Be sure to read “Muhammad Comes to Manhattan” by Mark Jacobson in New York magazine. Some high points —
The Park Place property already is a mosque, if we’re calling any space dedicated to Muslim worship services a mosque. I’m sure you’ve seen the exterior photos showing that the building looks pretty shabby, but New York has photos of the interior that show it’s been fixed up, painted, carpeted, etc., and Muslims go there for prayers and to listen to sermons. So it’s already a “mosque,” and I’m sure will continue to be a “mosque” even if the community center plans are blocked somehow.
The guy who arranged to purchase the building, Sharif El-Gamal, was born in Brooklyn and graduated from a public New York high school. He takes his daughter to swimming lessons at a Jewish community center in his neighborhood, and that center gave him the idea of a Muslim commnity center. Also, the congregation’s current mosque can only hold 70 people at a time, and they needed more room. About the money to finish the project, he said,
Asked about the money issues, Sharif El-Gamal, with an exasperated sigh, said, “I don’t know where the money is going to come from. I don’t have it. I have to raise it. We will hire private auditors and cooperate with all governmental authorities and not take a penny from any group flagged by them.â€
Not that any of that will penetrate the blockheaded bigots.
September 11 falls on a Saturday this year, and I’m afraid every crazy in the country is going to show up and demonstrate against the “mosque.” It could get ugly. I can’t find any group who is organizing a formal counterprotest, but if someone is I would probably show up for it.
If there is one, wish I could go too.
However, I’m still unemployed, and getting to NYC is expensive – $25 round trip. And then there’s the subway. It’s expensive nowadays. I remember when the tokens were cheap. Now, they don’t even use tokens anymore. Pity, that…
The expanse, and the fact that even with a cane, I can’t get around too well without a ton of pain, will keep me away. But if you find a counterprotest, maha, I’ll be there in spirit with you. I’ll see if I can come up with a good chant for you.
Oh, and here’s a nice “heart-warming” story about a Muslim cabdriver stabbed for the crime of admitting to being a Muslim:
http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/124338/police–cab-driver-stabbed-by-passenger-who-asked–are-you-muslim–
Pam Geller must be so proud…
But, of course, they’ll blame this one on an isolated nutjob.
Or, they’ll say it must have been a ‘Liberal Fascist’ who stabbed him.
I’m afraid that this is just chapter One of “Reaping the Whirlwind.”
c u n d gulag — I hope the cabbie is OK. But that’s another reason I’m worried about armies of out-of-towners showing up in New York on 9/11. Yes, Muslims live here! In plain sight! I think these days most of the cab drivers are Muslim, or at least all the cabs I’ve ridden in recent years were driven by men who appeared Middle Eastern. I’m afraid some bunch of fired-up yahoos will show up and start assaulting women wearing hijabs or men wearing turbans (who are probably Sikh).
The various bigots keep talking about things happening in Europe — which are mostly caused by second and third generations not being integrated into the countries where they live BECAUSE they aren’t birthright citizens. aand there is no way to become a citizen. It’s also why there are areas of Eastern Europe where you talk about ethnic Germans or Russians or other groups even though they have lived in those areas for a few hundred years. It’s so crazy making.
PurpleGirl,
I had a girlfriend, about 25 years ago, whose parents not only didn’t want to meet me, they didn’t want her going out with me anymore.
My crime? I’m half-Russian, half-Ukrainian, and the Russian part of me forced their ancestors to go to Siberia for 20 years as part of a religious schism in the Russian Orthodox Church over three centuries ago. I swear to God, I’m not making this crap up. Three hundred years!
The relationship became untenable when her parents refused to allow her in their home until she broke up with me.
Nobody holds grudges like Eastern Europeans and people from the Middle East. Nobody!
You got it. Someone’s already figured out the alleged attacker belongs to an organization that has endorsed the Islamic center. Therefore, he was a leftie trying to discredit the noble and pure-of-heart Right.
maha,
Yeah, I can also see the ‘out-of-town’ yahoo’s attacking Slavic grandmothers in the East Village wearing ‘babushka’s’ on their heads.
Btw – did you read what that the right-wing retard wrote telling people what subway lines to stay away from if they don’t want to get too close to black people and immigrants when they’re coming to the ‘Beck Hate Fest Lie-a-palooza?” Too funny! Have fun getting around that city if you don’t want to run into ‘those’ people. I’m sorry, but I can’t find the link.
I’m starting to think that the totalitarian countries had something right – internal passports. It kept the rubes from coming in from the country and showing everyone, including foreigners, how stupid most of that country’s ‘heartland’ people were.*
*Just kidding!!!
If the right wing was a movie, no one would go to it because it was too predictable.
They think they’re like James Bond movies, with super-villains and great looking women, but it’s more like they’re “Bland, James Bland…” with predictable villains, and shrieking shrews. Yes, I’m looking at you, Bachman, Palin, ect… And you, too, Rudi and Newt!
Cund — Oh, I believe it. One of my grandmothers was Austrian and she came here when it was still the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I grew up hearing how great the Austrians were and how much she despised Czechs (she came from the shared border area). I’d would have never heard the end of it had she met one of my boyfriends whose background was English-Czech. One of the great things about the US was that for a large number of people, they were able to get past the tribal shit of Europe. Unfortunately it seems we are moving backwards in that regard.
I mentioned a few days ago that the end of Ramadan coincided with September 11 this year. The end of Ramadan includes a 3-day feast/festival. At least one Muslim congregation in Southern California which has for a few years held a community festival for Eid has already decided to cancel it for fear of it being taken the wrong way.
I fear for any Muslim feast this year.
Actually, does anyone know how I can donate to the community center project?
I went to Catholic school when I was a kid, and was taught by Nuns; women who were clad in black robes and a black veil with white cardboard looking bibs and head pieces, kinda like penguins in appearance.
Several weeks ago, I was in a store, and there were two women in what I thought were the penguin outfits, turned out they were Muslim women.
Facinating that women who would not marry, and dressed in a virtual burka were held in great esteem in our society back in the 60’s, but women who wear head coverings in the present are loathed or considered abused. this is some wierd shit. George Carlin did a routine about religion and hats that is funny and facinating.
I can’t tell you how bloody sick I am about this whole Mosque/ Muslim bullshit.
I wish people would just leave the Muslims alone,its not like our jails are full of them, they seem to follow the straight and narrow, and just want to live their lives.
I don’t know if they have formally begun fund-raising for the community center but this is the website for the Cordoba Initiative, which includes a number of other projects aimed at improving Muslim-West relations.
http://www.cordobainitiative.org/