[Vision2020] Update on Muslim Center in Lower Manhattan

[Art Deco]

Remember, this is a zoning dispute also.  A rezone is required if the mosque is to be built.

The rezone application and process should be faith neutral; if the rezone would be proper for a Christian center, it ought be proper for an Islamic center.

However, the question remains:  Is the rezone proper for what is being proposed?

w.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: whayman at roadrunner.com 
  To: nickgier at roadrunner.com ; vision2020 at moscow.com 
  Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 11:35 AM
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Update on Muslim Center in Lower Manhattan


  I hope the link works.

  Warren Hayman

  Ground Zero outrage on Parallel Earth
  www.credoaction.com

  ---- nickgier at roadrunner.com wrote: 
  > Good Morning Visonaries,
  > 
  > New information has been pouring in about the NYC Muslim Center controversy.  The most dramatic revelations have to do with initial positive responses from Fox news personalities and the moderate contents of Imam Rauf's highly acclaimed book, published by Rupert Murdoch's HarperSanFrancisco.
  > 
  > Additions to my column, the edited version of which is attached:
  > 
  > Rauf's book "What’s Right with Islam: A New Vision for Muslims and the West" was picked as one of the best five books of 2004 by the Christian Science Monitor. The book was published by HarperSanFrancisco, which is owned, along with Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, by Rupert Murdoch. In a December, 2009 interview with Imam Rauf’s wife Daisy Khan on Fox News' "The O’Reilly Factor," Laura Ingraham had this to say about the plans for the cultural center: "I can't find many people who really have a problem with it. I like what you're trying to do." Fox News is now leading the charge against the project.
  > 
  > In "What’s Right with Islam" Rauf goes back to the beginnings of Islam and shows how a fatal mistake was made by those who built autocratic political institutions on a basic Abrahamic ethic shared with Judaism and Christianity. Early Muslim government was based on elections, broad deliberation (including women) and consensus, and religious pluralism. The rule of force dramatically came into the play with the assassination of the third caliph in A.D. 656, and a switch to hereditary rule, which as been the norm in Muslim countries for centuries. Rauf believes that Islamic countries should "recognize in the American form of governance a genuine substantive workable expression and model of their centuries-old longing for the kingdom of heaven on earth."
  > 
  > I also added some material on a parallel reaction against Catholics in American history, up do the Nixon-Kennedy election in 1960:
  > 
  > In announcing the decision not to preserve the old building at 51 Park Place, Mayor Michael Bloomsberg--with the Statue of Liberty as backdrop--reminded his audience that the early Dutch settlers refused to grant Jews permission to build a synagogue, and that they had also prohibited Quakers and Catholics from holding services. In the 19th Century there were objections to the construction of Catholic churches, and some of them (including some convents) were burned down. (One priest was tarred and feathered by a mob.) Strong anti-Catholic sentiment flared up during the 1960 election with many people fearing that a president John F. Kennedy would mean an alliance with the papacy.
  > 
  > Finally, here is what Imam Rauf said about the 9/11 attackers in 2006 on ABC News.  Glen Beck was sitting in on the conversation with Diane Sawyer and indicated how important it was to have good moderate Muslims such as Rauf:
  > 
  > "[Jihadist] reactions are not at all called for by Islamic teaching. The teachings of Islam are very similar to the teachings of Christianity, of loving the one God and loving thy neighbor. These are the two common principles."
  > 
  > As Muslims and their places of worship are threatened all over the country, I fear for the sanity of my country.
  > 
  > Nick
  > 
  > 

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