The defender of Ground Zero Mosque

by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

(August 17, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Barack Hussain Obama has finally shown to the world that as President of United States, his main agenda is to do everything to further strengthen the spread of militant or radical Islam in that country. Since Obama became the President, words such as ‘War on Terror’ or ‘Islamists’ or ‘Jihadists’ are missing from the official texts of speeches and articles and it is greatly understood that the ‘former Muslim’ US President is in other words pushing the fate of America towards Islamization.

His open support towards construction of the mosque and Islamic Center at Ground Zero became a headline of most of the newspapers in the Muslim world. Muslim press were feeling delighted at the statement of Barack Hussain Obama, who delivered a strong defense on Friday [August 13, 2010] 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".

Following this statement by the American President, Debra Burlingame, whose brother piloted the American Airlines flight that was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon on 9/11, told New York Post, “Building a mosque at Ground Zero is a deliberately provocative act that will precipitate more bloodshed in the name of Allah. The president has chosen to declare our memories of 9/11 obsolete and the sanctity of Ground Zero finished."

This is for the first time; the controversial mosque project at Ground Zero Area became top news in the Muslim press, when President Barack Obama virtually gave endorsement to it during his lengthy lecture at Iftar Party hosted by White House. Muslim press is flooded with news, commentaries and editorials praising President Obama’s statement supporting the construction of mosque at Ground Zero Area in New York City. Most of the newspapers headlined ‘Obama supports mosque at ground Zero’. Muslim press took the statement of the US President as an official endorsement to the proposed mosque at 9/11 site.

Obama’s comments placed him in the middle of the controversy over a Muslim group’s plans for a mosque near the site of the 2001 attack — and in turn, transformed an emotion-laden local dispute in New York into a nationwide debate overnight.

Republicans pounced, amid early signs that the issue would seep into some state and congressional contests. “It is divisive and disrespectful to build a mosque next to the site where 3,000 innocent people were murdered at the hands of Islamic extremism,” said Florida GOP Senate candidate Marco Rubio.

And Democrats — at least some who were willing to comment — could barely contain their frustration over Obama’s remarks, saying he had potentially placed every one of their candidates into the middle of the debate by giving GOP candidates a chance to ask them point-blank: Do you agree with Obama on the mosque, or not?

Sensing the possible outburst of reactions from the people in the United States, Obama quickly retreated from his Friday statement. On Saturday, he told reporters - “I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That's what our country is about. And I think it's very important as difficult as some of these issues are that we stay focused on who we are as a people and what our values are all about.”

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Bill Burton said, “Just to be clear, the president is not backing off in any way from the comments he made last night,” Burton said. “It is not his role as president to pass judgment on every local project. But it is his responsibility to stand up for the Constitutional principle of religious freedom and equal treatment for all Americans. What he said last night, and reaffirmed today, is that if a church, a synagogue or a Hindu temple can be built on a site, you simply cannot deny that right to those who want to build a mosque.”

President Obama’s statement during Iftar party has equally angered members and leaders of Democratic Party as well. Democrat Jeff Greene released a deeply critical statement saying: "President Obama has this all wrong, and I strongly oppose his support for building a mosque near Ground Zero, especially since Islamic terrorists have bragged and celebrated destroying the Twin Towers and killing nearly 3,000 Americans.”