Cordoba House versus St.Nicholas Greek Orthodox

All that fuss about an innocent plan to build a mosque in New York. What on Earth can people be thinking? The resistance is so un-American, with its guarantees and freedoms and respect afforded all. And as Adem Carroll, New York Founder, Muslim Consultative Network puts it, the commentary by Raheel Raza and Tarek Fatah in stating: "we know the idea behind the Ground Zero mosque to be a deliberate provocation to thumb our noses at the infidel", is utterly outrageous.

Mr. Carroll pointed out other errors in their joint analysis of the spirit of brotherhood behind the initiative to grace the area close by Ground Zero with an immense mosque and community centre: New York does not have merely 30 mosques as Messrs. Raza and Fatah claimed, but 200 mosques. In New York City alone. "On Fridays in Ramadan many are jammed and overflowing", adds Mr. Carroll. Right.

The entire anti-mosque campaign, he states, is based on lies and fabrications. Oh. It's always good to have insider information. Whoops, P. Adem Carroll, also states "Although I also don't fully understand why the scale of the project must be so large, questions should be asked in a calm and rational way. It is very harmful to attack our moderates as if they are the same as the extremists."

Interesting. Many others would like to know why the proposed mosque and community centre must be so large. Many more others would like to know where the funding for the huge complex is coming from. These questions have been asked calmly and politely at times, and at other times somewhat less so. No responses as yet.

In a very calm manner, so as to respect Islam and the backers of the mosque, New York Governor David Paterson has stepped into the fray, offering his assistance in identifying an alternate, somewhat less controversial site. He too is awaiting a response. In fact, many await a response with bated breath. "I am very sensitive to the desire of those who are adamant against it to see something else worked out", explained Governor Paterson.

Sensitivity, one recognizes, is a one-way street in the issue of Cordoba House. Those who desire it to be built are sensitive to the insult to Islam and the desire of American Muslims to build where they wish to, as is their constitutional right.

They are inordinately insensitive to the glaring fact that the site and the area closely surrounding it commemorates the most horrible attack the United States has ever experienced on its soil, within its most populous city, its centre of finance and commerce, in sight of the Statue of Liberty. That the attack was authorized by, planned by, conducted by Islamists ferociously engaged in bringing America to its knees makes it a tad inconvenient to happily host a mosque right there.

American Muslims are incensed that they are being treated 'differently', than other Americans, that their particular religion is held as being suspect, and that is quite simply amazingly unjust. Particularly under the circumstances. Suspicions within the general public about Islam? About the presence of mosques and community centres, many of them funded by Saudi Arabia oil money, received by the country through oil sales to the U.S. and plowed back into the U.S. to fund mosques; how ironic.

(Not too amusing that within some of those mosques Muslim clerics preach decidedly un-American messages from their interpretation of the Koran. Some of which incite to riot. Some of which note that the world of the West would benefit hugely from accepting the necessity of adopting Sharia law. Interesting too that in many of those mosques and community centres somewhat controversial tomes like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are sold to avid readers.)

How about a little more irony? A Greek Orthodox church, St. Nicholas, that once sat directly across from the World Trade Center, and which had been crushed by the collapse of Tower Two on that fateful 9-11, has been attempting to re-build itself ever since. They've run into one impediment after another. They haven't even been able to procure permission to build two blocks from the original location. And even then they've been warned that their plans for a 24,000 square foot traditional Greek Orthodox church doesn't meet city standards.

The church, ironically, would be built ideally with a grand dome. But Port Authority officials informed church authorities that they would have to cut back to size the building to rise no higher than the World Trade Center memorial. Plans have not since proceeded as the church has found it exceedingly difficult to obtain approvals. Contrast that to the fast-tracking goodwill exhibited by city officials, including the mayor, in their treatment of the developers of the Cordoba mosque.

Which mosque, oddly enough, will also have a dome. But this mosque is proposed to be 13 stories in height, quite a lot taller than the height of the World Trade Center memorial. No height restrictions imposed for the mosque. A somewhat mystifying state of affairs, to say the very least.