The Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is officially being financed by the US State Department to build his "bridge to nowhere." He travels to Muslim Countries to make his case for peace with the West. Islam, he says, means Peace. Being an Arab from Kuwait and the son of an Egyptian Imam, Imam Feisal Rauf knows very well that "Salaam" means "Peace" and not Islam. Islam is the name of the religion which the Prophet Muhammad ushered in six centuries after Jesus came to the world. The meaning of Islam is not in one word; it is fully explained in the Qur'an, the Muslim holy book.
With Obama in the White House, why are Americans protesting the building of a Muslim house of worship at Ground Zero? If they do not want the mosque to be built at Ground Zero, or anywhere else, they should first remove Obama from the Presidency. There are Constitutional means to doing that. If the American people do not consider it necessary to remove Obama on account of his support for building the mosque, they cannot deny the building of the mosque on any Constitutional or even moral grounds. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and worship. Of course in 1776, "religion" stood for the "Christian religion" only, because America was a Christian Country when it was formed. The laws of America were drawn after the Laws of the Bible.
However, by 2008, when Obama became President, the US had ceased being a Christian Country; it was now a secular country. The transformation had taken place for over a century. Many people had taken the axe to America's Christianity. What was left was merely a mirage. Obama obliterated the mirage of American Christianity with one fell swoop. In one hour Obama utterly wiped out all the vestiges of American Christianity when he took the Oath of Office a second time, voiding the first Oath of Office taken with his hand on the Lincoln KJV of 1611 Bible in front of the nation on Inauguration Day January 20th, 2009. The second time Obama took the Oath of Office, he took it without his hand on the Bible; in fact, there was no Bible present (study the official White House picture published later, as no reporters were allowed in the White House for the official swearing in -- only Chief Justice Roberts was allowed in so he could administer the secular oath of office, the first one performed in America's history.)
![[Obama taking oath of office without the Bible]](http://www.v-a.com/images/obama_takes_2nd_oath_of_office-without_the_bible.jpg)
Furthermore, there are people who are protesting that Obama is not a US Citizen because he may have been born elsewhere and not in the US. This is not a legitimate case, because Obama is a US Citizen on account of his mother was a US Citizen when Obama was born and his father, Obama Sr., abandoned the family and was subsequently deported to Kenya, (where he married again several times, being a Muslim -- that is permissible according to the Islamic Shari'ah -- however, it definitely established abandonment according to American law.) If Obama Sr. had not abandoned his wife and son, Obama would not have been automatically a US Citizen; he would have had to apply for US Citizenship when he reached the age of 18. (If not, he would be a Citizen of Kenya.) This was the US Law at the time when Obama was born. Therefore, Obama is a US Citizen regardless of where he was born and regardless of what his birth certificate says or doesn't say.
The problem with America in the case of the mosque being planned in the neighborhood of Ground Zero, is that Americans chose to abandon Christianity as a religion, and they did it a long time ago, but officially at the Inauguration of Obama on January 20, 2009. Obama has also declared that the US is not a Christian Country, and, moreover, that the US had never been a Christian Country. No one has taken him to task on the latter. The Supreme Court should have done it by now; but they have not and will not likely do it. And certainly the Democratic Congress or the Senate will not do it. Therefore, Americans have no Constitutional right or moral right to request that a mosque, temple, church, or religious building, not be built anywhere.
When Obama was a candidate for the Presidency, he was attacked because of a sermon Rev. Jeremiah Wright had preached in the Church were Obama was married and his children were baptized. Rev. Wright, a Black Pastor of a major Chicago Church, had said, "No, no; not God save America, Goddamn America." This he had said in regards to America's failure to render justice for Blacks. Nevertheless, these shocking words were isolated and repeated on television so many times that Obama obliged the voters of America to denounce his Pastor. This church was Obama's only connection to Christianity. However the Republican Party and its Presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, did not press the matter of what Obama's Christian faith consisted of, because he did not wish to make Obama's religion an issue. For whatever reason McCain chose this path, his Party went along with him. Obama was treated as a Christian merely by the fact that he called himself a Christian -- and now a Christian without a church. Later after Obama won the Presidency, he was not able to find another church that was acceptable to him, and he has decided to simply remain a secular President and return to his former religion of Islam for the most part. This is something that the remnant of US Christians cannot fault him with, because they have not protested the US abandonment of Christianity altogether.
