The frenzy continues over the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” (it’s actually two blocks from the site, and is being billed as an Islamic community center with a prayer room).
As Politico’s Ben Smith noted, supporters of the project are starting to compare the opposition to anti-Semitism. Daisy Khan, the wife of the imam behind the project, on ABC’s This Week With Christiane Amanpour: "This is like a metastasized anti-Semitism. That’s what we feel right now. It’s not even Islamophobia, it’s beyond Islamophobia. It’s hate of Muslims. And we are deeply concerned.” And Jeffrey Goldberg: “I find it particularly disturbing to see Jews, of all people, participating in this type of questioning. Worse, some Jews are joining the online anti-Muslim mob. Anti-Muslim sentiment in America today has many of the hallmarks of the anti-Semitism of yesteryear. American Jews should be able to see that.”
Goldberg recalls Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf’s speech at a memorial service for Daniel Pearl. Read the full text.
Video from the rally held against the project on Sunday (here and here).
Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes in The Wall Street Journal that fighting the project is part of the need to actively defend Western civilization.
Victor Davis Hanson argues that President Obama should stop fanning the flames of local controversies.
The Associated Press reports that Muslim prayer services have long been held at the other site of the September 11 attacks — the Pentagon.
The Washington Post rounds up efforts to fight the construction of mosques in other parts of the country.
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