El Marco's "Prayer Time at the Ground Zero Mosque"

Photographer El Marco shows us yet again why we must never forget, never give in.

A few snippets to give you a taste of El Marco's thoughtful work.

I came to the city to photograph the rally of Stop Islamization of America (SOIA) on Sunday, June 6th, which is dedicated to stopping the construction of a mega-mosque 600 feet from the gaping hole which was the World Trade Center. First, I visited the Islamic Center Mosque on 96th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, miles from ground zero. What is significant about this 1980s mosque is that it was created by the father of the man who is spearheading the Ground Zero mosque project.

Doctor Mohammed Abdul Rauf (1917-2004) was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was formed in Egypt in 1928 and has over 70 branches including Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah. The Muslim Brotherhood is classified as a terrorist organization and banned in Egypt as well as the United States.

I only saw five women enter [the current Ground Zero mosque on the first floor of a building damaged during 9/11], and they were required to use a side entrance.

Andrew C. McCarthy who prosecuted the “blind sheik”, mastermind of the first terror attack on the World Trade Center, wrote in his authoritative new book, The Grand Jihad:

“In common parlance, someone is a “radical” Muslim only if he is a practitioner of jihadist terrorism, as if it were perfectly normal to want exactly the sharia state the terrorist wants as long as one refrains from terrorist methods in seeking it. The U.S. government, as well as our states and municipalities, clings to this connotation. At all levels– administrations of both political parties, intelligence agencies, law-enforcement, members of Congress, the federal bench, state and local authorities– officials would rather stick pins in their eyes than grapple with the incontrovertible nexus between Islamic doctrine and the savagery committed by Muslims throughout the world for decades. We are lead to believe that the only real “radicals” are the terrorists. Any other Muslim, no matter how supportive of terrorist goals, is deemed a “moderate” so long as he doesn’t seem, right this minute, to be plotting the next Armageddon.

It will be well worth your time to view the entire photo essay.

Via Doug Ross @ Journal. Hat tip: Nice Deb.
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Related posts:

• Ground Zero Mosque Imam Sponsors Gaza Blockade Run...
• Tolerance is Easy When It's at Other People's Expense
• Scary Stuff: What Ground Zero Imam Says on Arabic Websites
• NYC Community Board Okays Ground Zero Mosque Plans...
• Ground Zero Mosque Community Board Meeting Tonight...
• About that Imam from the Ground Zero Mosque . . .
• Will the Real Mohammed Please Stand Up?
• Petition to Stop the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque: Sign...

Help Is On the Way, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver

Itzhak Perlman plays Klezmer

You know, when you're dealing with music, you're dealing with the soul of a society. And if there's anything that can be identified as the soul of ... this society--Jewish society--it's klezmer music.

          ~Israeli violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman

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Ground Zero Mosque Imam Sponsors Gaza Blockade Run

The New York Post is reporting that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the point man for the planned Ground Zero mega-mosque, "is a key figure" in the group that is the biggest donor to the Free Gaza Movement, which is "a key organizer of the six-ship flotilla that tried to break Israel's blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza strip." The group, called Perdana Global Peace Organization [it's always about peace, isn't it] is based in Malaysia. Their donation? $366,000 ("so far"). The imam's participation was published on the group's own Web site.

Efforts to reach Imam Abdul Rauf yesterday for comment were unsuccessful. 

He'll think of something to say. Maybe he's on the phone with Mayor Bloomberg right now coordinating their press releases. Meanwhile, New Yorkers are preparing for a protest against the mega-mosque to be held tomorrow noon at the corner of Church and Liberty Streets at Ground Zero. 

Deborah Burlingame, the sister of the American Airlines pilot whose hijacked plane struck the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, said the indirect ties of the imam to the protesters who confronted Israeli forces Monday were not surprising. 

"I think it goes to show he is not the man he represents himself to be. We have two Imam Raufs," she said.

"We have the anti-Israel, anti-democratic imam, and we have the smiling, soft-spoken moderate Muslim who says 'Why can't we all get along?'

The Free Gaza Movement is a charity that has made nine seaborne aid missions in the past two years to break the Israeli blockade.

Hat tip: Atlas Shrugs.

