Nat Hentoff is well known for being a staunch supporter of the US
Constitution and especially the first amendment rights. He really tells
it like it is here.
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In this issue
August 27, 2010
David Hazony: The Mystery of Goodness
Caroline B. Glick: Accepting the unacceptable
August 26, 2010
John Rosemond: 'Fixing' Son's Shyness
George Will: The Mideast mirage
Paul Greenberg: Rare Sighting: Common Sense from the Bench
August 25, 2010
Ariella Marcus: New prayer book uplifts as it enlightens
Nat Hentoff: Am I also a bigot? Pols clueless on Ground Zero mosque
Sarah Tully: Muslim employee is taken off Disney's schedule after
deciding she no longer wants to wear uniform
August 24, 2010
Steven Emerson: A 'moderate Muslim' exposed
Cal Thomas: Pointless Talks
Wesley Pruden: The 'Zionist plot' to build a mosque
August 23, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Reclaiming what's yours
through deception
George Will: The 'two-state' delusion
August 20, 2010
Rabbi Dov Fischer on his divorce and responsibility
Caroline B. Glick: Dusk in Iraq
August 19, 2010
Jeff Jacoby: The 'disengagement' disaster, five years on
George Will: Skip the lectures on Israel's 'risks for peace'
Matt Flegenheimer: Hypercompetitive overachievers bet on their own
academic success
August 18, 2010
Suzanne Fields: The New Dance on a Pinhead
Richard Z. Chesnoff: A Film Unfinished: The Warsaw Ghetto As Seen
Through Nazi Eyes
Lee Margulies: Dr. Laura to leave radio show amid controversy
(INCLUDES VIDEO)
August 17, 2010
Dennis Prager: Same-Sex Marriage and the Insignificance of Men and Women
Caroline B. Glick: Standing on a landmine
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Obama's 'Teachable' Shariah Moment
August 16, 2010
Arnold Ahlert: You've Lost America, Mr. President
George Will: Israel will not be a 'perfect victim'
August 13, 2010
Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: What does 'doing the right thing' entail?
Caroline B. Glick: Guide to the Perplexed
Jon Stewart: Charlie Rangel's War (VIDEO!)
August 12, 2010
George Will: Israel's anti-Obama
Larry Elder: Is Obama Winning the Hearts and Minds of the Arab and
Muslim World?
August 11, 2010
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: How to talk to a neo-Nazi (POWERFUL!)
Rene Stutzman: Muslim-turned-'infidel', now 18, is ready to begin life anew
August 10, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Paid volunteer employee?
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Coming to grips with shariah
Jewish World Review August 25, 2010 / 15 Elul 5770
Am I also a bigot? Pols clueless on Ground Zero mosque
By Nat Hentoff
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The angry national debate over Imam
Feisal Abdul Rauf's intention to build a mosque two blocks north of the
horror of 9/11 at Ground Zero has been further fueled by supporter Nancy
Pelosi declaring, "I join those who have called for looking into how …
this opposition to the mosque is being funded."
If one of her sleuths knocks on my door, this opponent will readily
state that I need no outside funding as a reporter who is deeply
investigating the motivation of Imam Rauf's choice of this site of mass
murder for the mosque. I will add that, of course, all American Muslims
have their First Amendment right to exercise their freedom of religion
in their place of worship. There have been other mosques in New York
City built without opposition. That freedom is not at stake here.
As for Rauf's inflammable site choice, however, one of a growing number
of construction workers pledging they will not work on this mosque (New
York Daily News, Aug. 20), Dave Kaiser, a blaster, explains:
"I wouldn't work there, especially after I found out about what the imam
said about U.S. policy being responsible for 9/11."
Imam Rauf said was interviewed on CBS' "60 Minutes" (Sept. 30, 2001) by
Ed Bradley. (I have the transcript.) Asked how he felt as a Muslim
"knowing that people of your faith committed this act," Imam Rauf spoke
about Muslim reaction throughout the world "against the policies of the
U.S. government, politically, where we espouse principles of democracy
and human rights and where we ally ourselves with oppressive regimes in
many of these countries."
