I would love to say that a mosque does not belong anyway near the 9/11 site at all. It appears to me that Islam just wants to get closer to the American people so that they can get unsuspecting people to join their religion. I also believe that they want their religion to be the only religion in the world; they want to rule the world with their evil ways. They shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the 9/11 site because it is sacred and it is a long time remembrance of the innocent people who died because of hatred.

I was thinking of opening a pork store right next to that location think they would mind.

No, I don't think they would. I know many Muslims who eat pork. The same way I know many Jews who eat pork. And shellfish. And cheeseburgers. You are an idiot though, and I'm pretty sure you don't really have any plan to open a pork store next door.

Instead of Cordoba House, perhaps some rebranding would be in order...

Come on down!

We've got this Buddhist priest sleepin' in the bathtub

Teachin' night school down at NYU

We've got this African queen

She paints her eyelids green

And all night long she do the bugaloo

Come on down to my…

SoulPad™ - with the blue lights in the ceiling

SoulPad™ - you know the wall paint is peelin'

SoulPad™ - it's a room with a feelin'

Two Russian students hang out in the closet

Hung up on jazz and funk

They keep some incense burnin' in a sardine can

Beneath a picture of Thelonious Monk

Come on down to my…

SoulPad™ - we got prayer rugs for kneelin'

SoulPad™ - and if your soul needs healin'

SoulPad™ - it's a room with a feelin'

This FBI agent come to see us

Said his orders were to check out the freaks

He started with the poet in the pantry

And he's been with us now about fourteen weeks

Come on down to my…

SoulPad™ - with the blue light in the ceiling

SoulPad™ - where the wall paint is peelin'

SoulPad™ - it's a room with a feelin'

You can eat anything your heart desires

From organic rice to bagels and lox

We've got one more vote for one more soul

And you can sleep here in this cardboard box

Come on down to my…

SoulPad™ - the scene is so angelic

SoulPad™ - and we'll all get psychedelic

Hooooo! Come on down!

Perhaps some well-to-do New Yorker should consider acquiring some property opposite "The Cordoba House", and erect an electronic billboard which would display the names and faces of a) women murdered by their angry Muslim husbands and/or fathers, b) women stoned to death for 'adultery', c) schoolgirls who's faces have been disfigured by acid attacks (or other forms of mutilation) for trying to get an education, d) artists such as Theo van Gogh, murdered for using their talents to expose the barbaric practices which are inextricably bound to Islamic teachings and traditions.

I wonder if this would pass muster with the Professional Left? It would certainly take some of the luster off the gilded facade of this monument to Islamic arrogance.

Kudos to the clear thinking of New Yorkers on this issue. If The Cordoba House cannot be stopped, perhaps Ground Zero can become our spiritual 'line in the sand', defending our country and our Constitution from this assault by Islamic zealots.

Eric Rudolph.

Are you seriously suggesting that atrocities only occurr in Islam? And that Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism have not had their difficulties? Are Pro-Life murders of abortion doctors any different?

By judging an entire group by the actions of its worst, you are not to be taken very seriously.

I don't think I suggested that, no. I am suggesting that while atrocities occur in every culture, Islam is the only major culture/religion where they are not only accepted, but advocated and practiced openly.

As for 'pro-life murders of abortion doctors...', the last one of those took place in Kansas, Sunday, May 31st, 2009. Dr. George Tiller was murdered while working as an usher in his church, by Scott Roeder. The following day, numerous anti-abortion activists denounced the killing:

The Rev Patrick Mahoney, an anti-­abortion activist, also swiftly denounced the shooting: "No one should use this tragedy for political gain," he said.

A prominent anti-abortion organisation, Operation Rescue, said it was shocked by the news. "We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning," the group said in a statement.

FYI, Roeder was convicted of murdering Dr. Tiller in January of this year.

By way of comparison: January 1st, 2008, a Muslim man, Yassir Said of Irving, Texas took his two teenage daughters for a drive in a borrowed taxi-cab, ostensibly to get something to eat at a local restaurant. Instead, Said drove them 14 miles away, stopped the car, then proceeded to shoot them both to death as they sat next to him in the cab. His daughter Sarah, sitting in the back seat, managed to call 911 and told the operator that her father had shot her and her sister, and that she was dying. (Those were her last words as the call ended.) The bodies of the two girls were found a few hours later in the abandoned cab. According to Mr. Said's son 'Islam', the girls deserved to be killed because they were both 'dating Mexicans' at their high-school. Mr. Said disappeared, and is still a fugitive. FBI attempts to enlist the help of friends and family in the Muslim community bringing him to justice, have met with complete silence.

If you think this is an isolated case, visit YouTube and search on "honor killings" and "acid attacks", and you can spend hours reviewing the evidence in those two categories alone. If you do that, and still choose to believe these practices are isolated, rare and therefore irrelevant to the subject at hand, then you are the one who should not be taken seriously.

Reporting for duty, unretrofied. Anyway, I like this:

"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."

