including the Jewish religion. The problem is with Israel's occupation of Arab lands ... not with the Jews." Food for thought. Thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. I will see you next week. Stay tuned for "Reliable Sources."

According to Zakaria, we can learn here in the US from the tolerance exhibited by Lebanon and Hezbollah. Here's the part of the story he doesn't want you to know.

In 1948, there were over 20,000 Jews living in Lebanon.Today, there are less than 100.Nearly all of the remaining Jews are in Beirut, and they are unable to openly practice their religion.

The Beirut Magen Abraham Synagogue was in ruins because it was looted and wrecked by Lebanese Shi'ite Muslims during the civil war in 1975...which was also when most of Lebanon's remaining 1,800 Jews fled the country.

Magen Abraham is also the site of the country's main Jewish cemetery,with around 4,500 graves. Preserving those graves is the primary reason that the remnants of Lebanon's Jewish community and Lebanese Jews abroad raised the money to restore Magen Abraham, aided by donors such as the family of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was murdered by Hezbollah under Syrian orders.

Magen Abraham will essentially be a memorial park and museum to a once thriving community..not an active house of worship.

Oh, and then there's Zakaria's tolerant friends in Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has been implicated in numerous attacks on Jews world wide, including the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed.

No less than Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah ( who is a Holocaust denier) has repeatedly called for Jews to be wiped out world wide, and was quoted in Lebanon's Daily Star as saying that that if the Jews "all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."

Nasrallah exhibited further respect and tolerance for Jews in a Sept. 18. 2009 speech, saying "Historic Palestine, from the sea to the river, belongs to the people of Palestine and to the whole [Muslim] nation." Israel, "is a usurper an occupation entity, aggressive, cancerous, illegitimate, and illegal presence," and nobody is permitted to recognize its existence."

The Jewish state, he continued, must be "wiped out":[We] will never recognize 'Israel.' We will not work with 'Israel.' We will not normalize ties with 'Israel.' We will not surrender to 'Israel.' We will not accept 'Israel' even if the whole world recognizes it. Our faith, belief, and declaration will remain unchanged, that 'Israel' is an illegal presence [and] a cancerous gland, and must be wiped out of existence."

In other words, what Zakaria didn't tell you is that to Hezbollah, the 'occupation' they're talking about has nothing to do with the Palestinians, but to Israel's entire existence. And he actually has the gall to compare Hezbollah's grudging acceptance of a tiny museum and graveyard with a huge, active mosque on Ground Zero that will tower over the proposed Ground Zero memorial and will be run by an Islamist imam with highly questionable ties.

Zakaria unwittingly gives us an excellent reason why the Ground Zero Mosque should never see the light of day. Few if any of its proponents appear to have even a nodding acquaintance with the truth,and are fully prepared to use taqiyah to get it built and to fool naive useful idiots into going along with them.

This gives us a very good indication of what will be going on if Imam Rauf has his way and the Ground Zero Mosque gets built in the middle of a target rich area like New York City.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

The Ghost Of Christmastimes to Come...

Cheerfully swiped from Tammy n'Snuffy

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

'Moderate' Ground Zero Imam's Mask Is About To Be Torn Off

As you know, I went a lot of detail on the prospective Ground Zero Mosque, its imam, his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood,and Rauf and the mosque's questionable financing.

Now this information is about to be revealed to the general public in an explosive form by none other than terrorism expert Steve Emerson...

Steve Emerson has unearthed 13 hours of audio tape of Imam Rauf. Emerson and his team of investigators has spent the past four weeks going through the newly found material. Rauf is a “radical extremist cleric who cloaks himself in sheep’s clothing.”

Among the shocking revelations Emerson’s team will reveal next week — they found Rauf:

Defending wahhabism – a puritanical version of Islam that governs Saudi Arabia

Calling for the elimination of Israel by claiming a one-nation state, meaning no more Jewish State.

Defending Bin Laden’s violenceDemonstrating that there is a lot more to this man than merely a cleric.

The American public now sees the “deception perpetrated by all these Islamic groups that claim they are against violence and terrorism and insist that their rights be respected but in reality are fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Listen to Emerson here on Bill Bennett.