So the matter of the mosque near Ground Zero has come down to a Mexican Standoff. If the Muslims build the mosque, it shows lack of sensitivity toward the victims of 9-11. If the Americans stand in the way of the mosque, it shows lack of sensitivity toward Islam by Christianity. Now that we have a Carp Fish Czar, Obama should appoint an Islamic Sensitivity Czar. If the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was not already the Bridge Building Czar, he could have been appointed the Islamic Sensitivity Czar.
Of more serious concern is the state of Christianity in the rest of the world. Americans should be more sensitive toward other Christians in the world. Muslims have destroyed millions of Eastern Churches in their lands, as a result of American lack of sensitivity toward Islam. Eastern Christians are being murdered and raped by the thousands in Islamic countries right now. So for Eastern Christianity the whole subject of building a mosque in New York City is a moot point.
Ironically, Eastern Christians call the Creator of the Universe Allaha, very close to the Muslim word for Allah. Americans call the Creator "God" and, therefore, one way for the Americans to show sensitivity toward Muslims is to start calling their God "Allah." Muslims have already shown sensitivity toward the Americans. The Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf himself has said, "We believe in the same God." Obama continues to say, "God bless you and God bless America." Therefore, it would be a gesture of peace for Americans to start calling their God "Allah", now that they no longer wish to even mention the name of God in their books and official documents. Moreover, the name for God in Hebrew is also "Elohim," which is the same root of the word as Allah. This will be another area for building bridges between Islam and American Christianity. The name "God" does not exist in the Scriptures. It comes from the German word for "good." It is really not an official or liturgical name for the Creator of the Universe. Once Americans accept the name Allah, the mosque location will become a minor issue.
Another point is that even the families of the September 11 victims are not bringing up the Christian issue, as there were Muslims and victims from other religions as well on that fateful day in September 2001. New York is such a melting pot of cultures that if the name of God was never mentioned there would be no outcry. It is insensitive for Americans to prevent Muslims from celebrating their religion anywhere they please. The 19 suicide bombers were Islamic Extremists; American Muslims are moderates; therefore, if the moderates wish to build a mosque near Ground Zero, nobody should treat this act as an insult to Christianity or to the victims of 9/11. If Americans have put God and Christianity behind them, why not forget about September 11 altogether? Isn't this why America elected Obama, a former Muslim, as President?
If the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is building a bridge to nowhere, let there be another mosque in NYC; by next election, the whole issue of the mosque will be forgotten. There are more pressing issues, such as the economy and joblessness to contend with.
Nothing will bring back those thousands of Americans who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001. It is best to forgive. NYC should build a new Trade Center Building at Ground Zero and place a plaque with the names of all the victims on it. This issue should have been settled a long time ago. Allowing it to fester will lead to more disasters. Muslims are desperate to wash this blood from their hands. Letting them build their mosque will be a reminder for everyone that 9-11 was an accident brought about by terrorist plots against America. It was a political attack of no religious significance, except to those people who will always think of it that way. But this is not important; peace is more important.
America has grown sensitive toward all the people who don't believe there is a Creator. Americans have chosen a former Muslim President because religion is no longer an issue in American life. The same universities that taught the Theory of Evolution and the non-existence of Intelligent Design are now the official educators of all American children and youth. Our leaders are all of this same frame of mind. Religious freedom, however, guarantees that those people who believe in the Creator can worship him and they can call him whatever they wish. The building of a mosque, therefore, may be an insult to a handful of people who cling to their Christian faith; but the injury to the victims of September 11 will always remain in the memory of those Americans who will continue to suffer and pay the price for the action of those nineteen cowards who did not value their own lives and who had contempt for the lives of millions of innocent people who will continue to fight the war that they started.
If there is no end to the insult, there will be no end to the injury.
Sept. 9, 2010