THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 107, June 24, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE TWO FACES OF THE GROUND ZERO MOSQUE
By Raymond Ibrahim
HOW ISLAMISTS USE THE PHENOMENON OF DOUBLE-MEANINGS TO THEIR OWN ADVANTAGE: THE DIAMETRICALLY
OPPOSED MEANINGS OF WORDS & EXPRESSIONS EVOKED BY ISLAMISTS, DEPENDING ON WHETHER THEY ADDRESS
AMERICANS OR FELLOW MUSLIMS -- "JUSTICE," MEANING WESTERN-STYLE JUSTICE OR SHARIA LAW JUSTICE? THE
CORDOBA INITIATIVE TO BUILD A MOSQUE ATOP GROUND ZERO, RELAYING A MESSAGE OF RAPPROCHEMENT, PEACE &
INTERFAITH DIALOGUE OR ONE ALLUDING TO JIHADI TERRORISM, WAR, & ISLAMIC CONQUEST & DOMINATION OF THE
U.S.A.? MOSQUES ON AMERICAN SOIL, PLACES WHERE ALTRUISTIC MUSLIMS CONGREGATE & PRAY FOR WORLD
PEACE & HARMONY OR SYMBOLS OF ISLAMIC DOMINATION & CENTERS OF RADICALIZATION? SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE SCHEDULED OPENING DATE OF CARDOBA HOUSE (9-11-2011), PROCLAMATION OF A NEW BEGINNING BETWEEN
AMERICANS & MUSLIMS OR A CALL FOR CONTINUATION & INTENSIFICATION OF THE SUICIDAL JIHAD AGAINST AMERICA?
FULL STORY:
Depending on whether Islamists address Americans or fellow Muslims, the same exact words they use often relay
diametrically opposed meanings. One example: when Americans hear Muslims evoke "justice," the former envision
Western-style justice, whereas Muslims naturally have Sharia law justice in mind.
Islamists obviously use this to their advantage: when addressing the West, Osama bin Laden bemoans the "justice of
our causes, particularly Palestine"; yet, when addressing Muslims, his notion of justice far transcends territorial
disputes and becomes unintelligible from a Western perspective:
"Battle, animosity, and hatred — directed from the
Muslim to the infidel — is the foundation of our
religion. And we consider this a justice and
kindness to them. The West perceives fighting,
enmity, and hatred all for the sake of the religion
[i.e., Islam] as unjust, hostile, and evil. But who's
understanding is right — our notions of justice
and righteousness, or theirs?" (The Al-Qa'ida
Reader, p. 43).
Of course, that Osama bin Laden — slayer of 3,000 Americans and avowed enemy to the rest — exhibits two faces,
one to Americans and another to Muslims, is not surprising. Yet, the reader may well be surprised to discover that the
controversial Cordoba Initiative, which plans on manifesting itself as the largest American mosque, situated atop
Ground Zero — that is, atop the carnage caused by none other than bin Laden — also has two faces, conveying one
thing to Americans, quite another to Muslims.
The very name of the initiative itself, "Cordoba," offers different connotations to different people: In the West, the
Andalusian city of Cordoba is regularly touted as the model of medieval Muslim progressiveness and tolerance for
Christians and Jews. To many Americans, then, the choice to name the mosque "Cordoba" is suggestive of
rapprochement and interfaith dialogue; atop the rubble of 9/11, it implies "healing" — a new beginning between
Muslims and Americans. The Cordoba Initiative's mission statement certainly suggests as much:
"Cordoba Initiative aims to achieve a tipping point in
Muslim-West relations within the next decade, bringing
back the atmosphere of interfaith tolerance and respect
that we have longed for since Muslims, Christians and
Jews lived together in harmony and prosperity eight
hundred years ago."
Oddly enough, the socalled "tolerant" era of Cordoba supposedly occurred during the caliphate of 'Abd al-Rahman III
(912-961) — well over a thousand years ago. "Eight hundred years ago," i.e., around 1200, the fanatical Almohids —
ideological predecessors of al-Qa'ida — were ravaging Cordoba, where "Christians and Jews were given the choice of
conversion, exile, or death." A Freudian slip on the part of the Cordoba Initiative?
At any rate, the true history of Cordoba, not to mention the whole of Andalusia, is far less inspiring than what Western
academics portray: the Christian city was conquered by Muslims around 711, its inhabitants slaughtered or enslaved.
