Obama makes clear support for ground zero mosque By ERICA WERNER (AP) Aug 14, 2010 WASHINGTON â After skirting the controversy for weeks, President Barack Obama is weighing in forcefully on the mosque near ground zero, saying a nation built on religious freedom must allow it. "As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country," Obama told an intently listening crowd gathered at the White House Friday evening to observe the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. "That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," he said. "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable." The White House had not previously taken a stand on the mosque, which would be part of a $100 million Islamic community center two blocks from where nearly 3,000 people perished when hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001. Press secretary Robert Gibbs had insisted it was a local matter. It was already much more than that, sparking debate around the country as top Republicans including Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich announced their opposition. So did the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group. Obama elevated it to a presidential issue Friday without equivocation. While insisting that the place where the twin towers once stood was indeed "hallowed ground," Obama said that the proper way to honor it was to apply American values. Harkening back to earlier times when the building of synagogues or Catholic churches also met with opposition, Obama said: "Time and again, the American people have demonstrated that we can work through these issues, and stay true to our core values and emerge stronger for it. So it must be and will be today." New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent who has been a strong supporter of the mosque, welcomed Obama's words as a "clarion defense of the freedom of religion." But some victims' advocates and Republicans were quick to pounce. "Barack Obama has abandoned America at the place where America's heart was broken nine years ago, and where her true values were on display for all to see," said Debra Burlingame, a spokeswoman for some Sept. 11 victims' families and the sister of one of the pilots killed in the attacks. Building the mosque at ground zero, she said, "is a deliberately provocative act that will precipitate more bloodshed in the name of Allah." Added Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.: "President Obama is wrong. It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero." Entering the highly charged election-year debate, Obama surely knew that his words would not only make headlines in the U.S. but be heard by Muslims worldwide. The president has made it a point to reach out to the global Muslim community, and the over 100 guests at Friday's dinner in the State Dining Room included ambassadors and officials from numerous nations where Islam is observed, including Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. While his pronouncement concerning the mosque might find favor in the Muslim world, Obama's stance runs counter to the opinions of the majority of Americans, according to polls. A CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week found that nearly 70 percent of Americans opposed the mosque plan while just 29 percent approved. A number of Democratic politicians have shied away from the controversy. Opponents, including some Sept. 11 victims' relatives, see the prospect of a mosque so near the destroyed trade center as an insult to the memory of those killed by Islamic terrorists in the 2001 attacks. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jYi7bqWuZd_crahzrd7UPoDxvyIAD9HJ79G80
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Overwhelming majority oppose mosque near Ground Zero Posted: August 11th, 2010 01:02 PM ET (CNN) - A proposed mosque to be built two blocks from the World Trade Center has little support nationwide, a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll suggests. According to the new survey out Wednesday, nearly 70 percent of all Americans oppose the controversial plan to build the mosque just blocks away from the solemn site in lower Manhattan while just 29 percent favor the construction. Broken down by party affiliation, 54 percent of Democrats oppose the plans while 82 percent of Republicans disapprove. Meanwhile, 70 percent of independents said they are against the proposal. The poll also showed opposition did not vary widely by age. "Support for the controversial project is slightly higher among younger Americans than older Americans, but even among those under the age of 50, six in ten oppose the plan," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. Plans to build the $100 million, 13-story 'Cordoba House' three blocks from the site of the attacks on September 11, 2001 have sparked an emotional debate throughout the city. The developer, Sharif El-Gamal, describes the project as an "Islamic community center" that will include a 500-seat performing arts center, a lecture hall, an exhibition space, a swimming pool, a gym, a culinary school, a restaurant and a prayer space for Muslims. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.co...ming-majority-oppose-mosque-near-ground-zero/
I'm glad this piece of shit president did that, the more people he offends the better in elections. This issue really gets in my craw. Here you have a people, muslims, who take the streets and issue death threats over editorial cartoons yet don't give two shoits over offending us with this grotesque symbol. Our wonderful president, being the 'thoughtful measured intellectual' he is, sides with the violent, primitive, and intolerant muslims.
From Michael Goodwin in the New York Post: First Obama stood with the president of Mexico as he bashed Americans as bigots for exercising their right of democracy on illegal immigration. Now he stands with the developers of a mega-mosque near Ground Zero that, outside of Mayor Bloomberg, few New Yorkers want. Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/..._stand_JDfYCppVHIc8gX2PNzlGPK/0#ixzz0wgFVutNe
The southern border is not really a racial issue and Obama knows it. And with his stand on this mosque... is he really a Muslim with strong ties to Islam which he hides from the American people? Is this yet ANOTHER thing we are not allowed to know about him?
"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," he said. "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable." --------------------------------- Can you open an adult book store near a school? How about a bar near a place of worship. There are restriction (plenty of them) about what you can locate where and next to with "your" private property. We could rezone all of lower Manhattan to exclude places of worship and not violate the constitution.
The First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. As I have posted before, and I realize this is spitting into the wind, but whatever, the very first words in the very first amendment, or the first words in Article One of the Bill of Rights, refer, not accidentally, to freedom of religion. If you guys don't like it, tough. The President and the Mayor of New York are standing up for the heart and soul of what this country is about, period, the end. As I've also posted before, here is a picture of Thomas Jefferson's gravestone. Note the engraved epitaph, just to emphasize that the placement of those words in the first amendment is no accident. There is nothing more fundamental to what this country stands for:
Liberalism must be a mental defect or disorder. The First Amendment does NOT guarantee any religious establishment the right to build anything they want, anywhere they want. And what about all the roadblocks to REBUILDING the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church that was already near ground zero but was destroyed on September 11, 2001? http://www.greekboston.com/wordpress/2010/08/greek-orthodox-church-or-mosque-ground-zero/ http://countercultureconservative.w...ch-denied-permission-to-build-at-ground-zero/ What incredible stupidity and hypocrisy.