WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is exhorting a Florida minister to “listen to those better angels” and call off his plan to engage in a Quran-burning protest this weekend.
Obama told ABC’s “Good Morning America” in an interview aired Thursday that he hopes the Rev. Terry Jones of Florida listens to the pleas of people who have asked him to call off the plan. The president called it a “stunt.”
“If he’s listening, I hope he understands that what he’s proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans,” Obama said. “That this country has been built on the notion of freedom and religious tolerance.”
“And as a very practical matter, I just want him to understand that this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform,” the president added.
Said Obama: “Look, this is a recruitment bonanza for Al Qaida. You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan.” The president also said Jones’ plan, if carried out, could serve as an incentive for terrorist-minded individuals “to blow themselves up” to kill others.
“I hope he listens to those better angels and understands that this is a destructive act that he’s engaging in,” the president said of Jones.
CNN (Communist News Network) promotes Imam Rauf and the Victory Mosque
Imam warns against moving NYC mosque. The imam behind the controversial project says changing its location could be a national security risk.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man behind the NYC Islamic center, says they will proceed with plans to build it.
Op-Ed Contributor
Building on Faith
By FEISAL ABDUL RAUF
Published NY Times: September 7, 2010
AS my flight approached America last weekend, my mind circled back to the furor that has broken out over plans to build Cordoba House, a community center in Lower Manhattan.I have been away from home for two months, speaking abroad about cooperation among people from different religions. Every day, including the past two weeks spent representing my country on a State Department tour in the Middle East, I have been struck by how the controversy has riveted the attention of Americans, as well as nearly everyone I met in my travels.
We have all been awed by how inflamed and emotional the issue of the proposed community center has become. The level of attention reflects the degree to which people care about the very American values under debate: recognition of the rights of others, tolerance and freedom of worship.
Many people wondered why I did not speak out more, and sooner, about this project. I felt that it would not be right to comment from abroad. It would be better if I addressed these issues once I returned home to America, and after I could confer with leaders of other faiths who have been deliberating with us over this project. My life’s work has been focused on building bridges between religious groups and never has that been as important as it is now.
We are proceeding with the community center, Cordoba House. More important, we are doing so with the support of the downtown community, government at all levels and leaders from across the religious spectrum, who will be our partners. I am convinced that it is the right thing to do for many reasons.
Above all, the project will amplify the multifaith approach that the Cordoba Initiative has deployed in concrete ways for years. Our name, Cordoba, was inspired by the city in Spain where Muslims, Christians and Jews co-existed in the Middle Ages during a period of great cultural enrichment created by Muslims. Our initiative is intended to cultivate understanding among all religions and cultures.
Our broader mission — to strengthen relations between the Western and Muslim worlds and to help counter radical ideology — lies not in skirting the margins of issues that have polarized relations within the Muslim world and between non-Muslims and Muslims. It lies in confronting them as a joint multifaith, multinational effort.
From the political conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians to the building of a community center in Lower Manhattan, Muslims and members of all faiths must work together if we are ever going to succeed in fostering understanding and peace.
At Cordoba House, we envision shared space for community activities, like a swimming pool, classrooms and a play space for children. There will be separate prayer spaces for Muslims, Christians, Jews and men and women of other faiths. The center will also include a multifaith memorial dedicated to victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.
I am very sensitive to the feelings of the families of victims of 9/11, as are my fellow leaders of many faiths. We will accordingly seek the support of those families, and the support of our vibrant neighborhood, as we consider the ultimate plans for the community center. Our objective has always been to make this a center for unification and healing.
Cordoba House will be built on the two fundamental commandments common to Judaism, Christianity and Islam: to love the Lord our creator with all of our hearts, minds, souls and strength; and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We want to foster a culture of worship authentic to each religious tradition, and also a culture of forging personal bonds across religious traditions.
I do not underestimate the challenges that will be involved in bringing our work to completion. (Construction has not even begun yet.) I know there will be interest in our financing, and so we will clearly identify all of our financial backers.