I especially like Emerson's slapping around of the dinosaur media....as he compares their courage in unmasking of the KKK with their bending over for radical Islam.

Imam Rauf is going to have some 'splainin' to do...and the American public is starting to wake up.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Mosque Commentary Rundown

Just a few links to some of the better things on the web regarding this topic:

Peter Wehner - Time Magazine’s Slander of Americ

Charles Krauthammer - Moral Myopia at Ground Zero

Liberty's Spirit- Law, Justice and The American Way

Atlas Shrugs - Ground Zero Mosque Ransom: Developer Dictates Exorbitant Jizya

Victor Davis Hanson - "The Cynical Brilliance of Imam Rauf

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

NY Hardhats: "We Won't Build The Ground Zero Mosque"

There's apparently a major movement among New York City construction workers vowing not to work on the proposed Ground Zero Mosque:

"It's a very touchy thing because they want to do this on sacred ground," said Dave Kaiser, 38, a blaster who is working to rebuild the World Trade Center site.

"I wouldn't work there, especially after I found out about what the imam said about U.S. policy being responsible for 9/11," Kaiser said.

The grass-roots movement is gaining momentum on the Internet. One construction worker created the "Hard Hat Pledge" on his blog and asked others to vow not to work on the project if it stays on Park Place.

"Thousands of people are signing up from all over the country," said creator Andy Sullivan, a construction worker from Brooklyn. "People who sell glass, steel, lumber, insurance. They are all refusing to do work if they build there."

"Hopefully, this will be a tool to get them to move it," he said. "I got a problem with this ostentatious building looming over Ground Zero."

The unions themselves have yet to take a position on the Ground Zero Mosque.

"It's a very difficult dilemma for the contractors and the organized labor force because we are experiencing such high levels of unemployment," said Louis Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers' Association. "Yet at the same time, this is a very sacred sight to the union guys."

"There were construction workers killed on 9/11 and many more who got horribly sick cleaning up Ground Zero," Coletti said. "It's very emotional."

You know who I want to hear from on this? The Teamsters.

Almost nothing gets built in New York City without their OK.

So what about it Teamsters? Are you up for letting these people put up a huge mosque overlooking Ground Zero?

(Hat tip, memeorandum)

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

The AP Flacks For The Ground Zero Mosque

Originally, the press, the Fourth Estate was said to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.Nowadays, when it comes to the dinosaur media, they mostly do exactly the opposite...th eLe3ftist agenda, you understand.

You can always depend on the Associated Press to provide good examples of this in action.

Here's a nifty little memo from Associated Press Deputy Managing Editor for Standards and Production Tom Kent to the troops on how to properly cover the Ground Zero Mosque:

Colleagues,

Here is some guidance on covering the NYC mosque story, with assists from Chad Roedemeier in the NYC bureau and Terry Hunt in Washington:

1. We should continue to avoid the phrase "ground zero mosque" or "mosque at ground zero" on all platforms. (We’ve very rarely used this wording, except in slugs, though we sometimes see other news sources using the term.) The site of the proposed Islamic center and mosque is not at ground zero, but two blocks away in a busy commercial area. We should continue to say it’s “near” ground zero, or two blocks away.

WE WILL CHANGE OUR SLUG ON THIS STORY LATER TODAY from “BC-Ground Zero Mosque” to “BC-NYC Mosque.”

In short headlines, some ways to refer to the project include:

_ mosque 2 blocks from WTC site
_ Muslim (or Islamic) center near WTC site
_ mosque near ground zero
_ mosque near WTC site

We can refer to the project as a mosque, or as a proposed Islamic center that includes a mosque.

It may be useful in some stories to note that Muslim prayer services have been held since 2009 in the building that the new project will replace. The proposal is to create a new, larger Islamic community center that would include a mosque, a swimming pool, gym, auditorium and other facilities.

2. Here is a succinct summary of President Obama’s position:

Obama has said he believes Muslims have the right to build an Islamic center in New York as a matter of religious freedom, though he's also said he won't take a position on whether they should actually build it.

For additional background, you’ll find below a Fact Check on the project that moved yesterday.