The original mosque of Cordoba — the namesake of the Ground Zero mosque — was built atop, and partly from the
materials of, a Christian church. Modern-day Muslims are well aware of all this. Such is the true — and ominous —
legacy of Cordoba.
More pointedly, throughout Islam's history, whenever a region was conquered, one of the first signs of consolidation
was/is the erection of a mosque atop the sacred sites of the vanquished: the pagan Ka'ba temple in Arabia was
converted into Islam's holiest site, the mosque of Mecca; the al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site, was built atop
Solomon's temple in Jerusalem; the Umayyad mosque was built atop the Church of St. John the Baptist in Damascus
between 706 and 715 A.D. ; and the Church of the Holy Wisdom was converted into a mosque and re-named the Hagia
Sophia upon the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th. Century.
(Speaking of the last mentioned case, in 2006, when the Pope visited the Hagia Sophia in Turkey, there was a risk that
the "Islamic world [would go] into paroxysms of fury" if there was "any perception that the Pope is trying to
re-appropriate a Christian center that fell to Muslims," for example, if he had dared pray there — this even as Muslims
today seek to build a mosque on the rubble of the Twin Towers.)
Such double-standards lead us back to the issue of double-meanings: As for the literal wording of the mosque project,
"Cordoba House," it, too, offers opposing paradigms of thought: to Westerners, the English word "house" suggests
shelter, intimacy — coziness, even; in classical Arabic, however, the word for house, dar, can also mean "region," and
is regularly used in a divisive sense, as in Dar al-Harb, i.e., "infidel region of war." Thus, to Muslim ears, while
"Cordoba" offers allusions of conquest and domination, dar is further suggestive of division and separation (from
infidels, a la the doctrine of al-Wala' wa al-Bara', for instance).
Words aside, even the mosque's scheduled opening date — 9-11-2011— has two aspects: to Americans, opening the
mosque on 9-11 is to proclaim a new beginning with the Muslim world on the ten-year anniversary of the worst terror
strikes on American soil; however, it just so happens that Koranic verse 9:111 is one of the loftiest calls for
suicidal jihad — believers are exhorted to "kill and be killed" — and is probably the reason al-Qa'ida originally chose
that date to strike. So, while Americans may think the mosque's planned 9-11 opening is meant to commemorate that
date, cryptically speaking, it is an evocation for all out war. A "new beginning," indeed, but of a very different sort,
namely, the propagation of more Islamists and Jihadists — mosques are, after all, epicenters of radicalization — on, of
all places, soil sacred to America.
Some final thoughts on the history of Cordoba and the ominous parallels it bodes for America: though many Christian
regions were conquered by Islam prior to Cordoba, its conquest signified the first time a truly "Western" region was
conquered by the sword of Islam. It was also used as a base to launch further attacks into the heart of Europe (until
decisively beaten at the Battle of Tours in 732 A.D.), just as, perhaps, the largest mosque in America will be used as a
base to subvert the rest of the United States. And, the sacking of the original Cordoba was facilitated by an insider
traitor — a warning to the U.S.A., which seems to have no end of traitors and willing lackeys.
Such, then, is the dual significance of the Cordoba Initiative: What appears to many Americans as a gesture of peace
and interfaith dialogue, is, to Muslims, allusive of Islamist conquest and consolidation; mosques, which Americans
assume are Muslim counterparts to Christian churches — that is, places where altruistic Muslims congregate and
pray for world peace and harmony — are symbols of domination and centers of radicalization; the numbers of the
opening date, 9-11-2011, appear to Americans as commemorative of a new beginning, whereas the Koranic
significance of those numbers is suicidal jihad. Of course, the two faces of the Cordoba House should not be
surprising, considering that the man behind the initiative, Feisal Abdul Rauf, also has two faces.
Going along with the historic analogy, there is one bit of good news: As opposed to the vast majority of onetime
Western/Christian nations annexed by Islam, Cordoba, Spain, did ultimately manage to overthrow the Islamic yoke,
though only after some 700 years of occupation.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
The Islamist Fifth Column -- America's Internal Enemies:
Disloyalty, Subversion, Sedition, & Treason
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Raymond Ibrahim is Associate Director of the Middle East Forum, author of The Al-Qa'ida Reader, and Guest
Lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College.
The foregoing article by Raymond Ibrahim was originally published in Pajamas Media, June 22, 2010, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/2678/ground-zero-mosque)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
June 24, 2010
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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