Lost amid the commotion is the good that has come out of the recent discussion. I want to draw attention, specifically, to the open, law-based and tolerant actions that have taken place, and that are particularly striking for Muslims.
President Obama and Mayor Michael Bloomberg both spoke out in support of our project. As I traveled overseas, I saw firsthand how their words and actions made a tremendous impact on the Muslim street and on Muslim leaders. It was striking: a Christian president and a Jewish mayor of New York supporting the rights of Muslims. Their statements sent a powerful message about what America stands for, and will be remembered as a milestone in improving American-Muslim relations.
The wonderful outpouring of support for our right to build this community center from across the social, religious and political spectrum seriously undermines the ability of anti-American radicals to recruit young, impressionable Muslims by falsely claiming that America persecutes Muslims for their faith. These efforts by radicals at distortion endanger our national security and the personal security of Americans worldwide. This is why Americans must not back away from completion of this project. If we do, we cede the discourse and, essentially, our future to radicals on both sides. The paradigm of a clash between the West and the Muslim world will continue, as it has in recent decades at terrible cost. It is a paradigm we must shift.
From those who recognize our rights, from grassroots organizers to heads of state, I sense a global desire to build on this positive momentum and to be part of a global movement to heal relations and bring peace. This is an opportunity we must grasp.
I therefore call upon all Americans to rise to this challenge. Let us commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 by pausing to reflect and meditate and tone down the vitriol and rhetoric that serves only to strengthen the radicals and weaken our friends’ belief in our values.
The very word “islam” comes from a word cognate to shalom, which means peace in Hebrew. The Koran declares in its 36th chapter, regarded by the Prophet Muhammad as the heart of the Koran, in a verse deemed the heart of this chapter, “Peace is a word spoken from a merciful Lord.”
How better to commemorate 9/11 than to urge our fellow Muslims, fellow Christians and fellow Jews to follow the fundamental common impulse of our great faith traditions?
Call it hilarious, offensive, or dangerous, but any way you slice it there will be controversy over a new school named after Al Gore that’s opening for the first time next week.
The Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences has just wrapped up construction in Los Angeles, and should be ready to open its doors when the school years starts on September 13. But there’s something unmistakably ironic about the name of this school.
It’s named after environmental activist Rachel Carson, and bloated Nobel Peace Prize thief Al Gore. Apparently neither of them had any idea that a school was being named after them.
What’s interesting is that this $75.5 million facility was built on top of toxic soil. The ground it’s built on used to house a whole bunch of storage tanks filled with toxic material. It’s also right next to an oil well and near a groundwater source that is contaminated by an oil field. So it’s basically the kind of stuff that Al Gore would really hate.
Before building the school, trucks full of clean soil was packed on top of the toxic material, but environmental groups are still crying foul. The Los Angeles Times reports that one group wrote to the school’s district with a letter that read, “Renaming this terribly contaminated school after famous environmental advocates is an affront to the great work that these individuals have done to protect the public’s health from harm.”
The school, though, will be a legitimate place to study environmental issues. So it’ll be kind of tough for Al Gore to actually come out against it. Then again, he’s probably too busy burning fuel in his private jet to even notice the school in the first place.
update: Hillary Clinton calls plan to burn Quran ‘disgraceful act’
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The government turned up the pressure Tuesday on the head of a small Florida church who plans to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, warning him that doing so could endanger U.S. troops and Americans everywhere.
But the Rev. Terry Jones insisted he would go ahead with his plans, despite criticism from the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, the White House and the State Department, as well as a host of religious leaders.
Jones, who is known for posting signs proclaiming that Islam is the devil’s religion, says the Constitution gives him the right to publicly set fire to the book that Muslims consider the word of God.
Gen. David Petraeus warned Tuesday in an e-mail to The Associated Press that “images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence.” It was a rare example of a military commander taking a position on a domestic political matter.