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Related posts:

• Tolerance is Easy When It's at Other People's Expense
• Make this viral for Israel. And for freedom
• Scary Stuff: What Ground Zero Imam Says on Arabic ...
• John Brennan: What's Wrong with Jihad?
• NYC Community Board Okays Ground Zero Mosque Plans...
• Thank You For Signing the Petition to Stop the 911Mega-Mosque
• About that Imam from the Ground Zero Mosque . . .
• Petition to Stop the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque: Sign It Now!

Tolerance is Easy When It's at Other People's Expense

British comedian, Pat Condell, warns Americans about the Ground Zero mosque, stealth jihad, and the Islamization of America.

Some of Condell's insights:

• You know, it seems to me a much more appropriate place for a mosque in New York would be the United Nations building itself because that organization has become so Islamo-friendly in recent years that frankly I'm surprised it doesn't already have a minaret. 

• 9/11 could never have happened if not for Islam, and its teachings, and its doctrine of jihad, and its false promise of an impossible afterlife without which none of those gullible lunatics would have been persuaded to carry out such an insane act.  

• Without the shield of religion to hide behind, Islam would be banned in the civilized world as a political ideology of hate, and we have no obligation to make allowances for it anymore than we do for Naziism. 

• It's true that diversity's been good for America. It's been the making of that country, but American diversity has always been grounded in respect for the values--the individual liberties--that make America what it is. Islam rejects those values, and that's the difference, and it's a very important difference.

Hat tip: Jihad Watch.
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Related posts:

• Scary Stuff: What Ground Zero Imam Says on Arabic Websites . . .
• NYC Community Board Okays Ground Zero Mosque Plans...
• Ground Zero Mosque Community Board Meeting Tonight...
• Thank You For Signing the Petition to Stop the 911 Mega Mosque at Ground Zero
• About that Imam from the Ground Zero Mosque . . .
• Petition to Stop the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque: Sign It Now!

Make this viral for Israel. And for freedom

Hamas as Momma Teresa. From Powerline via Backyard Conservative at Potluck. Don't forget to check in at Legal Insurrection for updates.


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Scary Stuff: What Ground Zero Imam Says on Arabic Websites . . .

and what it means to Muslims.

Obama may believe in dialog, and NYC Mayor Bloomberg may believe in dialog, and the NYC committee that put their stamp of approval on the Ground Zero mosque may believe in dialog, but a key figure in the Ground Zero mosque project doesn't: the imam who is the point man for this mosque. Of course, he's not mentioning that highly significant view in English. Why should he, when New York liberal socialist politicians (there aren't any other kind in NYC) are falling all over themselves to believe him, and their "useful idiot" media camp followers are desperate to believe in the superior humanity and rationality of "Islamic democracy." In true multicultural fashion, these smarter-than-you (or so they think) politicians and media darlings seem to believe that if it's good enough for Turkey, it's good enough for the U.S. They must stay at the right hotels in Turkey.

No, the imam is stalwart in his view that dialog is a ludicrous idea, but he's saying it in Arabic.

According to Shariah law, if the Ground Zero mosque gets built, that ground belongs to Islam forever; it becomes an embassy for Islam, and no man can close it down without infuriating and rallying the entire Muslim world. More Shariah law: "Smile at non-Muslims while your hearts curse them."

Don't believe me. Believe the native Arabic speaker in this video (long, but worth every minute you can spare):



This mosque must not be built. Americans must not fall for that "there's nothing we can do to stop it" BS.  That's always the politicians' opening maneuver.
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Related posts:

• John Brennan: What's Wrong with Jihad?
• NYC Community Board Okays Ground Zero Mosque Plans...
• Ground Zero Mosque Community Board Meeting Tonight...
• Thank You For Signing the Petition to Stop the 911...
• About that Imam from the Ground Zero Mosque . . .
• Petition to Stop the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque: Sign...

Calling All Angels

Ask Knee-Jerk Environmentalists Why BP Is Drilling at 5,000 Feet

Charles Krauthammer has asked a question that's not being discussed, but should be:

Why are we drilling in 5,000 feet of water in the first place?

I've been thinking about that one myself, considering that, for decades, Alaska has been begging for a go-ahead to place small high-tech wells on perfectly dry land in ANWR. Ask the liberal's pariah, Sarah Palin, whose state has made as much as $10 billion in a single year in revenues from royalty payments made to the state by oil companies like BP. Alaska's residents don't pay state taxes; instead, they receive about $1,200 a year from their state government in revenues made from oil. Alaskans want to drill, and the technology to drill on dry land has been around for a long time.

