I am a Muslim; I don’t want a mosque in New York
President Obama, please get real. You are fighting the wrong battle.
President Obama is a well-meaning, nice man. He believes in inter-faith dialogue and peaceful co-existence between different ethnic and religious groups. He believes in promoting tolerance and mutual acceptance of different religions. He has said nice things about Muslims. For all that we commend him and support him.
But he is fighting the wrong battle. He stands to lose the next presidential election on this issue alone. He is alienating middle America and yet he has also failed to appease the Muslim World. Arabs and Muslims throughout the Middle East don’t want and don’t need another mosque. Certainly they don’t want it anywhere near the scene of the most outrageous terrorist act committed by Islamists and terrorists operating under the cover of Islam on September 11th, 2001 killing some three thousand innocent people.
What Arabs and Muslims worldwide want from Mr. Obama is to put more effort into bringing real peace between Israelis and Palestinians based on the two-state solution which was supported by various Presidents since the 1991 Oslo Accord and the Quartet (USA, EU, Russia and the UN) and based on the relevant United Nation Resolutions. This is the real issue that Muslims and Arabs care about, not another mosque in the heart of New York. Ending the longest occupation in modern history must be the top priority. Pandering to Muslim hardliners who exploit the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the siege of Gaza to further their odious agenda is counter-productive. Even Iran uses this issue to garner support in the Arab street for its nuclear program.
Global security demands urgent action on this long-festering problem. More mosques will not do. A peaceful Middle East will be good for America, Israel and the World.
Cosmetic gestures will not work.
