If you've been following the not-at-Ground Zero mosque debate (is there any other news story worth following?!) you'll enjoy last night's Daily Show segment on the topic. After showing a Fox News clip featuring a pundit connecting vague, speculative dots between the imam at the proposed Islamic center and radical Muslim terrorists, Jon Stewart plays the same game of guilt-by-association with Fox owner Rupert Murdoch. He doesn't have to go far to find reasons why Fox might be suspicious of this Murdoch guy, because he's got connections to Saudi Arabian prince Alwaleed bin Talal, News Corp's second-biggest investor:
In other mosque news, Governor David Paterson played the roll of Captain Obvious on WNYC’s "The Takeaway," pointing out that this whole thing "is getting more and more out of hand every day." Paterson says no meetings with the mosque developers have been planned, and he dismissed critics who say the state cannot legally offer land to a religious organization. "A little research would clear up any misgivings about the state getting involved in that activity," Paterson said. "It happens all the time."
Meanwhile, some NYC construction workers are signing a petition vowing not to take work building the community center. According to the 9/11 Hard Hat Pledge website, the workers feel, "We have been betrayed by our civic leaders and elected officials as they allow the Cordoba Initiative Group build their Mega-Mosque on top of the ashes of the 3,000 innocents who were slaughtered on 911... My fellow Americans stand together and pledge not to work this hurtful insensitive project. Without us this sacrilige [sic] cannot be built. Let us show the younger generation what it is to be a proud American and defend those brave souls who now lie in a pit at Ground Zero unable to speak because their light was snuffed out by the worst attack in our nation’s history. Together we will achieve this." And what an achievement: Showing the world our famous Constitution only matters when it's convenient!
Louis Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers' Association, said unions have not yet taken a "formal position" on Park51, but he tells the Daily News, "It's a very difficult dilemma for the contractors and the organized labor force because we are experiencing such high levels of unemployment. 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." Muslims were also killed on 9/11, so maybe some of them will join the boycott.
Oh, and the young man who was on the cover of the News yesterday because he found the Lower Manhattan site where the Islamic center will be built? His mom is asking everyone not to blame him. Francisco Patino, 23, tells the tabloid he didn't know the developer was going to build a "Ground Zero Mosque" on the property he found two blocks away. And his stepmother chimes in, "Of course he didn't know this would happen. It's crazy."
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