It goes without saying that stopping an oil leak on dry land, like anything else, is enormously easier than stopping one 5,000 feet under the Gulf. And Alaska has plenty of natural gas that it would like to pipe to the lower 48 states.

Said Krauthammer:

As production from the shallower Gulf of Mexico wells declines, we go deep (1,000 feet and more) and ultra deep (5,000 feet and more), in part because environmentalists have succeeded in rendering the Pacific and nearly all the Atlantic coast off-limits to oil production. (President Obama's tentative, selective opening of some Atlantic and offshore Alaska sites is now dead.)

And of course, in the safest of all places, on land, we've had a 30-year ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

So we go deep, ultradeep — to such a technological frontier that no precedent exists for the April 20 blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

There will always be catastrophic oil spills. You make them as rare as humanly possible, but where would you rather have one: in the Gulf of Mexico, upon which thousands depend for their livelihood, or in the Arctic, where there are practically no people?

Our natural environment is not protected by knee-jerk responses to environmental fads but by good judgment. The response to the Gulf of Mexico disaster is not to stopping drilling for oil--thereby abandoning any control over protection of the environment and leaving it to other countries--but to drill in the right places, where we can exercise maximum precautions and are in the best position to deal with accidents.
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John Brennan: What's Wrong with Jihad?

Just as I thought I'd better take a break from fulminating about the heartbreaking plan for a Ground Zero mega-mosque, I discovered that the Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, just defended jihad as a "legitimate tenet of Islam." This begs the question: Is Brennan advising Obama, or is Obama advising Brennan? Of course, the obvious answer is that this stuff rolls downhill, and no doubt has been splashing around the governmental corridors of New York City since Obama was elected. Read about it if you can stand to. I think the jihadists already know.

Cartoonist Stilton Jarlsberg had this response:

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NYC Community Board Okays Ground Zero Mosque Plans

"I don't want a mosque on the grave of my son and on the grave of everybody else who was murdered on that day," Rosemary Cain said. Rosemary's son George was a 35-year old NYC firefighter.

My deepest condolences, Rosemary. I grieve for you. American grieves for you.

But Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, his Muslim backers in the U.S. and in Muslim nations, think they know better.

And now NYC's Community Board No. 1 agrees that they do.

The board have put their stamp of approval (29 to 1, with 10 abstaining) on the Ground Zero mosque, which somehow is supposed to show "resident support" of the project, despite an overflow crowd of hurt and angry people who came to their meeting last night to oppose the mosque.
 
It's all supposedly about tolerance, but no tolerance for the beliefs of Rosemary and the other mourners of 9/11, whose bodies were never recovered from Ground Zero.

In her own country.

"I'm asking you to let this be a place of understanding where we can learn about each other," supporter Asim Rehman said.

Thanks a lot, Asim. Just what we need. Another forced "opportunity" to learn about Muslims, while the very act of building this mosque at Ground Zero demonstrates perfectly that you have no interest whatever in the feelings of non-Muslims, or even of Muslims who recognize with their hearts the injury caused by this proposed mosque.

Islamic "tolerance" in action.

Message received.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said in a statement that by supporting the multi-faith community and cultural center, the board "sent a clear message that our city is one that promotes diversity and tolerance."

Leftie liberal approval noted.

UPDATE:

Video from the meeting (Hat tip, Michelle Malkin). This is what the Board approved:



UPDATE:

From a report by Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch via Atlas Shrugs:

Immediately after the vote the press was given a written statement from Stringer congratulating the Board for voting as they did, which indicates that he knew all along the way the vote was going to go.

But that doesn't mean that the 9/11 Mosque is a fait accompli. Oh, no. The people in that room tonight who knew that they were being lied to and sold a bill of goods are not going to take this lying down. This is why it is all the more crucial for you, if you possibly can, to attend our June 6 rally at noon at Zucotti Park in lower Manhattan. This is our last chance to make our voices heard. And we will be heard.

Londoners were able to stop their mega-mosque, and NYC can do it too.
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Related posts:

• Ground Zero Mosque Community Board Meeting Tonight, 5/25/10
• Thank You For Signing the Petition to Stop the 911 Mosque at Ground Zero 
• About that Imam from the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque . . .
• Petition to Stop the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque: Sign It Now

Ground Zero Mosque Community Board Meeting Tonight, 5/25/10

From 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America (via Teresamerica and Patriot's Corner):

[The] mosque, located on the top floor of the 15-story building, would have a commanding view of the entire Ground Zero neighborhood. 

