http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FBO_z2K-ssQ/TFmZAzBZZkI/AAAAAAAAAnE/hUEYuhmK4hQ/s400/mega+mosque.JPG" width="400" height="395" bx="true" alt="" />

For the last several months, I have been covertly investigating the people, power and money behind the proposed ?9/11 mega mosque? planned for the old Burlington Coat Factory situated just two blocks from ?Ground Zero? in lower Manhattan. In order to provide the most comprehensive and fact-based insight into this issue as possible, I deliberately postponed publishing any reports until my investigation, consisting of direct and indirect inquiries, procurement of records, and the use of operational assets to develop information was complete.

While any person of reasonable sensibilities and a working moral compass could legitimately find the construction of an Islamic center in such close proximity to the graveyard of thousands of innocent Americans of 9/11 objectionable, there are many proponents who argue that its construction will serve as an example of American understanding, tolerance, compassion and respect for a religion that has been maligned by the actions of a minority. The legitimacy of the argument on behalf of its placement should become moot by simply citing two basic but important concepts: historical precedent and the understanding that Islam is more than a religion. If those points fail to convince an ostensibly objective audience as they have to-date, then the results of my investigation should cause anyone with the least bit of intellectual honesty to strongly object to any Islamic structure being built at the intended location.

With regard to historical precedent, the Dome of the Rock could serve as ?Exhibit A? and the conversion of the former Byzantine basilica Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, Turkey as ?Exhibit B? in the symbolism of Islamic conquest. In both instances, the mosques are perceived in the world of Islam as iconic symbols of victory over a beaten, subservient populace. Their importance in Islamic history and current significance relative to the stated objectives of Islam to dominate rather than coexist cannot be overstated, but is unfortunately overlooked or characterized as irrational hyperbole. Such oversight has always had longstanding adverse consequences to nations and their people who have failed to learn from history.

Based on a plethora of historical examples that include the foregoing, it should be clear that the building of a mosque or a mosque within an Islamic center so near the epicenter of the 9/11 attacks will be perceived as a symbol of Islamic conquest in the Muslim world, despite the perpetual denials by so-called moderate Muslims and regardless of modern sensibilities of ?well reasoned? Western thought.  Much like the Christians in the Ottoman Empire at the time of the conversion of the basilica to a mosque, the building of this mosque will most assuredly be perceived and promoted as a very special humiliation of the West.  And as in the cases cited, this will only become clear after it is too late.

Furthermore, one must understand that Islam is not merely a religion, but a combination of theological, political, and cultural imperatives that includes the ultimate objective of imposing Islam and Sharia law worldwide, subjugating all else to Islam. It is critical to understand that a mosque built so near the epicenter of the carnage at the World Trade Center site does not hold the same significance to Americans ? under our Western ideology and reason ? that it does to adherents of Islam and the Islamic world. Without t

No Mosque

By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. on 8.5.10 @ 6:09AM

WASHINGTON -- There is an awful lot of blowzy thought swirling around the proposed mosque to be raised two blocks from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. Frankly, I doubt that at any other time in our history, such a debate would be taking place. People would know that when thugs intoning "Allahu Akbar" have slaughtered hundreds of innocent Americans on American soil, it is inappropriate to raise a mosque nearby. The majority of Americans alive today know this. Polling indicates that with them it is a nonstarter. Now the Anti-Defamation League's national director, Abraham H. Foxman, has weighed in on the side of good sense. One hopes this debate is coming to an end.

In the current issue of The American Spectator Angelo M. Codevilla posits two Americas. The first is the Ruling Class: "Today's ruling class," he writes "from Boston to San Diego, was formed by an educational system that exposed them to the same ideas and gave them remarkably uniform guidance, as well as tastes and habits.? Many began their careers in government and leveraged their way into the private sector.? Hence whether formally in the government, out of it, or halfway, America's ruling class speaks the language and has the tastes, habits, and tools of bureaucrats. It rules uneasily over the majority of Americans not orientated to the government." The majority of Americans comprise the Country Class.

The Country Class or the Country Party has come down against the mosque, and it goes far beyond New Yorkers. It embraces Americans from all over. They oppose the mosque and their opposition is growing. On the other side, the Ruling Class's spokesman is not surprisingly Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, though he could be from Chicago or Boston or Washington, D.C. Apropos of the mosque, he says: "What is great about America, and particularly New York, is we welcome everybody, and if we are so afraid of something like this, what does it say about us?" First of all, we do not welcome everybody, not drugs lords, not Nazis, not Islamofascists. Secondly, we are not "so afraid of something like this." Rather, we recognize it as an affront to the fallen and to the Nation. Ad arguendo, the affront might not be intended by those wishing to put up the mosque, but it will be recognized by others throughout the world as an affront. Possibly it will be recognized as a sign of the triumph of Islam over non-believers. It ought not to go up.

The latest to join with the Country Class is Abe Foxman. He has done so at great cost to himself. He has members of the Ruling Party all around him. Yet even he has been guilty of blowzy thought. He says that "Survivors of the Holocaust are entitled to feelings that are irrational." Likewise, the families that lost loved ones in September 11 are entitled to feelings that are irrational, he claims. "Their anguish entitles them," says Foxman, "to positions that others would categorize as irrational or bigoted." Thus because they object, Foxman would build the mosque "a mile away."

There is nothing irrational or bigoted about thinking that a mosque does not belong at Ground Zero or at the Pentagon or on the Pennsylvania countryside where United Flight 93 crashed. Americans traditionally raise on such sites monuments to freedom, to courage, to the sacrifices of those lost. Now the Ruling Class wants to place a mosque at the site of September 11. It is the only time I can recall the Ruling Class ever being in favor of placing a religious manifestation anywhere. Yet in favoring this mosque, the Ruling Class does put itself squarely in opposition to the Country Class, so it does have a logic to it.

Will the Ruling Class have its way? I have my doubts. The Country Class is getting stronger. It is not opposed to the building of mosques, just not on the sites of where so many brave Americans were killed by people who hated them because they were American. The Country Class will decide the monuments for the brave. The Ruling Class can eat cake.

Germany shuts 9/11 plotters' mosque in Hamburg