President Obama delivered a strong defense on Friday night of a proposed Muslim community center and mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, using a White House dinner celebrating Ramadan to proclaim that “as a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.”
After weeks of avoiding the high-profile battle over the center — his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said last week that the president did not want to “get involved in local decision-making” — Mr. Obama stepped squarely into the thorny debate.
“I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground zero is, indeed, hallowed ground,” the president said in remarks prepared for the annual White House iftar, the sunset meal breaking the day’s fast.
But, he continued: “This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. 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.”
In hosting the iftar, Mr. Obama was following a White House tradition that, while sporadic, dates to Thomas Jefferson, who held a sunset dinner for the first Muslim ambassador to the United States. President George W. Bush hosted iftars annually.
Aides to Mr. Obama say privately that he has always felt strongly about the proposed community center and mosque, but the White House did not want to weigh in until local authorities made a decision on the proposal, planned for two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center.
Last week, New York City removed the final construction hurdle for the project, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg spoke forcefully in favor of it.
The community center proposal has led to a national uproar over Islam, 9/11 and freedom of religion during a hotly contested midterm election season.
In New York, Rick A. Lazio, a Republican candidate for governor and a former member of the House of Representatives, issued a statement responding to Mr. Obama’s remarks, saying that the president was still “not listening to New Yorkers.”
“With over 100 mosques in New York City, this is not an issue of religion, but one of safety and security,” he said.
Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2008, has called the project “an unnecessary provocation” and urged “peace-seeking Muslims” to reject it.
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish organization, has also opposed the center.
In his remarks, Mr. Obama distinguished between the terrorists who plotted the 9/11 attacks and Islam. “Al Qaeda’s cause is not Islam — it is a gross distortion of Islam,” the president said, adding, “In fact, Al Qaeda has killed more Muslims than people of any other religion, and that list includes innocent Muslims who were killed on 9/11.”
Noting that “Muslim Americans serve with honor in our military,” Mr. Obama said that at next week’s iftar at the Pentagon, “tribute will be paid to three soldiers who gave their lives in Iraq and now rest among the heroes of Arlington National Cemetery.”
Mr. Obama ran for office promising to improve relations with the Muslim world, by taking steps like closing the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and more generally reaching out. In a speech in Cairo last year, he vowed “a new beginning.”
But Ali Abunimah, an Arab-American journalist and author, said the president has since left many Muslims disappointed.
(Source: NY Times)
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11 Responses
What a shock!
Did anyone expect this ym’sh to say anything different????
I’m DISGUSTED with Obama. He could/should have said, “Although you have the legal right to build a muslim center in that location, I ask you not to. It is an affront to Americans and to the families whose loved ones died on 9/11. Even the name of the proposed mosque, Cordoba, is a tribute to Islamist conquest and a symbol of the drive to set up a worldwide caliphate.” Of course, he neither likes nor admires what America stands for, so he would never be enough of a patriot to say anything like that. He is a muslim at heart and would like nothing more than to see America as it has been for the past 200 years destroyed.
Well, if it was up to Mr. Hussein, every church, synagogue and Hindu temple would be replaced with a mosque. According to him, the Muslims contributed the most ever (think Algebra!), more than any other nation. The finest memorial (and maybe Alias Neshamah) would be that the Muslims recite the Quran on that location. What can be better for them than hearing the call of the Adhan five times a day. He knows better than you how a memorial should look like. He knew better than the public on healthcare, stimulus, bailouts, Wall Street, Israel, Afghanistan, Iraq, Gulf spill, etc. He will continue to know better till January 20, 2013.
Two iftars hosted by the US of A in one year – one in the WH and one at the Pentagon. How common is that? Is the President fasting?
If Mr. Hussein Obama had his way there would be a mosque in the White House by now.
Let him agree to some more of such issues, and the Republicans will have an easier time in they’re upcoming elections.
shocker
Obama is sly and sneaky. He said later that his comments did not refer to the wisdom of making the decision to put the mosque there to which he will not comment. Another politically correct statement from a corrupt lawyer. He already has stated that he wants the mosque built there. Let me show you how. In his speech, he first said that we must respect the sensitivites surrounding the issue. Right after saying this he said: “BUT let me be clear,” and went on to say Muslims have the right to build there. When someone uses the word, “but” in a sentence they’re about to negate everything they said before it! So he was indeed saying that nothwithstanding the feelings of the vast majority of Americans, he feels constitutional rights trump feelings. What he should have said was the opposite. That Muslims do have a right to build there, BUT it would be a most insensitive thing to do to the families of the 9/11 victims. Obama has shown his true colors and it isn’t pretty. He didn’t have to weigh in on this debate, but now that he has, he shows where his sympathies lie; with an imam who believes America was an “accesory” to 9/11 and who refuses to call Hamas a terrorist organization. I would like reporters to ask Obama at his next news conference if he believes Hamas is a terrorist organization. I bet you he won’t give you a straight answer. George Bush said you’re either on our side or the other side. Obama is definitely not on our side!
Naturally……………….
Hang in there people… He wont make it to round two.(second term)
Malka777, like so many Obama-bashers, has a weak grasp of history and other factual matters. Cordoba, far from being a symbol of Islamist conquest, is widely considered a symbol of the success of the Convivencia, the Golden Age of Spain when the three Abrahamic faiths lived in harmony under Muslim rule, unlike later non-Caliphate dynasties like the Almoravids and Almohades who persecuted Rambam’s family and drove them out of Spain. Not to mention the Christians who came later and killed or expelled all the Muslims and Jews.
>It is an affront to Americans…
What, if you’re Muslim you can’t be American? What about Jews, can they be American too, or must they forever remain alien and Other?
Cordoba is a symbol of mutual understanding. And, given that as President, Obama has sworn to uphold and defend the US Constitution, he really cannot do otherwise than support the Islamic center in New York – the First Amendment prevents Congress from making any law that would impede the free exercise of religion.
Mordy: Obama has said nothing but the truth, in contrast to many of his detractors. It may not be wise to build there, given the groundswell of public sentiment against it, but that’s why we have laws and a Constitution, so that the whim of the masses does not override the fundamental principles of liberty that made this the greatest country in the world. The Muslims DO have the right to build there, assuming they passed all the zoning and environmental impact reviews.