"Are you in any way suggesting that we in the United States deserved
what happened?" Bradley asked.
"I wouldn't say that the United States deserved what happened," Rauf
answered, "but the United States' policies were an accessory to the
crime that happened. … Because (the United States has) been an accessory
to a lot of -- of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, it -- in
the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the U.S.A."
Were the heads of government in Iran, Hamas and Sudan also "made in the
USA?"
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Imam Rauf has refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization and had no
comment when, on Aug. 15, Mahmoud al-Zahar, its co-founder, strongly
supported the Imam's mosque near Ground Zero, saying, Muslims "have to
build everywhere" (Associated Press, Aug. 16). Sen. Charles Schumer,
D-N.Y., said the support by Hamas of the Imam's mosque carried no weight
because "Hamas is a terrorist organization."
Why, yes, it is, Imam Rauf, with its suicide bombers and endless rockets
into Israel. How else can suicide bombers be characterized?
This imam -- widely lauded in much of the press as "a moderate" Muslim
-- is not reticent, however, in his firm commitment to Sharia (Islamic
law), which regards women as far less than fully human. In the Dec. 9,
2007 Arabic newspaper Hadi el-Islam, Rauf insisted:
"Throughout my discussions with contemporary Muslim theologians, it is
clear an Islamic state can be established in more than just a single
form or mold. It can be established through a kingdom or a democracy.
The important issue is to establish the general fundamentals of Sharia
that are required to govern."
I would greatly appreciate it if Imam Rauf explained, maybe Pelosi will
ask him, more fully what he meant in his 2004 book, "What's Right With
Islam is What's Right With America." In it he declares: "American
Constitution and system of governance uphold the core principles of
Islamic law." Rauf says Sharia law is a core principle of Islamic law.
Does that also include a core principle of our Constitution?
This 2004 book's title in the English-language edition yields to a
different title for non-English-speaking readers in Malaysia, reports
Andrew McCarthy ("Rauf's Dawa from the World Trade Center Rubble,"
nationalreview.com).
This alternate title in Malaysia brings us right back into the civil war
here about the imam's mosque near Ground Zero: "A Call to Prayer from
the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America
Post-9/11."
What does "dawa" mean? McCarthy explains: "Dawa, whether done from the
rubble of the World Trade Center or elsewhere, is the missionary work by
which Islam is spread. … The purpose of dawa, like the purpose of jihad,
is to implement, spread, and defend Sharia. … through means other than
violence and agents other than terrorists."
As of this writing, Imam Rauf is on the State Department tour (financed
by us) of Arab nations in the Middle East. He has been on four such
State Department tours -- two under George W. Bush. Says State
Department spokesman P.J. Crowley (New York Post, Aug. 20):
"I wouldn't be surprised if he talks about the ongoing debate within the
United States, as an example of our emphasis on religious tolerance and
resolving questions that come up within the rule of law."
Does our State Department include Sharia as being within our rule of law?
At the end of that news story, we are told that Rauf "is not allowed to
fund-raise on the trip." Yet, in the Aug. 18 New York Post, Geoff Earle
and Tom Topousis report that "in an interview overseas, he (Rauf) said
'he would also tap Muslim nations for help.'"
I would not be surprised if Saudi Arabia ultimately becomes a generous
contributor, but not quite in the agreement with the State Department's
"emphasis on religious tolerance."
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg charges that opponents of Imam Rauf's
mosque "should be ashamed of themselves" and are bigots.
Me, too, Mr. Mayor?
If you want to join Speaker Pelosi in investigating me, your honor, I'd
be glad to oblige. I'm just doing my job as a reporter. I wish more
reporters had gone beneath the shouting on both sides. There's another
part of the First Amendment in addition to the free exercise of
religion: The press is free to investigate the reasons for Imam Rauf's
fixation on the 9/11 location of his mosque.
And why does this location make Hamas glow?
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Nat Hentoff is a nationally renowned authority on the First Amendment
and the Bill of Rights and author of several books, including his
current work, "The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering
Resistance". Comment by clicking here.
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