I'm trying to imagine what kind of "moderate" Muslims think this is an inspiring view, the site of:

the worst terrorist attack by extremist Muslims in America’s history; following the attack, 20,000 body parts were recovered in a nine-month operation to remove 1.8 million tons of rubble from Lower Manhattan.

So inspiring, in fact, that someone was willing to put down almost $5 million in cash to secure the building, even though it is still under consideration for protection as an historical site.

As we are reminded at Patriot's Corner, 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America view the plan outlined by the Ground Zero imam to

“leverage” the mosque’s proximity to Ground Zero to engage in proselytizing and to “grow the Muslim community,” as shockingly insensitive to the history of the site . . .

Maybe that's why the rest of the $100 million the mosque is expected to cost will be coming not only from Muslims in the United States, but also from overseas:

Imam Abdul Rauf … told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Islamic center will be financed through contributions from Muslims in the US, as well as by donations from Arab and Islamic countries. . . .

From Atlas Shrugs:

Last week, the finance committee, composed of 12 people, voted unanimously in support of the mosque, after Imam Rauf and his wife, Daisy Khan was made. No one knew about it, no announcement was made. The matter will now go to the full committee (more than 40 people). The full committee will be meeting on May 25. WE NEED YOU ALL TO ATTEND TO VOICE YOUR OPPOSITION. [emphasis mine]

CB1 has no legal authority. Their "approval" or disapproval is in no way binding on the matter, but the media will be there, and we need to send a message to Rauf, Khan and Mayor Bloomberg: This is wrong.  This will do terrible harm to the 9/11 family community and non- Muslims around the world.  

5/25    CB #1 Monthly Meeting - 6:00 PM
Location:      Three Legged Dog Art and Technology Center
                     80 Greenwich Street (at Rector Street)

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Related posts:

• Thank You For Signing the Petition to Stop the 911 Mosque at Ground Zero
• About that Imam from the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque . . .
• Petition to Stop the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque: Sign It Now

Nothing is going to happen to me, man -- I'm a Mexican drunk driver!

A vehicle being driven by Massachusetts state rep, Michael J. Moran, was rear ended at 60 miles an hour by an unlicensed drunk driver who left the scene of the accident. Moran is reported to be "okay," but an unnamed passenger in the vehicle being driven by the suspect, Isaias Naranjo, was hospitalized with life threatening injuries.

When state police apprehended Naranjo and warned him that he would be facing serious charges, he laughed and replied, “I’m going to go back to my country, Mexico. Nothing is going to happen to me, man!”

No wonder.  

Massachusetts Attorney General and Worst Senate Candidate Ever Martha Coakley made news earlier this week by bragging that "technically, it's not illegal to be illegal in Massachusetts."

Naranjo's statement that his country is Mexico, plus the Mexican costume he was wearing at the time of the accident, might have caused state police officers to "profile" him as a possible illegal alien, but they couldn't investigate that possibility.

It seems that, three years ago, Massachusetts' governor, Democrat Deval Patrick, revoked an order by the state's previous governor, Republican Mitt Romney, that gave the state police power to investigate immigration violations.

Representative Moran, a Democrat who represents part of Boston, is similarly on record as opposing legislation that would require recipients of tax-supported state benefits to show ID  proving that they are in Massachusetts legally.

After all, what's a few "life-threatening injuries" when it comes to collecting potential votes from people whose allegiance belongs to another country?

Addendum:

Below, Lt. Col. Allen West offers some facts and opinions about illegal immigration. Inspiring. (Thanks to Peddling Fast.)



Hat tip: American Power via Nice Deb.
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"Sweet Holy Spirit" by the Isaacs

Thank You For Signing the Petition to Stop the 911 Mega Mosque at Ground Zero

My personal thanks to the many people who have used this site as a jumping-off spot to sign the petition to Stop the 911 Mega Mosque at Ground Zero or to write to New York City's Mayor Bloomberg. A number of people have spread the word with tweets, too. Your support means very much, very much indeed. It's all helping.

