A MOSQUE NEAR GROUND ZERO
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Mosque near ground zero
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Plase find below my thughts on mosque near ground zero
Vinod Kumar
A Mosque Near Ground Zero -- another perspective?
By Vinod Kumar
Friday, June 4, 2010
A great controversy is raging around the nation.
A New York City community board voted Tuesday -- May 25, 2010 -- to
support a Muslim-led plan to build a mosque near ground zero. About
150 people packed the Community Board. One meeting and after four
hours of heated debate, the board ultimately gave a 29-to-1 vote of
residential approval. The building will be called Cordoba House.
Opponents of the project protested the proposal, waving pictures of
loved ones killed in the World Trade Center and holding up signs that
read, "Honor 3,000, 9/11 -- No mosque!"
1. Why a mosque near ground zero?
Why a mosque at that particular place -- the site where the existing
structure was damaged when World Trade Center twin towers were
attacked by Muslim terrorists in the name of Islam? The site has
emotional feelings for not just the relatives and friends of those
who were killed on that fateful day or the New Yorkers but also for
the entire nation as this was a well orchestrated attack on the
fundamental icons of America. On that day the plan was to attack
three icons of what America stands for -- economic might, military
might and democracy. The first two icons were successfully attacked -
-the attempt for the third was foiled by the brave and vigilant
passengers of the flight that crashed in the fields of western
Pennsylvania.
The pagan pantheon of the Ka'aba, located in Mecca, was the first
non-Muslim sanctuary to be used as a mosque; this was done by Prophet
Muhammad himself after he conquered Mecca in 630 CE.
Since then it has been established practice of Muslim conquerors to
demolish icons of people they conquer and build a mosque or use the
iconic structure of the vanquished as mosque. Islam is a supremacist
faith -- it believes it is to be the only true faith.(Koran 3:19 and
others) Al-Aqsa mosque of Jerusalem at a site also known as the
Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, the place where the First
and Second Temples, are generally accepted to have stood, Ummayad
mosque in Damascus on the site of church of St. John, the converted
Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Babri mosque (demolished in 1992) at Lord
Rama's birthplace in Ayodhya, India -- are just a few of the long
list of mosques built on the site of earlier churches and temples. In
India alone historian Sita Ram Goel in his book Hindu Temples: What
Happened to Them gives a partial list of 2000 Islamic monuments built
at the site of deliberately demolished Hindu temples or material
obtained from them.
In the medieval times churches, synagogues and temples used to be
icons of civilizations. So they demolished those and built mosque
there. Today these icons have been replaced by democracy, military
and economic might -- that is what America stands for today. Building
a mosque at the hallowed ground of demolished WTCs -- icons of
America's economic might is in Muslim eyes be a symbol of Islam's
victory over mighty America. The selection of the site is not
accidental -- it is rather a very astute decision.
2. Why name it Cordoba Initiative / House:
The name given to the project to a casual observer sounds quite
innocent but on closer scrutiny betrays the intentions of the
project. It is named Cordoba Initiative and the building will be
called Cordoba House. One wonders why would a Muslim group building a
mosque or a community center, as they call it, in New York City in
the US would name it after a Spanish city?
Symbols are powerful in any civilization and more so in Islam. So one
would naturally ask what is so special about Cordoba. Cordoba was
once a grand city but then there have been many grand cities in
history. What is so special about Cordoba? Of course, Cordoba has
deep resonance in the history of Islam.
Spain was attacked by Islamic forces in 711AD with a view to capture
all Europe and convert it to Islam. Islam's progress was arrested by
Charles Martel at the borders of France in 732AD. Cordoba was the
capital of the Islamic empire in Spain. Cordoba is the place where
first Islamic Caliphate was established in the West. On the site of
an existing and from materials obtained from the Christian Visigoth
Church a grand mosque was built in Cordoba. Thus naming the new
structure near the demolished World Trade Center Cordoba House
carries great symbolic value.
The Cordoba mosque has a very special place in Islamic annals. The
Muslims have a great reverence for it. The spiritual father of
Pakistan, poet Allama Iqbal, while on a visit to Europe in the year
1932 A.D. took special permission to visit Spain. "Among the various
monuments of Islamic Spain, the most intense yearning of his soul was
to experience the Grand Mosque (Le Mezquita) of Cordoba, built in the
8th century by Emir Abdul Rehman I, but now called The Holy
Cathedral. At the great mosque of Qurtaba, he wrote his poem Masjid-
e-Qurtaba and offered his prayers, although this ritual had been
forbidden by the Government of Spain." (www.allamaiqbal.com )
He wrote:
"Sacred for lovers of art, thou art the glory of faith, Thou hast
made Andalusia pure as a holy land."
If Allama Iqbal was to revisits the earth, I have no doubt that he
would wish to visit the so called Cardoba House in New York and show
the same reverence that he showed in his poem towards Masjid-e-
Qurtaba.
There is no doubt that the proposed "community center" would serve as
a land mark of Islamic conquest of America and would be visited not
so much by the local Muslim community but the visitors from all over
the Islamic world and in time the prayers would be conducted for
those who destroyed the twin towers rather than those who perished in
them.
3. What is the purpose of Cordoba House?
This is defined on the web site of Cordoba initiative and I quote
from the web site as of June 1, 2010:
"This proposed project is about promoting integration, tolerance of
difference and community cohesion through arts and culture. Cordoba
House will provide a place where individuals, regardless of their
backgrounds, will find a center of learning, art and culture; and
most importantly, a center guided by Islamic values in their truest
form - compassion, generosity, and respect for all."
I admire the people behind the Cordoba Initiative for their noble
aims.
It is not America or New York City that needs promoting integration,
and tolerance of difference and community cohesion. America, and the
New York city specially, is a wonderful living testament to
integration and tolerance of people from all over the world working
together in an exemplary fashion. Would it not be better to spend 100
million dollars in building churches and temples and community
centers of art and culture where such integration and tolerance does
not exist, where the practice or propagation of religion other than
Islam is prohibited, where women and non-Muslims are treated as
second class citizens, where there is no freedom of religion,
conscience, speech or thought? Would it not be better to promote
integration and tolerance in the country where the Islamic terrorists
who attacked the US on 9/11 came from?
Mosque near ground zero is a terrible idea. Mosque near ground zero
is a psychological surrender to the very forces that attacked the
WTCs on 9/11. Mosque near ground zero is an insult to the memory of
3000 who perished in the attack on the twin towers.
June 4, 2010
End of forwarded message from Vinod Kumar
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
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uNmaivirumbi
Jai Maharaj) wrote:
> Forwarded message from Vinod Kumar
>
> Mosque near ground zero
This is typical of Muslims to destroy kafirs and their places and
build a mosque over the destroyed place. Like Ram Janma Bhoomi. This
is their tradition. It is an insult to the memory of the deceased.
Should be forbidden.
and/or www.mantra.com/jai
uNmaivirumbi <tripur...@yahoo.com> posted:
> Dr. Jai Maharaj posted:
> > Forwarded message from Vinod Kumar
> >
> > Mosque near ground zero
> This is typical of Muslims to destroy kafirs and their places and
> build a mosque over the destroyed place. Like Ram Janma Bhoomi. This
> is their tradition. It is an insult to the memory of the deceased.
> Should be forbidden.
As one lesson for Muslims to learn regarding Ayodhya, a thousand mosques
must be replaced with Hindu temples. And this is just for starters.