Jones responded that he is also concerned but is “wondering, ‘When do we stop?’” He refused to cancel the protest set for Saturday at his Dove World Outreach Center, a church that espouses an anti-Islam philosophy.
“How much do we back down? How many times do we back down?” Jones told the AP. “Instead of us backing down, maybe it’s to time to stand up. Maybe it’s time to send a message to radical Islam that we will not tolerate their behavior.”
All the attention has caused other problems for Jones, too. He believes it’s the reason his mortgage lender has demanded full payment of the $140,000 still owed on the church property. He’s seeking donations to cover it, but recently listed the property for sale with plans to eventually move the church away from Gainesville.
The fire department has denied Jones a required burn permit for Sept. 11, but he said lawyers have told him his right to burn Qurans is protected by the First Amendment, with or without the city’s permission.
The same would hold true, he said, if Muslims wanted to burn Bibles in the front yard of a mosque.
“Of course, I would not like it,” Jones said. But “I definitely would not threaten to kill them, as we have been threatened.”
WTF?! Bloomberg Still Wants Ground Zero Mosque Even After Hamas Connection.
What the hell is wrong with Bloomberg? Bloomberg asks the question “Do you want them to go into your church, or your temple, or your mosque, and ask where all the money comes from?”
The answer is YES! YES!!! If the money is coming from a questionable source the answer is FRIGGIN’ YES! What the hell is wrong with this guy? Does he wake up with a horse head next to him EVERY MORNING!?
Do you know who should be investigated along with the mosque funders? BLOOMBERG!!!
Make this guy piss in a cup while you’re at it!
Bloomberg – I’m starting a church. The church of ill repute. Going to launder money, fund illegal activities. According to you, the government will turn a blind eye to my church.
I really want to hear from Drinking With Bob on this – I think his head will explode like Scanners.
Between not enforcing the law in Arizona and the mosque proposal on Ground Zero. WHAT’S NEXT?! WHAT’S NEXT?! WHAT’S NEXT?!
NEWSWEEK: “It’s clear we overreacted to 9/11.” by Fareed Zakaria
——————————————————— As opposed to… under-reacting? – Mr. Pinko
———————————————————
Nine years after 9/11, can anyone doubt that Al Qaeda is simply not that deadly a threat? Since that gruesome day in 2001, once governments everywhere began serious countermeasures, Osama bin Laden’s terror network has been unable to launch a single major attack on high-value targets in the United States and Europe. While it has inspired a few much smaller attacks by local jihadis, it has been unable to execute a single one itself. Today, Al Qaeda’s best hope is to find a troubled young man who has been radicalized over the Internet, and teach him to stuff his underwear with explosives.
September 11 was a shock to the American psyche and the American system. As a result, we overreacted.
CNN Reporter says “it’s an HONOR to talk to you today” to original Black Panther organizer, Bobby Seale.
Just go to 10:11 mark:
If the reporter bestowed the “honor” on Eldridge Cleaver – an original Black Panther who became a G.O.P. Conservative – I’m sure he would’ve corrected her.
On August 28, 2010 we joined other progressive reporters who infiltrated Glenn Beck’s rally in Washington in order to observe, take compromising pictures, and manufacture a plausible Current Truth, so that our sophisticated readers would know what to think.
An oil rig has exploded in the Gulf of Louisiana, WDSU reports. Thirteen workers aboard the rig were reportedly thrown into the water, but have been accounted for.
UPDATE:
– 7 mins ago
GRAND ISLE, La. – An offshore oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, west of the site of the April blast that caused the massive oil spill.
A commercial helicopter company reported the blast around 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats were en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast.
The Coast Guard said initial reports indicated all 13 crew members from the rig were in the water. One was injured, but there were no deaths.
The platform owned by Mariner Energy is in about 2,500 feet of water, the Coast Guard said, and was not currently producing.
About 206 million gallons of oil from an undersea well spilled into the Gulf after BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.