Tom

Oh, by the way, a little fact checking from me...the building in question, the Burlington Coat Factory is only 600 feet away from Ground Zero, and it was in fact party destroyed by the flying landing gear of one of the 9/11 hijacked planes, so yes, it is part of Ground Zero. That's exactly why the people behind the Ground Zero Mosque want to build there so very badly, and to put up a mosque that will tower above the proposed Ground Zero Monument.

And notice the cute lil' walk back on Obama's statements ....now, he has no position on the mosque all of a sudden !

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Islamophobia?

The dinosaur media had one of its collective orgasms today, to the point where it's obvious that marching orders went out from the White House. The message? All you redneck,bitter clingers in flyover country hate Muslims and are a bunch of seething bigots. And for good measure, you're stoo-pid enough to think that President Obama is a Muslim, too!

Let us wade among the slime...

Time: Poll - Majority Opposes Mosque, Many Distrust Muslims. Related: Does America have A Muslim Problem?

Ben Smith at the Politico:"The rise in Americans who say they believe Barack Obama's a Muslim say more about many Americans' hostility toward Islam than it does about the rising hostility to Obama on the right, which is hardly news." and "Condemning the mosque, Gingrich echoed Mussolini."

Washington Post: "The number of Americans who believe -- wrongly -- that President Obama is a Muslim has increased significantly since his inauguration and now accounts for nearly 20 percent of the nation's population."

New York Times: 'In defining Obama , misperceptions stick.'

Maureen Dowd, New York TimesOur Mosque Madness -

Glenn Greenwald:Courage in the Face of Bigotry

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg: 'the lunatic racist Pamela Geller, who has been leading the crusade against the so-called Ground Zero mosque.'

Media Matters: When does Fox News' ugly Muslim bashing become the story?

Gene Lyons, Salon: Who Will Stand Up to GOP's War on Islam?

There's a lot more, and as I said, it's obvious that the wires were heating up between the White House and its media allies.

Of course, they're correct. We're all nothing but a bunch of bigots. I recall to my shame the nationwide lynchings of Muslims after 9/11, the numerous mosques that were burned to the ground, the celebrations in the streets, the passing out of sweets in celebration after each atrocity...

Oh, wait. Come to think of it, the celebrations were happening in the Muslim world instead of in America, weren't they?

This is, as a certain president might say, a teachable moment.

There has never been a clearer example of the divide between the elitist Left (including our president) and the vast majority of Americans.

The Left accepts as a tenet of faith in its twisted creed that America is racist, a force for evil in the world and deserves, above all, to be punished for its supposed sins. In particular,they have an abiding dislike for the country's culture and traditions, particularly its Judeo-Christian roots.

Proof? Imagine that there was a huge church or synagogue planned for construction in the same area. How long do you think it would take the ACLU or the Center for Constitutional Rights to file suit? And what would the chorus of the Left be singing then?

Actually, we don't have to speculate. There was a small Greek Orthodox Church, St. Nicholas at Ground Zero located directly in front of the second tower at 155 Cedar Street. It was heavily damaged in the attack, and the church was promised a site to rebuild at 130 Liberty Street, about 100 yards away.

Unlike the Ground Zero Mosque, that rebuilding has been stalled by legal roadblocks and by New York City officialdom for years and was finally rejected by the city.

Some animals are apparently more equal than others, to paraphrase Orwell.

Americans are an incredibly decent and tolerant people, by and large. Even those who harbor prejudice generally would not support institutionalizing it in our laws. And they have proven themselves more than willing to be tolerant of Islam. But as time goes by, more and more of them are realizing that there is a serious disconnect between that tolerance and America's traditional values and the ones espoused by Islam - particularly the Saudi-funded wahabi version being imported into our country by, among others, Imam Rauf, who favors establishing sharia as the law of the land.

The simple minded flacks for the Ruling Class don't get it, because they've scripted this as a simple tale of redneck knuckle draggers hating the Other. And therein lies a vicious trap they've set for themselves.

Ever since 9/11, two currents have been running neck and neck when it comes to the media's take on Islam: the constant drumbeat, continuously echoed in the Main Stream Media that Islam is a Religion of Peace and the equally well reported and awful reality that based on the violence performed expressly in its name, it isn't anything of the kind.

