WHY AN AMERICAN MUSLIM OPPOSES THE GROUND ZERO MOSQUE

A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. Solomon, King of Israel. Proverbs 22:3 NIV

A scan of national and international media reveals that non-Muslim support for the proposed Mosque near Ground Zero (GZM) seems just as strong as opposition to it. Evidence, I’m afraid, of a far too simple reading of a dangerous situation. Most supporters of the GZM cite the US Constitution’s protections of religious freedom. But they are failing to take into account critical facts about the GZM, its backers, and the nature of the global Islamist movement.

Zuhdi Jasser, M.D., is not so simple minded. Jasser is a devout Muslim and the founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (aifdemocracy.org). He is a former U.S. Navy Commander, one of the first Muslim Americans to speak out against the violence of 9-11, Fort Hood and other atrocities, and has been a consistent voice of opposition to what he calls the global Islamist movement defined as those who promote the Islamic State and governmental sharia law. Jasser is also the host and narrator of the award winning documentary The Third Jihad, which was screened at Faith Community Church last March.

One of the things missing from most American’s analysis of this issue is the theological underpinning and societal longing of the global Muslim community for prosperity, prestige and power. That theology and longing coalesced in the 1950s along two lines. First is Secular Nationalist Islam, as seen in Egypt, Libya, and Iraq under Mubarak, Qadafi and Saddam Hussein respectively. Second is militant, theocratic Islamism as illustrated by the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia, the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Ayatollahs in Iran and the multiple tentacles of the Muslim Brotherhood running through al-Qaeda and many other violent as well as non-violent organizations in the U.S.

In an interview with Aaron Elias on PajamasMedia.com Jasser outlines three major reasons to oppose the GZM. First, it is an insult to the millions of Americans who experienced the horror of 9-11. Second, the mosque is clearly being funded by people connected to the Muslim Brotherhood and other supporters of the Islamic State and governmental sharia. That funding creates an open door in what would be the greatest Mosque on American soil for the same jihadist philosophy to spread in the heart of Manhattan. And third, it will send a message of weakness to millions of Muslims world wide. A message that validates and affirms everything the Bin Ladens and Zaraqawis and other Islamists have been telling them about America all along.

“It will be used by Islamist leadership around the world to say, ‘despite the violence that al-Qaeda perpetrated on the American population, political Islam will always be victorious and from its ashes has risen the largest religious Muslim structure in the United States,’” Jasser warns. “As the administration continues to move backwards, [outlawing] the use of any specific religious Islamic terms like jihad, Islamsim, and salafism, the Islamists continue to make unopposed headway in the contest of ideas. We are losing the war of ideas.”
For the full length interview with Dr. Jasser see: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-patriotic-muslims-warning-on-ground-zero-mosque

Religious freedom is a fundamental value in America. No one should oppose the kinds of mosques that Dr. Jasser and his fellow non-Islamist Muslims would build. But neither should anyone be so simple as to assume that the GZM is such a mosque.