Obama and the Ground Zero Mosque

There should really be little surprise that the allegedly Kenyan-born President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, who hails from a Muslim background, is supportive of proposals to erect a massive mosque on the site of Ground Zero, despite the fact that at least 70% of US citizens are opposed to it.

It is doubtful that Obama could have insulted the American people in a more calculated manner than by giving his support to this outrageous proposal. In the face of already waning popularity, Obama has really shot himself in the foot this time. The first part of his statement, made at an event to mark the Festival of Ramadan, is innocuous enough. After all, most right-thinking folk will agree that it's a basic human right to enjoy the freedom to practise the religion of your choice in your home country. Obama said, "As a citizen and a President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practise their religion as anyone else in this country." Who can justify arguing against that?

The problem is with the next part of his statement: "That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community centre on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances." Obama then presses on to upset the vast majority of God-fearing moderate Americans by saying that he considered Islam to be a major force in 'advancing justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings' and that it (Islam) had always been part of America. In this statement he showed his ignorance about the history of his adopted land, for the USA was founded on Christian principals. The concepts of 'freedom of religion' would not have included those practises carried out in some Islamic nations which revolt the civilised world; practises such as the stoning to death of women who have been found guilty of adultery, or the slaughter of any Muslim who dares to convert to Christianity.

Since Islamic Fundamentalists perpetrated the atrocity of 9/11, murdering thousands of US citizens of all races and religious creeds, the site of the Twin Towers, known as Ground Zero, has been regarded as a national shrine. Newt Gingrich has likened building a mosque on the site to placing a Nazi swastika on a Holocaust memorial or a Japanese Cultural Centre at Pearl Harbour.

There are many sites that could be used to site a Mosque, apart from Ground Zero, but none of them would have the same triumphant statement of successful conquest as building it on ground revered by so many US citizens out of their respect for those who were murdered on 9/11.

This time it would appear that Obama has talked himself into early oblivion. History will be the judge.