There's more than a bit of cognitive dissonance at work here,because the two scripts directly contradict each other.

Our president of course is caught in the same mental bear trap, since he shares the essential disdain for America and American values with the Left. Which is why he continues to dance on one side of the issue, and then another....and then wonders why most of his fellow citizens view him with distrust and disdain.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Ground Zero Mosque Backers Admit They Will Use Foreign Funds To Build

The developers behind the Ground Zero Mosque confirmed what I knew all along - that most of the money to build this will come from overseas.

According to Ground Zero Mosque spokeshole Oz Sultan they ' won't rule out accepting financing from the Mideast, including from Saudi Arabia and Iran' to build the $100 million dollar project that is a mere 600 feet from ground Zero and will tower over the proposed monument to 9/11.

Imam Rauf has already admitted in the London Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat that a large chunk of the estimated $100 million construction cost will also come from Islamic countries, in spite of the taqiya he's been spreading here.

In fact, he's overseas right now on the State Department's payroll raising those funds.

Another clue to where the funding is going to ultimately come from is Sharif El-Gamal, the "developer" from Soho Properties, who was a waiter at the Sarafina Restaurant in New York City just a short time ago and later an apartment rental agent who worked part time on commission only…yet somehow managed to save up $5 million for the purchase.

Of course, it's a mere coincidence that El-Gamal’s partner, Nour Mousa, just happens to be the nephew of the Arab League leader Amr Moussa. When the Mob does this, they call it ‘conduit financing.’

And then there's Rauf's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and people like the Xenel Corporation, a Saudi company who now funds Rauf's ASMA organization and the proposed mosque - and have ties to al-Qaeda that caused the company to lose a major contract with the City of Orlando Florida once those ties came to light.

It's not an exaggeration to say that the Ground Zero Mosque is being funded by some of the same people that funded the 9/11 attacks.

(hat tip memeorandum)

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Weekend Monkey On Politics: The Mosquerade Party

Hidey Ho, Primates! Welcome to the one and only Real Banana, your source for the real poop on politics.

Let's do it and get to it..

I gotta give Obama credit. He's got a unique talent. One that could screw up a wet dream and turn it into a negative approval rating.

Let's take a good look at the current sit, OK ? The economy is in the dumpster,the primates are livid about the costs associated with the Health Care bill and the constant bail outs (and just wait until they see their taxes next year..eeech!), and they're upset over the Gulf Oil spill and Obama's suing Arizona over that illegal immigration law. Obama's poll numbers are tanking, hovering around 41% with disapproval in the low to mid 50's. Incumbents even in true Blue states like California, Wisconsin,Illinois and Washington are facing the fight of their lives as my Democrats could end up losing the House and the Senate in a regular ReThug tsunami.

And with all that going on,Obama stands up in front of a buncha Muslims at an Iftar thingee at the White House and yaks it up about his support for a huge new mosque.Six hundred feet away from Ground Zero. With the polls of most Americans running 70-30 against.

And the comedy doesn't end there. The next day, after his advisers start screaming like mandrills and threatening to slit their wrists,Obama tries to pick up the poop he hurled and pretend it never happened!

Freakin' brilliant, no? Obama comes out for the mosque, making the 9/11 families and the swing voters berserk and giving very yahoo ReThug running for Congress another built in issue, as though things weren't bad enough already. Then he tries to walk it back, getting his buddies in the press and on the left wing of the party ticked off at him for trying to vote present on this.

Worst of all, the party's split when we most needed unity because you just ended our usual Democrat Masquerade and turned it into a mosquerade party. The masks weren't supposed to come off until after November.

Riddle me this, Genius: How exactly are Democratic candidates gonna pose as fiscally responsible, strong on national defense or even civil rights friendly now that your antics have forced people to take sides on stuff like this?

Who cares whether some Muslims build a mosque. It was already on fire, so you throw gasoline on it?

When even low hanging bananas like Harry Reid and Howard Dean are desperately jumping ship over this mosque thing, doesn't that tell you something?

Yowza! Way to go, O! You've been as good for us Democrats as Bush was for the ReThugs, I'll tell you that.

Obama's performance reminds me of something my old pal Donna Brazile said once describing RNC head Rethug Michael Steele...just an affirmative action hiring that went bad.

