The New York Times did a big write-up on the latest developments on the now-scrapped Ground Zero mosque plan. The notorious provocateur, Ground Zero mosque developer Sharif el-Gamal, unveiled a new plan to build a three-story museum “dedicated to exploring the faith of Islam.”
Oh, the irony. A museum to Islam on the site of the biggest and bloodiest Islamic attack on a Western country is grotesque. One has to wonder if one of the exhibits will be the landing gear that crashed through the roof of that very building.
The good news is that the Ground Zero mosque is dead. And we should take a moment to savor that, swish it around, and run it up and down our tongue like an excellent pinot. Because it was a hell of a fight, and despite the support of the president of the United States, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and a hysterical mob media, it did not happen. That was you. Over forty thousand people attended our Ground Zero mosque protests on D-Day 2010 and September 11, 2010. The power of the people.
Photos of my AFDI/SIOA rally protesting the Ground Zero mosque on 9/11/10
All of you who fought that 16-story mosquestrosity with us – kudos to you. We fought back, and we won. I asked Andrew Breitbart to speak at our 9/11 protest, and he was brilliant (watch his video here). I am sure he is smiling from heaven.
Thirteen stories have been chopped off the latest Islamic supremacist re-formulation of the Ground Zero mosque. That is a good thing. The idea that devout Muslims would be looking down on hallowed ground was ghastly and morbid. But a museum at Ground Zero dedicated to the glories of Islam on the site of that catastrophic Islamic attack – that, too, is obscene. All 19 Islamic terrorists uniformly declared that their jihad was in the cause of Islam. Will el-Gamal showcase the last letters of the 19 jihadists, mentioning Allah over 90 times?
Sharon Otterman, the writer of the New York Times piece, asked for my comments, but of course didn’t use any of them. Here is what she didn’t want readers to see when she asked about Sharif el-Gamal’s plans to build a museum to Islam at the site of the jihad attacks at Ground Zero.
I believe that a center at Ground Zero studying Islamic history might very well be helpful — an in-depth look at 1,400 years of jihadi wars, land appropriations, cultural annihilations and enslavements might be the first honest approach to the utter devastation and mass slaughter that led to the September 11 attacks. That’s the one thing that has not been done, but I am not holding my breath. El-Gamal certainly isn’t going to do it. Clearly this is more nonsense and denial at a time when millions across the world are suffering under the boot of sharia.
I am so very glad we succeeded and El-Gamal has scaled the project back to a mere 3 floors.
On a side note, do you know where is El-Gamal is getting the money? Are you pursuing that as well? Or is this just a puff piece? The man defaulted on not one, but two bank loans. He failed to pay rent to Con Ed, part-owner of one of the buildings. They sued him and won. And El-Gamal failed to pay the taxes owed on the building. On top of all this, he was evicted from his Soho Properties offices for failure to pay rent.
And yet he bought the two buildings that flank the proposed Ground Zero site. Where is he getting the money? Have you asked him? Do you intend to?
Yours in liberty,
Pamela Geller
The money is an important point. Remember, Sharif el-Gamal had the unmitigated gall to apply for five million dollars in federal grants from the federal 9/11 fund – monies set aside for the redevelopment of lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11th jihad attacks – to build his mosquestrosity. Had it not been for the ensuing outrage and protest, he would have gotten it. Remember, it was the Bloomberg administration that helped el-Gamal write the letters and fill out the necessary paperwork to get city approval for the 16-story mega-mosque at Ground Zero.
I wouldn’t be surprised if el-Gamal hasn’t applied for federal funds to build his Islam Museum at Ground Zero. Would he wish to incur the wrath of the American people yet again? More protests? Because I can assure you, we will be there. Big time.
I suspect his museum will advance the mythical narrative of Islamic propaganda. I bet el-Gamal intends to riff off museum exhibits like “1001 Muslim inventions” that actually shed light on an important but little-noted weapon of the Islamic propaganda machine in the U.S.: the whitewashing of the ghastly Islamic present by creating a fictional glorious Islamic past. Historical revisionism takes on a new life, as history is scrubbed and manufactured Muslim myths are presented as fact. “Muslim inventions” is a vicious euphemism for the ideas and inventions stolen from a conquered people.
Let’s see a museum dedicated to that premise.
Robert Spencer said:
This structure may (or may not) be so different from the previous 15-story plan that it will be less likely to be taken in the Islamic world as a triumphal mosque a la the Dome of the Rock, the Hagia Sophia and the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, etc., but it is still a spectacularly inappropriate idea for that location. If Sharif wants to improve the image of Islam, a mosque celebrating its purported glories at Ground Zero will not do the trick; only a concerted effort to reform Islam and counter the jihadist narrative within Muslim communities will accomplish that.
The exact words of the jihad hijackers:
“Many thanks to God, for his kind gesture, and choosing us to perform the act of Jihad for his cause and to defend Islam and Muslims. Therefore, killing you and fighting you, destroying you and terrorizing you, responding back to your attacks, are all considered to be great legitimate duty in our religion….We ask to be near to God, we fight you and destroy you and terrorize you. The Jihad in god’s [sic] cause is a great duty in our religion.” — The “9/11 Shura Council” (that’s what they called themselves; they are the masterminds of the 9/11 plot: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi bin As-Shibh, Walid bin ‘Attash, Mustafa Ahmed AI-Hawsawi, and ‘Ali ‘abd Al-‘Aziz ‘Ali). (Here)
“The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.” — Osama bin Laden’s letter to the American people, November 24, 2002 (here).
“When the confrontation begins, strike like champions who do not want to go back to this world. Shout, ‘Allahu Akbar,’ because this strikes fear in the hearts of the non-believers. God said: ‘Strike above the neck, and strike at all of their extremities.’ Know that the gardens of paradise are waiting for you in all their beauty, and the women of paradise are waiting, calling out, ‘Come hither, friend of God.’ They have dressed in their most beautiful clothing.” — Mohammed Atta. The “Strike above the neck” quote is from the Qur’an, 47:4. (Here)
It is time for a museum that educates Americans and all freedom-loving peoples about the gravest threat the free world faces. Perhaps we ought to start a kickstarter or crowdfunder campaign to build a museum across the street that tells the truth about Islamic jihad and its hundreds of millions of victims over the past 1,400 years until today. From Khybar to Kandahar… truth has been the casualty of this holy war.
Pamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), publisher of PamelaGeller.com and author of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. Follow her on Twitter here. Like here on Facebook here.