How the "ground zero mosque" fear mongering began

[maddezmom]

A viciously anti-Muslim blogger, the New York Post and the right-wing media machine: How it all went down

A group of progressive Muslim-Americans plans to build an Islamic community center two and a half blocks from ground zero in lower Manhattan. They have had a mosque in the same neighborhood for many years. There's another mosque two blocks away from the site. City officials support the project. Muslims have been praying at the Pentagon, the other building hit on Sept. 11, for many years.

In short, there is no good reason that the Cordoba House project should have been a major national news story, let alone controversy. And yet it has become just that, dominating the political conversation for weeks and prompting such a backlash that, according to a new poll, nearly 7 in 10 Americans now say they oppose the project. How did the Cordoba House become so toxic, so fast?

In a story last week, the New York Times, which framed the project in a largely positive, noncontroversial light last December, argued that it was cursed from the start by "public relations missteps." But this isn't accurate. To a remarkable extent, a Salon review of the origins of the story found, the controversy was kicked up and driven by Pamela Geller, a right-wing, viciously anti-Muslim, conspiracy-mongering blogger, whose sinister portrayal of the project was embraced by Rupert Murdoch's New York Post.

Here's a timeline of how it all happened:


•Dec. 8, 2009: The Times publishes a lengthy front-page look at the Cordoba project. "We want to push back against the extremists," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the lead organizer, is quoted as saying. Two Jewish leaders and two city officials, including the mayor's office, say they support the idea, as does the mother of a man killed on 9/11. An FBI spokesman says the imam has worked with the bureau. Besides a few third-tier right-wing blogs, including Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugs site, no one much notices the Times story.

more:http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/16/ground_zero_mosque_origins

[dkf]

1. I don't think 7 in 10 are afraid of the mosque.

They would just rather it be done at an area less sensitive.

If we can get broad support and help build a community center at another location that wasnt destroyed on 9/11 isnt that a better solution?

[pinboy3niner]

2. Park 51 HAS broad support...

...including the unanimous vote of approval by the LOCAL community assn. Nobody in his right mind thinks the Burlington Coat Factory building is a "sensitive" site. It was considered--and REJECTED--for historic landmark designation.

[dkf]

3. 7 in 10 think it is a bad idea.

I dont think that constitutes broad support. Of course if you only want to count DUers you would be right.

[pinboy3niner]

4. Interesting that the strongest support is LOCAL

Should we have bowed to the polls showing overwhelming support for racial segregation, or overwhelming opposition to interracial marriage? Do you really want to go there?

And yes, DUers overwhelmingly reject hate and bigotry. I don't have a problem with that. Do you?

[dkf]

6. When it is about respect for people's grieving they should get a bit of leeway on being PC.

I don't see what the problem would be moving it over a bit. It would create goodwill while the current location destroys goodwill.. Is the location of a mosque that upsets families of the deceased really what we want moderate Islam to represent?

[pinboy3niner]

10. Religious freedom has nothing to do with "being PC"

Muslim 9/11 families of the deceased are grieving, too. Are they not allowed to have their center in the same area where other religious centers and houses of worship are permitted? The Muslim leaders of Park 51 are not the ones who are destroying goodwill.

And what "we" want moderate Islam to represent (whatever that means) is irrelevant.

[dkf]

7. 53% of new yorkers oppose it.

http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/misc/nycpolls/c100728/Bloomberg_RV/Construction_of_Mosque_Near_World_Trade_Center_Site.htm

[maddezmom]

8. link isn't working

:hi:

[pinboy3niner]

11. 53% in Manhattan favor it

That's according to the same August 2010 Marist Poll of NYC registered voters.

http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/misc/nycpolls/c100728/Bloomberg_RV/Construction_of_Mosque_Near_World_Trade_Center_Site.htm

[dkf]

14. Yeah pick the outlier right?

This mosque is nothing but grief.

[pinboy3niner]

15. Funny that 'outlier' is used to describe those who live closest to the site

You dismiss local support, but cite opposition elsewhere and value that more?

It's not Park 51 that's causing problems. It's the bigoted, incendiary rhetoric that's being used to demonize it and inflame opinion against it.

[BlueMTexpat]

16. Exactly - and thanks for pointing that out.

Thinly disguised bigotry at work.

[truth2power]

12. Most of the opposition is based on false information and propaganda...

Therefore, the 7 in 10 argument fails as a reason not to pursue the project.

[Douglas Carpenter]

13. EXACTLY!!! 7 in 10 Americans once believe that Saddam Hussein was behind September 11 - but that

didn't make it true

[jberryhill]

9. Like Temecula, California?

Nope, can't build one there. "Sensitive" people are protesting a mosque there.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee? Nope, same thing.

Bridgeport,Connecticut? Hmm.... too "sensitive" there too.

[Douglas Carpenter]

5. the NYT article about Imam Feisal and his plan for the center written before the crazy hate campaign

Muslim Prayers and Renewal Near Ground Zero

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL and SHARAF MOWJOOD
Published: December 8, 2009

snip:

“ As a Sufi, Imam Feisal follows a path of Islam focused more on spiritual wisdom than on strict ritual, and as a bridge builder, he is sometimes focused more on cultivating relations with those outside his faith than within it.

snip:

Those who have worked with him say if anyone could pull off what many regard to be a delicate project, it would be Imam Feisal, whom they described as having built a career preaching tolerance and interfaith understanding.

“He subscribes to my credo: ‘Live and let live,’ ” said Rabbi Arthur Schneier, spiritual leader of Park East Synagogue on East 67th Street.

snip:

The mayor’s director of the Office of Immigrant Affairs, Fatima Shama, went further. “We as New York Muslims have as much of a commitment to rebuilding New York as anybody,” Ms. Shama said. Imam Feisal’s wife, Daisy Khan, serves on an advisory team for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, and Lynn Rasic, a spokeswoman for the memorial, said, “The idea of a cultural center that strengthens ties between Muslims and people of all faiths and backgrounds is positive.”


snip:

“ Building so close is owning the tragedy. It’s a way of saying: ‘This is something done by people who call themselves Muslims. We want to be here to repair the breach, as the Bible says.’ ”

The F.B.I. said Imam Feisal had helped agents reach out to the Muslim population after Sept. 11. “We’ve had positive interactions with him in the past,” said an agency spokesman, Richard Kolk. Alice Hoagland of Las Gatos, Calif., whose son, Mark Bingham, was killed in the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, said, “It’s quite a bold step buying a piece of land adjacent to ground zero,” but she said she considered plans for the site “a noble effort.”

snip:

Joy Levitt, executive director of the Jewish Community Center, said the group would be proud to be a model for Imam Feisal at ground zero. “For the J.C.C. to have partners in the Muslim community that share our vision of pluralism and tolerance would be great,” she said.

Mr. El-Gamal agreed. “What happened that day,” he said, “was not Islam.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/nyregion/09mosque.html?_r=1

link to the cordoba intiative:

http://www.cordobainitiative.org /

link to Imam Feisal Press Conference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfIPO7CVflA

.