Anyone else wish Hillary had gotten the nod from the party apparatchniks instead of Obama?

Later, primates!

Weekend Monkey was a Democratic candidate for president in 2008 and is JoshuaPundit's> political Guru. He can be reached for personal appearances,freebies and interesting offers at wendmonkey@yahoo.com

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Pelosi: “Investigate Who's Funding Ground Zero Mosque Opponents"

You can always count on San Fran Nan to do exactly the wrong thing.

This arrogant elitist wouldn't hear of investigating the murky,overseas funding for the Ground Zero Mosque or about Sharif El-Gamal, the "developer" from Soho Properties, who was a waiter at the Sarafina Restaurant in New York City just a short time ago and later an apartment rental agent who worked part time on commission only…yet somehow managed to save up $5 million for the purchase.

Or El-Gamal’s partner, Nour Mousa, just coincidentally happens to be the nephew of the Arab League leader Amr Moussa. When the Mob does this, they call it ‘conduit financing.’

Or Imam Rauf's interesting connection to the Saudi-based Xenel Corporation,whichhas ties to the Muslim Brotherhood an al-Qaeda.

Nuh-uh!

She wants to investigate millions of ordinary Americans who oppose what amounts to a victory symbol placed 600 feet away Ground Zero...one that will tower over the planned monument at the site.

As though 'funding' was needed to take a position that simple patriotism and human decency ought to mandate.

Staggering.Simply staggering.

(hat tip,memeorandum)

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Why Reports On The Ground Zero Mosque Being Relocated Are Bogus

The Leftist Israeli paper Ha'aretz just got caught in another bit of misinformation...as usual.

They came out with a story a while ago that 'insiders' told them that leaders behind the proposed mosque's construction on Ground Zero were considering moving the location.

Needless to say, Sharif El-Gamal, the developer of the project just confirmed that Ha'aretz is out of their collective minds to report that the Mosque site at Ground Zero is going to be abandoned.

I could have told them that,because again, you have to look at the symbolism through Islamist eyes.

Contrary to the nonsense that Lefty Journolistas like Ben Smith and Maggie Haberman are peddling in Politico, the proposed mosque won't be located "a few blocks north of the site…". The Burlington Coat Factory where the Mosque is to be built is a mere 600 feet from Ground Zero, just to the left.

Not only that, but if this monstrosity is built, the top floor will be higher than the Ground Zero Memorial and will overlook it, always a prime concern in Islamist eyes.

And there's more to it than that.

The Burlington Coat Factory is actually a part of Ground Zero itself.The landing gear from one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center actually smashed into the Burlington Coat Factory itself and is thus an actual part of the Ground Zero 'victory site.'

Muslims historically build mosques at the sites of the conquests and victories, and this will be another one.And, it will actually overlook the entire ground Zero site.In their eyes, a different place simply wouldn't have the same symbolism.

I doubt they will voluntarily move to another site.

( hat tip memeorandum)

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

US State Department Funding Ground Zero Imam's MidEast Fundraising Trip

Not surprising, but the Obama Administration has shown that it's firmly behind the proposed Ground Zero Mosque and its Islamist, Muslim Brotherhood affiliated Imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf.

Imam Rauf is being sent on a taxpayer funded junket to the Middle East by our State Department, including visits to Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Qatar....all countries that have a history of extensive funding of both the Ground Zero Mosque and ASMA, Rauf's organization promoting Islam and sharia in America. And yet, the Obama Administration expects us to believe that Rauf isn't going to do any Ground Zero fundraising while he's there...

"He is a distinguished Muslim cleric," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. "I think we are in the process of arranging for him to travel as part of this program, and it is to foster a greater understanding about the region around the world among Muslim-majority communities," he added.

Crowley said no fund-raising for the mosque and cultural center during the trip would be permitted. "That would not be something he could do as part of our program," he said.

Ri-ight.He's somehow not going to solicit funds from the same people who are funding him already? Are they going to monitor him 24-7?

Abdul Rauf already lied to his gullible western enablers when he said that the $5 million in cash for the land purchase came from US Muslims, when according to ASMA's own records he received a great deal of financing from the Muslim world, over half a million from Qatar alone. He's practicing the same sort of taqiya when he says that the estimated $100 million needed to complete the Ground Zero Mosque will come from US.Muslims and his congregation.