I've written quite a few posts about the Ground Zero Mosque, most of which I've "torn up," as far as one can tear up an arrangement of electrons sitting on a capacitor somewhere. There are a great many words that I can't bring myself to publish.

That "sensitive," soft-spoken, Muslim imam guy who just happened to have more than $4 million in cash to plunk down on land on which to build a 9/11 Ground Zero memorial mosque, complete with recreational facilities for devout Muslims, including a theater and swimming pool (Ground Zero being such a fun place and all) is telling anyone who will listen that the mosque is all about being "part of the solution." A lot of people are listening, including (or is that especially?) politicians in New York, like Mayor Bloomberg, who endorses the project and isn't lifting a finger except in the general direction of supporting the building of the mega mosque.

I judge the sincerity of the imam's claim by the amount of pain caused by his announcement of the building of the mosque. Pain that the imam is quick to label as "bigotry."

If Americans dare to express that they feel pain at the site of the torturous murder of their loved ones by Islamic terrorists at Ground Zero, they're quickly dismissed as "bigots" by the sensitive imam. He's not alone. The sensitive president of New York's Community Board No. 1, Julie Menin, thoroughly agrees, interestingly using the identical word: "There's been a tremendous amount of bigotry associated with this." You'd almost think they were reading from the same page, written at the same committee meeting.

According to these self-stylized standard bearers of what America is supposed to be thinking and feeling, not only are Americans supposed to bear the pain, they're supposed to shut up about the pain, and now they're supposed to salute Muslims for having a good ol' time at the place of their pain. All in the interests of "solution."

Because, well, you know, Americans are not supposed to be "bigots." And it goes without saying that it would be bigoted to ask exactly whose problem will be "solved" by building a mosque at Ground Zero, and the value of that solution measured against the pain it will cause. Bigotry, bigotry, bigotry.

Every time there's a new terrorist attack, more people develop a few new memories that won't be part of the "solution." Those memories will be part of 3:00 a.m. Sooner or later, as terrorist attacks continue, just about everyone in this country will have developed a trunk full of memories of personal experiences with Islamic terrorism. Friends and relatives that never returned, etc. Indelible images in their minds of why these people never returned. What their loved ones suffered in the act of never returning. What life would be like if they had returned, dear God. And so on. There are already thousands upon thousands of people like that living in the New York/New Jersey area, and many more in DC. Not to mention Fort Hood.

Those people are  just going to love walking by those Muslim cultural centers, filled with all those bleeding-heart-type Muslims so sensitive to America's pain, eating in their culturally correct restaurants, working out in their culturally correct exercise centers, and enjoying their culturally correct theatrical events and lectures (we can only imagine). In the bigger picture, though, the pain of Americans who haven't yet begun to recover from exposure to Islamic terrorists won't matter much. They'll only be "bigots."

Oh, about that swimming pool in the Muslim Cultural Center. Just one swimming pool? Where will the women swim?

Oh, stupid question. Bigoted too, for all I know.

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If you don't like the idea of a mega mosque being build on Ground Zero (with a grand opening on September 11, 2011), here's a petition to sign. Mayor Bloomberg loves the idea: his email address. Here are links to contact the distinctly non-"bigoted" Financial District Committee who approved this plan and also the proudly non-"bigoted" Community Board No. 1 who gave them authority to do so. You are wisely being asked to be polite in your communications by the fearless Pamela Geller of the human rights group, Stop Islamization of America (SIOA). SIOA is hosting a rally at Ground Zero on June 6 at noon to protest the construction of this mosque.

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Related posts:

• About that Imam from the Ground Zero Mosque . . .
• Petition to Stop the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque: Sign it Now!

About that Imam from the Ground Zero Mosque . . .

Just what America needs, Muslim law ruling American Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, and everybody else, or so says the imam who is planning to start with a mosque built in the Ground Zero kill zone.

Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch and Debra Burlingame of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America on Hannity last night:



For the transcript of this interview, go here.

Have something to say about a mosque on Ground Zero? Here's a petition to sign, Mayor Bloomberg's email address, and links to the Financial District Committee who approved this plan and Community Board No. 1 who gave them authority to do so. You are asked to be polite in your communications by Pamela Geller of the human rights group, Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), which is hosting a rally at Ground Zero on June 6 at noon to protest the construction of this mosque.

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Related Post: Petition to Stop the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque: Sign It Now!

