“The folks who want to build this mosque – who are really radical Islamists who want to triumphally prove that they can build a mosque right next to a place where 3,000 Americans were killed by radical Islamists – those folks don’t have any interest in reaching out to the community. They’re trying to make a case about supremacy. That’s why they won’t go anywhere else, that’s why they won’t accept any other offer.”

“And I think we ought to be honest about the fact that we have a right – and this happens all the time in America. You know, Nazis don’t have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington. We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor. There’s no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaking on Fox & Friends, quoted in the Huffington Post, 16 August 2010

Gingrich is billed as a speaker alongside Dutch far-right Islamophobe Geert Wilders at Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer’s 11 September rally in New York, which gives you an indication of the sort of company the Republican right is keeping these days.

For a useful summary of the origins of the “Ground Zero mosque” hysteria, see Salon.com, 16 August 2010

US President Barack Obama has staunchly defended controversial plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero in New York. Mr Obama acknowledged “sensitivities” surround the 9/11 site, but said Muslims have the same right to practice their religion “as anyone else”. “Our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable,” Mr Obama said.

In a speech at a White House dinner celebrating Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, Mr Obama waded into the row, saying:

“We must all recognise and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of lower Manhattan, Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground. But let me be clear, as a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.

“That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community centre on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are.”

He told the group of US Congressmen, government officials and foreign dignitaries that America’s tradition of religious tolerance distinguishes it from “our enemies”. “Al-Qaeda’s cause is not Islam,” he said, “it is a gross distortion of Islam”.

Until now Mr Obama had not commented on the mosque row, with the White House saying that the matter was a local issue. In voicing his support for the right to build the centre, Mr Obama joins New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had been the only prominent politician to endorse it.

BBC News, 14 August 2010

Pamela Geller comments: “Obama came out for the Islamic supremacist mosque at the hallowed ground of 911 attack. He has, in effect, sided with the Islamic jihadists and told the ummah (at an Iftar dinner on the third night of Ramadan, of course) that he believes in and supports a triumphal mosque on the cherished site of Islamic conquest. If you had any doubt who Obama stood with on 911, there can be no doubt in our minds now.”

Over at Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer offers a similarly balanced view: “If the KKK announced plans to build a shrine at the site of the 16th Street Baptist Church, would Obama be talking about religious freedom?”

But what else did Pamela and Robert expect from Obama? After all, he is a Muslim and prays at a mosque in the White House.

The battle over plans to build a mosque near the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York is fuelling a surge in anti-Muslim protests across the US, including opposition to new Islamic centres from California to Georgia.

Religious leaders and civil rights activists warn that a tide of Islamophobia that has swept the country since the destruction of the twin towers is being heightened by political exploitation of the New York dispute before nationwide elections and is increasingly bound up with hostility to immigrants and other forms of racism.

They say the outpouring of condemnation at the “outrage” of a mosque close to the “hallowed ground” of the World Trade Centre site also goes hand in hand with the increasing acceptability of what they describe as hate speech.

Guardian, 13 August 2010

More than 40 prominent Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders and religion scholars issued a statement today condemning the “xenophobia and religious bigotry” fueling the increasingly strident opposition to a proposed Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero. These leaders from New York City and across the country are specifically challenging the divisive rhetoric of Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin, who have strongly opposed a center that will promote interfaith relations, combat extremism, and offer community programs for Americans of all religious backgrounds.

“It’s simply wrong for Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin to malign all Muslims by comparing this cultural center and mosque with a radical ideology that led to the horrific attacks of 9-11,” said Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby. “We fail to honor those killed by terrorists when we betray the bedrock principle of religious freedom that has guided our democracy for centuries.”

Faith in Public Life, press release, 11 August 2010

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