On June 6, 2010, at 12:00 noon, there will be a rally in New York Ciy at Ground Zero -- organized by Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) -- protesting the plans to build a mosque at that site.

SIOA works to defend human rights, religious liberty, and the freedom of speech against Islamic supremacist intimidation.

What I have learned is that the unanimous approval extended by the Community Board for New York City's financial district -- was not just for a "simple" mosque of a couple of stories in height, but for the construction of a $100 million 13-story mosque and Islamic cultural center right across from Ground Zero, which they have dubbed Cordoba House.

Imagine this looming over Ground Zero.

Rally speakers will include Nonie Darwish, former Muslim from Egypt, who is courageous in speaking out, and Simon Deng, Christian Sudanese ex-slave, equally courageous in campaigning against Sudanese Muslims who destroy human rights. I am sure you will hear from Robert Spencer, the knowledgeable director of JihadWatch.org, who is associate director of SIOA and co-host of the event, as well as others..
According to the release about this rally, "...the planned mosque has clandestine funding sources. Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf is a radical Islamic wolf in sheep's clothing, a seductive practitioner of taqiyya (dissimulation for the purpose of furthering the interest of the Faith) who blames America for the terrorist attacks on 911. Shortly after 9/11 he said in a CNN interview: 'US policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.' Elsewhere he said: 'The US and the West must acknowledge the harm they have done to Muslims before terrorism can end.'"

There is every reason to believe that the radical Islamist hatred that fomented 9/11 would be espoused and disseminated within that mosque, were it to be built. Not only is this something to be fiercely fought on its own grounds, in this case there is the further issue of the insult to the memory of those killed in the Twin Towers, and the grief this would bring to those who mourn them.

Editor’s  note:
The Imam who is leading the project says having a mosque at the site of the terrorist attacks will send a signal to extremists, and help fight against extremism as the New York Times reports:

“The location was precisely a key selling point for the group of Muslims who bought the building in July. A presence so close to the World Trade Center, “where a piece of the wreckage fell,” said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the cleric leading the project, “sends the opposite statement to what happened on 9/11.”

“We want to push back against the extremists,” added Imam Feisal, 61.

Lynn Rasic, a spokeswoman for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum Told the National Post that , “The idea of a cultural centre that strengthens ties between Muslims and people of all faiths and backgrounds is positive.” She describes Imam Feisal as having built a career preaching tolerance and interfaith understanding.

The project is a collaboration between the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative, both of which work to improve relations with followers of the religion, CNN reports:

“Daisy Khan, executive director of the Muslim society, described her vision of a center led by Muslims, but serving the community as a whole.

“It will have a real community feel, to celebrate the pluralism in the United States, as well as in the Islamic religion,” Khan said. “It will also serve as a major platform for amplifying the silent voice of the majority of Muslims who have nothing to do with extremist ideologies. It will counter the extremist momentum.”

On this same subject,  Rabbi Shmuely Boteach wrote in Ha’aretz on May 17 about the planned Islamic cultural center and mosque near ground zero, proposing that the  structure should be, instead, a museum condemning growing Islamic intolerance.

As he wrote:

“And if [the plans of a $13 story, $100 million Islamic cultural center and mosque]   were not inflammatory enough, the plan is to inaugurate the new center on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
‘Other provocative aspects include the fact that the majority of the money will allegedly come from the Saudis and – you can’t make this up – the Ford Foundation.

“Furthermore, the Imam who helped found the Cordoba initiative after 9/11, Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf, is on record as telling CNN, right after the 9/11 attacks, “U.S. policies were an accessory to the crime that happened. We (the U.S.) have been an accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. Osama bin Laden was made in the USA.”

“New Yorkers seem overwhelmingly opposed to the plan, comparing its insensitivity to the German government opening, say, a Bach appreciation museum right outside the Auschwitz death camp, or Toyota opening a car factory by the Arizona Memorial on the island of Oahu.

“On my radio show many families of 9/11 victims called in to condemn the plans as ‘a slap in the face,’ ‘highly insensitive,’ and ‘a despicable attempt to claim victory at the site where so many innocent Americans died.’

“The issues at stake affect the very heart of American democracy. On the one hand it would be the height of insensitivity, not to say an outright provocation, for the Islamic community to build a giant Islamic shrine at the resting place of 3000 innocent Americans who were murdered by Islamic terrorists.

“On the other hand, America is a tolerant country that allows for the free worship of all its citizens and one bridles against the idea of preventing any mosque from being built.

“I have a simple, elegant, and deeply moral solution.

“Let the Islamic Cultural Center be built. Let the mosque be included. But, the Muslim organizations building it should commit right now to making the principal focus of the building a museum depicting the rise of Islamic extremism, its hate-based agenda, and how it is an abomination to Islam.

“Who could possibly object to Muslims coming together to create a museum condemning growing Islamic intolerance and call Osama bin Laden, Hamas, and Hezbollah what they are – perversions of Islam that are defiling and destroying a great world religion.