Will the Real Mohammed Please Stand Up?

I didn't want to let Everybody Draw Mohammed Day go by without participation. A number of bloggers have expressed distaste for the idea, but my view is that a little solidarity is a good thing, especially when it comes to standing up against bullies.

Yeah, Everybody Draw Mohammed Day is not the pinnacle of spiritually enlightened activities, but only the delusional haven't noticed that Mohammed is a name that pops up a lot when large numbers of innocent people minding their own business suddenly find themselves in the middle of a bloody nightmare.

I'm not going out of my way to respect that.

I've been reading Mark Steyn's book, America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It (Regnery, 2008). It's every bit the example of insight and clarity you'd expect from him, and here's a little piece of it (pp. 63-64). I added illustrations I found on the Web until I ran out of stomach:

Not long after September 11, I said, just as an aside, that these days whenever something goofy turns up on the news chances are it involves some fellow called Mohammed. It was a throwaway line, but if you want to compile chapter and verse, you can add to the list every week.

A plane flies into the World Trade Center? Mohammed Atta.

A sniper starts killing gas station customers around Washington, D.C.? John Allen Muhammed.

A gunman shoots up the El Al counter at Los Angeles airport? Hesham Mohamed Hedayet.

A terrorist slaughters dozens in Bali? Noordin Mohamed.

A British subject self-detonates in a Tel Aviv bar? Asif Mohammed Hanif.

A terrorist cell bombs the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania? Ali Mohamed. [No photo; substituted photo of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, 9/11 mastermind.]

A gang rapist preys on the women of Sydney? Mohammad Skaf.

A group of Dearborn, Michigan, men charged with cigarette racketeering in order to fund Hezbollah? Fadi Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud, Mohammed Fawzi Zeidan, and Imad Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud. [No photos; substituted photo of Mohammed al Modadi, the Qatari diplomat who caused two jet fighters from Buckley Air Force Base to be scrambled after he locked himself in a passenger jet restroom and told air marshalls he was "lighting his shoes on fire."]

A Canadian terror cell is arrested for plotting to bomb Ottawa and behead the prime minister? Mohammed Diri, Amin Mohamed Durrani [shown], and Yasim Abdi Mohamed.

These last three represent a "broad strata" of Canadian society, according to Mike McDonnell, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a man who must have aced Sensitivity Training class. To the casual observer, the broad strata would seem to be a very singular stratum: in their first appearance in court, all twelve men arrested in that Ontario plot requested the Koran.

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Petition to Stop the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque: Sign It Now!

Alert citizens of England, where there is a large and powerful population of Muslims, were able to end the construction of a mega-mosque in East London, so Americans better get moving to put a stop to the planned Ground Zero mega-mosque which its developers would like to open on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

For years, an Islamist group in England actively worked toward the construction of a mega-mosque capable of holding 70,000 people next door to another project, the 2012 London Olympics stadium. (Which, for some reason, brings to my mind that an Islamist group, Black September, slaughtered a group of innocent Israeli athletes and their coaches at the Munich Summer Olympics in 1972.) But "determined, sustained, and intelligent opposition" halted this "Islamist project."

No need to explain why Islamists would be wanting to open a mega-mosque at Ground Zero on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Nevertheless, the project's spokesperson, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, has been going around acting like building a mega-mosque in a building damaged during the 9/11 attack is the most normal, most patriotic, and most conciliatory act imaginable, and that coming up with the 4.85 million in cash that records show the imam paid for the land is no big deal. The reality:

Ground Zero mosque imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has blamed the West, rather than Islamic jihadists, for terrorism on several occasions. He has said, according to Australia's Sun-Herald, that "the U.S. and the West must acknowledge the harm they have done to Muslims before terrorism can end." On another occasion he said that "Western active involvement in shaping the internal affairs of Islamic societies have contributed to the creation of terrorism done in the name of Islam."

Abdul Rauf has also called Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams' endorsement of the implementation of Sharia courts in Britain "forward thinking" - despite Sharia's denial of basic freedoms including the freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and equality of rights of all people before the law.

Interested New Yorkers will no doubt want to examine the activities of the developers of the mosque to make sure that the concerned parties have applied each and every jot and tittle precisely where it was supposed to be placed, in the prescribed time frames, and that no legal procedures by any of the developers, mystery funders, or municipal authorities or staff members have been overlooked. Red tape can be hell to get through when all kinds of interested bystanders are looking over everyone's shoulders 24/7. And in this case . . . .