The Barack Obama that most Hoosiers remember voting for can still be found on YouTube. He stands before a cheering Elkhart high school gymnasium in August 2008, tireless, aspirational, promising a new America of jobs and hope. “We can choose another future,” says the newcomer with the funny name. “So I ask you to join me.”
Today that view of Obama is harder to find in Indiana. A couple of weeks back and a dozen miles west of Elkhart, hundreds gathered in another school gym – except this time it was for a job fair. With the local unemployment rate above 12% and rising again this summer, about a third of the employer display tables stood empty. Julie Griffin, who voted for Obama in ‘08, sat down at the room’s edge, well dressed and discouraged. After 23 years as a payroll administrator at a local RV plant, she got laid off 18 months ago. “Really, what has he been doing?” she said when I asked about Obama’s efforts to help people like her. “I guess I don’t know what he is doing.”
“We bought what he said. He offered a lot of hope,” says Fred Ferlic, an Obama voter and orthopedic surgeon in South Bend who has since soured on his choice. Ferlic talks about the messy compromises in health care reform, his sense of an inhospitable business climate and the growth of government spending under Obama. “He’s trying to Europeanize us, and the Europeans are going the other way,” continues Ferlic, a former Democratic campaign donor who plans to vote Republican this year. “The entire American spirit is being broken.”
In 2008, Newport notes, trust in the federal government was at a historic low, dropping to around 25%, where it still remains. Yet Obama has offered government as the primary solution to most of the nation’s woes, calling for big new investments in health care, education, infrastructure and energy. * Some voters bucked at the incongruity, repeatedly telling pollsters that even programs that have clearly helped the economy, like the $787 billion stimulus, did no such thing. Meanwhile, the resulting spike in deficits, which has been greatly magnified by tax revenue lost to the economic downturn, has spooked a broad sweep of the country, which simply does not trust Washington to responsibly handle such a massive liability.
* the $787 billion stimulus CLEARLY HELPED? ??? – Mr. Pinko
Even among those who voted for Obama, nearly 38% preferred tax cuts.
In Nevada, a state Obama won with 55% of the vote, only 29% of likely voters this year think the President’s actions have helped the economy, according to a recent poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research.
“I’d rather be a one-term President and do big things than a two-term President and just do small things,” he told his team after Republican Scott Brown was elected Senator in liberal Massachusetts and some in the Administration suggested pulling back on health reform.
The White House has been distracted by a string of unrelated issues, from immigration reform to a mishandled dismissal of a longtime USDA official to the furor over the proposed Islamic cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero.
“I think the next couple of years, we’ve got to focus on debt and deficits,” Obama told NBC News after his summer vacation. “We’ve got to focus on making sure that we make the recovery stronger. And a lot of that is attracting private investment.”
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – A suspicious fire that damaged construction equipment at the site of a future mosque in Tennessee has some local Muslims worried that their project has been dragged into the national debate surrounding Manhattan’s ground zero.
NEW YORK – New revelations about the owner of the Ground Zero mosque building could mean a split between him and the project’s influential imam, making it unlikely to ever get built.
Sharif El-Gamal, 37, the owner of the building at the center of the storm over the construction of a “ground zero mosque,” is a quintessential American story, a man who went from waiting tables in New York’s A-list restaurants to buying and selling properties.
But new revelations are emerging that present a very different narrative. And it could lead to a split between the forces behind the mosque.
Court records from Florida to New York state reveal that Sharif and his younger brother, Samir “Sammy” El-Gamal, 35, a partner with him in his company SoHo Properties, both have a history replete with intersections with tax and debt issues, dating back to at least 1994 and continuing into this year. In one instance, Sharif told a court he didn’t hit a tenant from whom his brother and he were trying to collect back rent. He said to police, the tenant’s “face could have run into my hand.”
“I’m not gonna be worrying too much about whatever rumors are floating on out there,” Obama said Sunday. “If I spend all my time chasing after that, then I wouldn’t get much done.”
Asked about persistent accusations that he wasn’t born in the United States, the President responded, “I can’t spend all my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead.” UPDATE:
