Bravo, Mr. Robinson! A rare voice of sanity in contemporary America.

So now the left is against victimhood? Isn't that something!

The Imam Rauf supports Sharia, in this country, as a parallel jurisdiction. It doesn't matter how nice he is, nor how much he says he's for peace. He is a Sharia supporter, and that is good reason to oppose the mosque. He will be preaching Islamic supremacy in this mosque.

Many Islamists truly believe that Sharia is best for everyone. They can be very nice people. They envision a happy world in which everyone is peaceful in submission to Islamic rule. However, they still are promoting a repulsive theocratic ideology. Don't be fooled.

In this case the protesting victims are self-righteous horses' asses who use suffering to defend their prejudices. They and the tinhorn politicians who exploit them believe they have a right to define sacred space and identify those who profane it according to their whim. Remarkably, the 9/11 hijackers were motivated by the United States' presence on the holy ground of Saudi Arabia. The framers of our Constitution would be sickened by these yahoos.

For the millionth time there is no "ground-zero mosque." That's a creation of Faux News, religious bigots, and opportunist politicians such as Gingrich and Palin.

The Cordoba House, a community center with a prayer room, will be six blocks from the North Tower. The people constructing it are moderates who are in NO WAY culpable for the events of 9/11. Dozens of Muslims were killed in those attacks too, btw.

Sure, your cartoons are protected by the First Amendment. If you want to go out of your way to offend fellow citizens, be my guest. Be sure to put a "Piss Christ" outside every Christian church too. Or, again, do you only enjoy the idea of offending Muslims?

The Cordoba House itself was not conceived of in this type of vindictive spirit. It has been twisted into something it's not by right-wing propagandists--i.e., the mythical "ground-zero mosque."

Y'know all the 9/11 terrorists were MEN.

I am DEEPLY OFFENDED that MEN are allowed anywhere near ground zero!

Simon Deng, an escaped slave who was kidnapped at age 9 by an Arab muslim in Sudan, is against the Ground Zero mosque. Slavery is permitted under Sharia.

I love these Christian bigots who keep trying to come up with excuses to violate the First Amendment.

Christians were perfectly capable of rationalizing slavery back in the day. We had to fight a Civil War in which 600,000 people died to end that.

And, yeah, I'm sure there will be plenty of slaves at the Cordoba House.

Just more bigoted propaganda.

Provide a reference for the imam's comment.

Otherwise, we'll assume it's just yet another right-wing lie.

And was he calling it that himself or simply referring to this idiotic media firestorm?

Yo, 23:57:

I think you've got things messed up here.

You obviously object to Muslim extremists. So do I. So do most Muslims.

The best way forward for Islam in the modern world is to encourage modernization, integration, and moderation. Believe me, it's possible. There are 5 million Muslims living in America as peaceful citizens.

And that's exactly what the Cordoba House represents: modern moderate Islam.

But by reacting to it with fear and prejudice and by painting the moderates as extremists and pretending that the whole religion is defined by its worst tendencies, you're actually only deepening the divide and inflaming the radical elements, giving them further tools for recruitment.

Can't you see that?

Some facts about Imam Rauf (not Raif):

* He has been imam of a mosque in NYC since 1983.
* He is a Sufi.
* His whole life has been dedicated to building bridges between Islam and the West.
* He has condemned the 9/11 attacks in no uncertain terms.
* He was the State Department's outreach man to moderate Muslims under the Bush administration.
* He has written: "The truth is that killing innocent people is always wrong and no argument or excuse, no matter how deeply believed, can ever make it right."
* He has also said: "American Muslims have the right to practice their religion in accordance with the Constitution of the United States."

Right-wing attempts to vilify him and to portray him as a radical promoter of Sharia have no foundation in fact.

"There are all kinds of Sufis. Some support violent Jihad."--03:00

But clearly not Rauf. See his quotation against violence cited above at 02:07.

You accuse him of wanting to gain converts. Well, that's his right as much as it is that of evangelical Christians or any other group. (There's no danger of mass conversions to Islam in this climate, anyway! And it's not something that's likely to succeed in our modern Western pluralistic marketplace of ideas. But that's really beside the point.)

The guilt-by-association trick has been skillfully parodied and punctured by Jon Stewart. I suggest you watch his clip showing how the same tactics Faux News uses can be used against Faux News:

www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/23/stewart-fox-prince-alwaleed_n_692234.html

The bottom line remains that regardless of whether you or I or anyone else agrees with all of Rauf's opinions, he has a right to them and a right to build a community center on private property.

The Bill of Rights gives no ground to those who want to deny any person the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Yes, people have the freedom of speech to advocate for theocracy. And people also have the freedom of speech to let these theocrats know just how totally we reject their ideology.

What really should be done is to ban all religious funding from countries that do not themselves have religious freedom, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc. Saudi Arabia does not have any Constitutional right to fund mosques, religious schools, etc., and we should put an end to it. Rauf is being quite elusive on just where the $100 million for this center is coming from.

Rauf: "American Muslims have the right to practice their religion in accordance with the Constitution of the United States."

He is correct. The narrow-minded bigots are wrong.

Christian theocracy is a political ideology as well and not compatible with our Constitution either. Many Christians in this country are far far less reasonable than Rauf. Need I mention Pat Robertson, Fred Phelps, millions of other yahoos?

"Will you join with me in protesting this ground zero mosque?"

Absolutely not. The people building the Cordoba House had nothing to do with 9/11. You sound like a bigot who wants to claim all Muslims are terrorists. Nothing could be further from the truth.

15:33

I am absolutely not claiming that all Muslims are terrorists. However, al Qaeda are Islamists. Imam Rauf is an Islamist. So far as I know, Imam Rauf is not a terrorist, even though he refuses to call Hamas a terrorist organization. The violent Jihadists and the Islamists have the same goal: establishing Islamic rule over the whole earth.

There are some Muslims who do not have this goal. Interestingly, the most prominent secularist Muslims think this mosque is a very bad idea. I agree with them.

If you will not join with me in protesting this mosque, will you join with Zudhi Jasser, founder and president of American Islamic Forum for Democracy? He could use some help protesting this mosque, and you can be sure he likes a lot of Muslims.

I'm far less concerned about a tiny number of moderate American Muslims in this country than I am about the Christian fanatics who assassinate doctors, bomb clinics, and found mercenary outfits such as Blackwater. (I'm referring to the notorious Erik Prince, who now, interestingly enough, lives in Dubai!)

The Bible belt types who go around saying this is a "Christian nation" and prop up the disgusting GOP are the ones to oppose. And of course all of them are up in arms about this community center because they hate pluralism.

This is probably the most Jew-friendly country on earth other than Israel. However, anti-Jewish hate crimes outnumber anti-Muslim hate crimes by 6 to 1 (according to the FBI statistics). There is not a major anti-Muslim hate crime problem in this country. People who tell the truth about Islam do not, for the most part, hate Muslims, any more than people who complain about Evangelical Christianity hate Evangelical Christians.

It is sad when anyone is stabbed for any reason. However, Muslims in this country are a heck of a lot safer than religious minorities are in Muslim countries. Recently 70 Ahmadis in Pakistan were killed by Muslims. Ahmadis are a peaceful heretical sect of Islam, often attacked by mainstream Muslims. Attacks on Christian churches has been on the rise in Indonesia, with little action to stop it from the government. A mob of 3,000 Muslims recently attacked a Coptic Christian community in Egypt over a rumor they were going to build a new church. There are less than 60 Catholic priests in Turkey, and five of them have been shot or stabbed in the last 4 years. "Allahu Akbar" seems to be a popular saying of these assailants. In Bangladesh at least 5 were killed and over 20 injured when some Buddhist groups were targeted and their houses burned down recently. A Christian church was also damaged and looted. In Malaysia, where it is illegal for a Muslim to convert to Christianity, 11 churches have recently been targets of arson because some Muslims don't want Christians to use the word "Allah" to describe God.

I would also note that Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Bangladesh are often considered to be among the most tolerant Muslim countries.

The group New York Neighbors for American Values, which rallied yesterday in favor of the Cordoba House, includes families of the 9/11 victims.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/25/911-families-support-park51-islamic-cultural-center_n_694029.html

Well said by Sayward at 08:09.

Christians are always so quick to portray themselves as victims--and equally quick to forget their own history.

When I used to get dragged off to Sunday school as a kid, I was always told about "Romans feeding Christians to the lions." They never mentioned that the Christians later took over Rome, persecuted the Pagans, and went on to a glorious history of wars, purges, conquests, imperialism, forced conversions, burning people at stakes, Crusades, Inquisitions, witch hunts, and so on. What propagandists!