Pamela Geller has provided a petition for signing, as well as contact information to let the numbskulls who allowed this project get this far know what you think (well, not exactly what you think, since she asks that you BE POLITE):

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, City Hall. Write him every day:

PHONE 311 (or 212-NEW-YORK outside NYC)
FAX (212) 788-8123
E-MAIL: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html

The 12-member Financial District Committee who unanimously approved this abomination: GO HERE, BE POLITE.

And Community Board 1 Members who gave them the authority to do so: GO HERE, BE POLITE.

Email: man01@cb.nyc.gov
Telephone:
Fax: (212) 442-5055
Address:
49-51 Chambers Street Room 715
New York, NY 10007-1209

Staff
Noah Pfefferblit, District Manager
Michael Levine, Director of Planning and Land Use
Yume Kitasei, Community Liaison
Lucy Acevedo, Community Coordinator

The human rights group Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) will be hosting a rally at Ground Zero on June 6 at noon to protest construction of the mosque. You can join SIOA's Facebook page here.

We chose June 6 as the rally date," Geller explained, "because it's D-Day. In 1944, Americans acted against the evil of Nazism. Now it is time for Americans to stand up against the evil of Islamic jihad terrorism and Islamic supremacism.

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Janet Napolitano Hasn't Read The AZ Immigration Bill Either: Why Bother?

Another paragraph in the continuing saga of the Obama administration's disdain for the American people.

From Real Clear Politics:

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano admits she hasn't read the Arizona immigration law, but passed judgment on it anyway. "That's not the kind of law I would have signed," she declared.

"I believe it's a bad law enforcement law. I believe it mandates and requires local enforcement and puts them in a position many do not want to be placed in," Napolitano said.

"When I was dealing with laws of that ilk, most of the law enforcement agencies in Arizona at that time were opposed to such legislation," she claimed.

Video here (quote starts about :51).

You can understand why Obama's administration doesn't want the American people to think they actually read our laws. We might get the mistaken notion that the administration is considering upholding those laws.

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Latest Jihadi Legal Defense: We Take It All Back

Look at the smiles on the faces of three of the young men in shackles who were picked up in Pakistan after being reported for asking around for the nearest terrorist camp. When this photo was taken, in December of 2009 or early January of 2010, it was good times heading for Madrassa U for these five wanna-be terrorists from the DC area: Pakistani Americans Umer Farooq and Waqar Hussain; Ethiopian Americans Aman Yamar and Ahmed Abdullah Mimi; and Egyptian American Ramy Zamzam, all under the age of 26.

During Thanksgiving break, the group had jetted away to Pakistan, leaving behind a "goodbye" video "showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended." Their worried parents soon enlisted the aid of the FBI in getting their sons back. Too late. When the men asked to be directed to the nearest terrorist camp but didn't have the correct "references" and didn't even speak the preferred language (Urdu), locals turned them in to the Pakistani police, whom Ramy Zamzam (smiling prisoner second from the right) assured there was nothing to worry about: "We are jihadists, and jihad is not terrorism."

Unimpressed, Pakistani authorities wanted to know why guys from a suburb of Alexandria were traipsing around Pakistan with a map of the Chashma Barrage [shown],  a reservoir complex located near nuclear power facilities.

After a few weeks of eating a culturally correct diet and experiencing local customs in a high security Pakistani prison, the youths were throwing Help-Us-We're-Being-Tortured notes out the window of the bus transporting them to their hearings. Pakistani authorities charged Umer, Waqar, Aman, Ahmed, and Ramy with attempting to (a) target important installations in Pakistan, (b) fight in Afghanistan, and (c) embrace martyrdom.

The five now can't figure out why anyone would confuse them with jihadists. In fact, they claim, their "noble" intentions "in traveling secretly to Pakistan" were motivated by a desire to help Muslim orphans in Afghanistan, mixed in with a desire for some just plain "fun." A little too late, Aman Yamar (the doubtful looking prisoner second from the left) has come to the conclusion that "It doesn't make any sense that I would leave my family, friends, education and comfortable, happy life to live in a small cave."

It seems that embracing martyrdom isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Hat tip: Jihad Watch.

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• "We are jihadists, and jihad is not terrorism"