Abdul Rauf has a very different story speaking in Arabic Just the other day in London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat that a large chunk of the estimated $100 million construction cost will also come from Islamic countries...in other words, the same people he's meeting with here at the expense of US taxpayers.

Nor is the Obama Administrations support limited to paying for the imam's fundraising activities.

Our State Department spent your time and money to publish the entire text of NY City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's execrable speech supporting the Ground Zero Mosque on www.america.gov, it's official affiliated government website aimed towards an overseas audience.

When asked why our State Department chose to do this, Spokeshole PJ Crowley said it was merely a way to help interested foreigners 'understand the debate'. Which, of course, is why only Bloomberg's remarks were published and no opposing views.

Riddle me this: what would America's Left think if an American administration supported building a huge Christian cathedral on Ground Zero, and paid for the pastor to go overseas to collect funds to build it? What would they say if our State Department published speeches endorsing it on an official government website?

What if it was a huge Chabad Center?

How do you think it would take the ACLU or the Center for Constitutional Rights to sue?

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

A Mosque At Ground Zero

"The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers." - Turkey's Islamist Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan

As you may know, a massive 13 story mosque and Islamic center is scheduled to go up at Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center was brought down in the name of Islam.

The Left has taken up the ground Zero Mosque as their latest cause, claiming that its opponents are bigots,that the site will be a source of interfaith healing, that it is a blow against moderate Muslims, ( the Atlantic's insipid Jeffrey Goldberg went as far as to say that if they could, al-Qaeda would bomb the Cordoba House) and that there is no rational reason to prevent the huge mosque from being built.

Are they right?

As much as I empathize with the 9/11 families, the victims of jihad, hurt feelings and pain alone are not a rational reason for the Cordoba House not to be built.

But there a number of perfectly good reasons why this monstrosity should never see the light of day.

First, there is the prospective 'management', their background, their beliefs and their orientation.

The proposed Imam of the Cordoba House is one Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is also the Imam of Masjid al-Farah, a New York City mosque. He is also the leader of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), a New-York based nonprofit run by Rauf and his wife, Daisy Khan, since 2005. ASMA is the group behind the Cordaba House.

Rauf's background is, as they say, of interest. He is not the moderate Muslim he pretends to be.

Rauf’s father, Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rauf was an Egyptian contemporary of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna and a Muslim Brotherhood member who fled Egypt for Kuwait in 1948, where Feisal Abdul Rauf was born.

Upon coming to the US the late Dr. Rauf founded the Islamic Cultural Center (ICC) in New York, where his son, Feisal Abdul Rauf is a permanent trustee. The Center was built with $1.3 million in funding from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Libya.

The ICC has a history of employing radical clerics. One of them, Imam Sheik Muhammad Gemeaha had a long history of fiery Islamist preaching. After 9/11, Gameaha blamed the Jews, saying that “only the Jews” could have perpetrated the 9/11 attacks; that if Americans only knew the truth, “they would have done to Jews what Hitler did”; and that Jews “disseminate corruption in the land” and spread “heresy, homosexuality, alcoholism, and drugs.” Gemeaha’s successor at the ICC, Omar Saleem Abu-Namous, has said on many occasions that there is no “conclusive evidence” proving that Muslims were responsible for 9/11.

Rauf himself is an Islamist apologist who freely practices taquiya, dissembling to advance Islam, on gullible westerners. In a 60 Minutes interview that aired on September 30, 2001, He blamed th e9/11 attacks on the US saying 9/11 was caused by US policies, not Islamist terrorism. "I wouldn't say that the United States deserved what happened, but United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened... in fact, in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.”

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Rauf expanded on this theme, saying it was Christians who started mass attacks on civilians.

"The Islamic method of waging war is not to kill innocent civilians. But it was Christians in World War II who bombed civilians in Dresden and Hiroshima, neither of which were military targets."

