BY GARY SWITLING
Senior Writer, International Bureau
August 27, 2010
BAGHDAD--Plans to build a mosque in the heart of Baghdad have come under substantial criticism, as critics have claimed that the planned Muslim worship center directly across the Tigris River from the fortified Green Zone is insensitive to Americans.
The mosque is planned by the Imam Mohamed Al Sharif, who recently returned from several years' exile in Jordan to escape the violence and sectarian strife that had enveloped the war-torn country over the past decade. The building is planned to be built on the site of a former mosque where Al Sharif's father had once presided. That mosque was destroyed by an errant missile during the 2003 "Shock and Awe" air campaign, and claimed the life of Al Sharif's father and ten other people.
But critics claim that the mosque is insensitive to the Americans who liberated Iraq from years of dictatorial rule. Pam Geller, President of the recently founded Stop Islamization of Iraq (SIOI), pointed out that the mosque is being planned near the sites of several improvised explosive device attacks on U.S. troops. Even more disturbing, Geller said, was that American defense contractors and visiting oil executives staying in the Green Zone would be subjected to the daily calls to prayer from the mosque's loudspeakers.
"It's nothing but an affront and insult," Geller said. "America has graced this country with freedom and liberty, and in return Americans would be forced to be exposed to these foreign people's dangerous religious views and expressions."
Others agreed with Geller's assessment. "Americans certainly wouldn't stand for a Shinto Shrine being built at Hiroshima, or a Native American Cultural Center being erected at Wounded Knee," stated former Speaker of the House and possible 2012 Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich on "Fox News Sunday." "So why should they be expected to go along with plans to erect a Muslim worship center in the middle of a city that Americans have liberated and provided their people with the opportunity of future petroleum partnerships? The answer is, they won't."
Recent polls support Gingrich's position, as an AP/Pew poll found that 62% of Americans opposed the building of the controversial mosque in Iraq's capital city. Those interviewed questioned the rationale behind the location of the proposed center.
"They could have built it anywhere," said Terry Bradford, an Ohio resident who was visiting Washington for Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally on the National Mall. "Heck, for all I care they could have built it smack dab in the middle of New York City, where the Constitution of this country gives them the right to practice their religion wherever and however they so choose. But they didn't. They chose to build it in the place that they know it would hurt Americans the most."
American Muslim groups, however, took a different view. "What?" said Ibrahim Ali, chairman of the American-Islamic Relations Organization. "Seriously....what? Are you kidding me? Is this a joke or something?"
Geller said her organization was also keeping an eye on possible attempts to build mosques in Cairo, Kabul and Tehran, and vowed to fight tooth and nail if those plans go forward as expected.
"We're not going to stop until every American is free from this harassment and persecution," she said. "Our troops didn't risk their lives so that Iraqis could worship or sacrifice goats or virgins or whatever they do at mosques."
More at link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gM5TjSOQ48
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