In other words, let's all be best friends forever until it is time to go pray to the magic dude in the sky, at which point we'll segregate ourselves and go off to our individual magic-dude-praying rooms. Not that that's how the problems got started to begin with or anything.

:) Thanks Jaime.

lolz

Sadly, Nothing the Iman says or does will matter to some people.

Regardless of what he says, people like Jim Riches (I'm sorry his son was killed) will always see Muslims as wolf in sheep’s clothing...

None of the legitimate goals expressed by Rauf require this project to be situated at the proposed location. His steadfast refusal to condemn terrorist groups by name, and to explicitly reject the barbaric practices condoned by Sharia Law, and Islamic cultural traditions, qualifies him for thorough investigation by the FBI, and possible classification as a terrorist organization. The most compelling proof of this man's hostile intent is his insistence on pursuing this project at the proposed location, to the exclusion of any others. As if that were not enough, the conceit of naming the project 'The Cordoba House' makes a mockery of the First Amendment. It would be roughly equivalent to naming our largest military base in Iraq "Lionheart", then trying to sell Iraqi's on our good intentions.

We would be well advised to get clear on the distinction between a religion based on faith, and a malignant political ideology which uses the trappings of religion to circumvent the normal and reasonable measures any sovereign nation must take to insure it's security.

Like, it would be like having a major military operation in the Middle East named after a Nazi or something else insulting. Like "Operation Desert Fox" or something.

Yes of course allowing a Muslim you don't agree with to exercise his private property rights is equivalent to instituting sharia.

For the record, Rauf is totally wrong when he says that wouldn't violate separation of church and state. So he is wrong, so what? I find what he said distasteful, but that does not mean due process goes out the window.

As long as you know you have no legal recourse and you're just venting your frustrations, I guess I don't have a problem with you either, but if you're trying to say there is a case for placing legal restrictions on the placement of mosques you are simply being un-american.

I'm glad you brought this up. Where I live, we aren't allowed to cut down a tree on our own property without approval of the city council. But this is worse...

I have a friend who is a real-estate developer, and he went through an extensive process of applying for a zoning variance on 50' of property he owned (for 40 years) in order to build a two-story parking structure on a residential street which had (over a period of 20 years) evolved into one of the most active and eclectic retail avenues in our city. After several public hearings, the City Council granted the variance. That was in 2002.

Since then, a group of about 10 'neighborhood activists' have managed to prevent him from building the parking structure by tying him up in land-use planning appeals, challenging a succession of rulings in his favor, including two which went all the way to the state supreme court. Having lost all of those, the last maneuver (by the former hippies from the granola district) was to challenge a favorable ruling by the historical landmarks commission, and appeal it to the City Council.

The project is still being litigated. Do you think maybe he should form a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and turn the project into a drive-in church?

Land-use planning and litigation is a multi-billion dollar industry in this country. Property owner rights are routinely discarded in the face of community opposition. How this particular project got summarily re-classified is a mystery that I would hope someone in the news gathering business out there would dig up and publish.

I stopped @ your first sentence. A tree is nowhere near analogous to a person's religious freedom.

"blah blah blah qualifies him for thorough investigation by the FBI, and possible classification as a terrorist organization."

This is pure horseshit. You can't designate someone a terrorist just because you may disagree with some things he has said. In this case, the positions you mention are non existent, the quotes that have been bandied about show no treasonous views or allegiances to terrorist organizations.

"the conceit of naming the project 'The Cordoba House' makes a mockery of the First Amendment. It would be roughly equivalent to naming our largest military base in Iraq "Lionheart", then trying to sell Iraqi's on our good intentions."

Equally idiotic.

1) Cordoba was a city of the highest cultural, scientific, philosophical achievements of the time, in which people of ALL religions, Muslim, Christian and Jewish lived and worked together in unprecedented harmony. In many ways unparalleled even today.

2) Are you not aware that most bases in Iraq and Afghanistan are in fact named with Christian names that are wholly offensive? Are you unaware that Abu Grhaib, the prison where our troops committed war crimes under direct orders from the Bush Administration including raping children in front of their parents, among other atrocities, was called Camp Redemption?

Perhaps my analogy between 'Lionheart' and 'Cordoba' was a little too subtle for you. As for your selective characterization of the symbolism behind 'Cordoba', I'll keep that in mind if I'm ever asked to write a politically correct multicultural text-book for Sophomores in High School.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/07/gingrich-cordoba-and-history.html

"As a Jewish American, I am offended by Newt Gingrich's suggestion that use the name of Córdoba by Muslims is insulting to non-Muslims. The height of Muslim rule the Iberian Peninsula, the rule of the Caliphate of Córdoba, was also the height of Jewish culture in Spain. It was the decline of the Caliphate of Córdoba that began the end of tolerance of Jews in the Muslim-ruled parts of the Iberian Peninsula. Nevertheless, it was not until Christian rule was established over the entire Iberian Peninsula in 1492 that there was a concerted effort to eliminate the existence of Jews and Judaism in every part of Spain."