I'm sure the millions who died during the Islamic conquests of India, Southern Europe, Spain, Asia and the Middle East would disagree with Rauf. After all, Mohammed's first act of brigandage as recounted in the hadiths was to massacre and enslave the Jews of Medina who had taken him in as a refugee after he fled Mecca...simply because he was angry that they refused to follow him and he wanted their wealth.

Rauf has other questionable beliefs as well. He has endorsed Britain's setting up of mandatory sharia courts. In March 2009, Rauf said that “Islamic law and American democratic principles have many things in common.” Anyone familiar with both our Constitution and the dictates of the Qu'ran and sharia law understands easily that the differences are so profound as to make them incompatible.

One key difference is how women are treated. In a 2009 piece he penned for the Huffington Post, Rauf actually stated: “The Prophet Muhammad has been known as the first feminist. … Gender equality is an intrinsic part of Islamic belief.”



Gender equality an intrinsic part of Islamic belief? Mohammed, the first feminist?


Qu'ran IV/34: Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other.. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them.

Hadith TIRMZI She is forbidden to spend any money without the permission of her husband, and it includes giving food to the needy or feast to friends. ( P. 265)

Sahih Al Bukhari, Al hee’ al , saying 6969,6970,6971: Muhammad said: “If a man fabricated the acceptance of a woman to marry her by bringing two false witnesses to confirm the marriage, then if the judge confirmed that marriage, although the man and the two witnesses knew that the woman did not accept the marriage herself, the marriage is to be considered legal and valid”

Bukhari (6:301) - "[Muhammad] said, 'Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?' They replied in the affirmative. He said, 'This is the deficiency in her intelligence.'"

Taqiyah in full measure.

One of Rauf's calling cards as a 'moderate Muslim'in the US has been his book, published in the West as What’s Right with Islam. Overseas, as the National Review’s Andrew C. McCarthy found out, the book's original non-English version was published with a very different text under the title A Call to Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America Post-9/11.

Dawa, of course, is Islamic proselytizing and indoctrination. Both the overseas edition and the subsequent American What's Right with Islam were funded and produced by the Islamic Society Of North America ( ISNA) and the International Institute of Islamic Thought(IIIT), names that should be familiar to my readers. Both of those organizations are Saudi-funded fronts of the Ikhwan, the Muslim Brotherhood. ISNA was identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism case, and the IIIT's name should ring a few bells to people familiar with Islamist terrorism here in America. The IIIT also has an important connection to President Obama's new Brotherhood friendly ambassador to the anti-Semitic and Islamist Organization of Islamic Conference(OIC), and the co-founder and president of the International Institute of Islamic Thought, Shaykh Taha Jabir al-Awani, was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Sami al-Arian terrorism case.

It's significant that Imam Rauf, like a great many Muslim leaders in America has refused to condemn Hamas or Hezbollah unequivocally.

There's a great deal more,but let's continue with the second reason not to build the Ground Zero Mosque - what it's likely to become, especially given it's proposed management.



The map above comes courtesy of terrorism expert Stephen Emerson, and clicking on it shows the relationship between mosques and incidents of Islamist terrorism in America. It illustrates something that has turned out to be true almost every time we have an instance of home grown Islamist terrorism. It is simply a fact that behind almost all of them you'll find a Saudi-funded wahabi mosque and a radical imam.

While all Muslims are obviously not terrorists and all mosques are not Islamist terrorist supporters, the connection is undeniable.

Given Feisal Abdul Rauf's questionable background, beliefs, his history of hiring radical imams and his ties to various Muslim Brotherhood fronts, does anyone seriously doubt what's going to be happening at this mosque - right in the midst of the target rich environment of New York City?

Then there's the questionable sources of financing.

The proposed site of the Ground Zero Mosque was the site of a Burlington Coat Factory that was severely damaged in the 9/11 atacks and that Imam Rauf bought at literally a fire-sale price for $4.58 million in cash. Rauf claims that the money was raised by New York City's Muslims. In fact, according to ASMA's own records, he received a great deal of financing from the Muslim world, over half a million from Qatar alone.

And while he's been telling gullible Westerners that the money to construct the Cordoba Houe will originate here, as he admitted in the London Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, a large chunk of the estimated $100 million construction cost will also come from Islamic countries.

"Imam Abdul Rauf . . . told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Islamic center will be financed through contributions from Muslims in the US, as well as by donations from Arab and Islamic countries," the newspaper reported.

Another clue to where the funding will ultimately come from is Sharif El-Gamal, the "developer" from Soho Properties, who was a waiter at the Sarafina Restaurant in New York City just a short time ago and later an apartment rental agent who worked part time on commission only…yet somehow managed to save up $5 million.

El-Gamal’s partner, Nour Mousa, just happens to be the nephew of the Arab League leader Amr Moussa. When the Mob does this, they call it ‘conduit financing.’

Imam Rauf also has an interesting connection to the Xenel Corporation, a Saudi firm that funds ASMA, Imam Rauf's group as well as the proposed Cordoba House. Xemel "provides development, manufacturing, investment, trading and services throughout a wide range of areas of interest" according to the company's website.

Xenel also has ties to al-Qaeda. Xenel's former CEO Abdullah Alireza sits on the executive board of Dar al-Maal al-Islami (DMI), a bank based in Switzerland that was named by the State Department as a source of al-Qaeda financing. In fact former al Qaeda operative Ahmed al-Fadl, a finance manager for al Qaeda, testified that al Qaeda accounts in Khartoum, Sudan were held at Faisal Islamic Bank, a DMI subsidiary.

Xenel actually lost a huge contract in 2002 to build a new convention center for the city of Orlando, Florida once these ties to Islamist terrorism came to light.

Nor is this all in the past. The company's current CEO Kahlid Alireza was a prominent name on the "Golden Chain" list of financial backers of al-Qaeda seized in a March 2002 raid by Bosnian police at the offices of the Muslim 'charity' the Benevolence International Foundation in Sarajevo. Al Qaeda defector Jamal al-Fadl vouched for its authenticity and the FBI also pronounced the 'Golden Chain" list as genuine.

Another probable source of funding for Rauf is the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), established by the member nations of the Islamist Organization of Islamic Conference ( OIC) for exactly the purpose of advancing Islam and sharia and funding projects like the Ground Zero Mosque. It previously financed the aforementioned Islamic Cultural Center (ICC) started by Rauf's Muslim Brotherhood affiliated father in New York to the tune of $1.3 million where Rauf is still a trustee.

Does anyone really doubt that some if not most of the money to build the Ground Zero Mosque is going to come from some of the same people that helped finance 9/11? Are we really prepared to allow this to happen?

Contrary to the tales Rauf has been spinning to the media , there's no pressing need for a huge mosque at this site. Lower Manhattan isn't exactly home to a large Muslim community. Manhattan's existing storefront mosques are more than adequate for the local Muslims, mainly Pakistani and Arab Muslims who work in the area but who actually live in places like Brooklyn, Queens or New Jersey. So why a huge mosque at Ground Zero rather than an area where there are more Muslims?

To understand the answer, it's vital to see the symbolism of this through the Muslim frame of reference.

The very name Cordoba House invokes Islamist triumph, invoking the capitol of Islam's Spanish conquests at the height of Islam's power. The new mosque will be designed to rise up from the ashes of 9/11 and tower over Ground Zero.

The feet of Muslims will be trodding over the bones and ashes of the people who died on 9/11, and again, those who are aware of Arab and Muslim culture understand full well what a gross insult this is in that world.

Islamists understand this symbolism quite well.

What is being planned here is not a 'symbol of healing' or 'tolerance'. It is to be a symbol of dominance and victory of Islam over the infidel, as well as a demonstration of the kind of contempt many Muslims have always had for the kuffars, non-believers. Muslims historically build mosques at the sites of their victories and conquests. New York acceding to it is literally the equivalent of allowing the Klu Klux Klan to place a white power cultural center on the site of the 16th St. Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama - where the Klan's bomb murdered 4 young girls back in 1963. Or allowing the bloody conversion by the Ottomans of St. Sophia's cathedral in Constantinople into a mosque.

Jeffrey Goldberg has it wrong. Al-Qaeda wouldn't bomb the proposed Cordova House. They would see it as a monument to their pulling off the most deadly attack in history ever mounted on American soil. And a training ground for the future.

And to their credit,there are American Muslims who see this for what it is and understand that it is a threat to their freedom too.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!