Listen at 5:30 in the video where Imam Rauf starts to talk about Christian evangelicals are trying to bring on the second coming of Christ....He is absolutely correct...
From Media Matters:
One of the loudest voices in conservatives' fight against the center has been Glenn Beck, who has specifically targeted Imam Rauf with blatant falsehoods and hypocritical attacks in a desperate attempt to smear him as a radical.Additionally, among other offensive comments, Beck has asked, "after you've killed 3,000 people you're going to now build your mosque?" He's also absurdly labeled the center an "actual danger" and suggested it is an "Allah-tells-me-to-blow-up-America mosque." Though we -- and many other outlets -- have repeatedly pointed out that Rauf is widely viewed as a moderate and has often denounced the extremists who carry out violent attacks in the name of Islam, Beck and his fellow demagogues continue to push the dishonest attack.
Yesterday was the "mosque" rally in NYC, and today this from the Wall Street Journal,
Islamic radicals are seizing on protests against a planned Islamic community center near Manhattan's Ground Zero and anti-Muslim rhetoric elsewhere as a propaganda opportunity and are stepping up anti-U.S. chatter and threats on their websites.
One jihadist site vowed to conduct suicide bombings in Florida to avenge a threatened Koran burning, while others predicted an increase in terrorist recruits as a result of such actions.
"By Allah, the wars are heated and you Americans are the ones who…enflamed it," says one such posting. "By Allah you will be the first to taste its flames."
Some counter terrorism experts say the anti-Muslim sentiment that has saturated the airwaves and blogs in the debate over plans for an Islamic center near ground zero in Lower Manhattan is playing into the hands of extremists by bolstering their claims that the United States is hostile to Islam.
[...]
Evan F. Kohlmann, who tracks militant Web sites at the security consulting firm Flashpoint Global Partners, said supporters of Al Qaeda have seized on the controversy "with glee." On radical Web forums, he said, the dispute over the Islamic center, which would include space for worship, is lumped together with fringe developments like a Florida pastor's call for making Sept. 11 "Burn a Koran Day."
"It's seen as proof of what Awlaki and others have been saying, that the U.S. is hypocritical and that most Americans are enemies of Islam," Mr. Kohlmann said. He called the anti-Islam statements spawned by the dispute "disturbing and sad" and said they were feeding anti-American sentiment that could provoke violence.
Fabulous, just fabulous. Is this really what America wants? Is this how we want to be portrayed, as bigots and Islam haters? Get real people, America is not innocent. Yes we were attacked on 9/11 and it was horrific, but it was not Islam that attacked us it was Islamic extremists Al Qaeda. This lashing out with hate a venom is only giving the enemy the ammunition it needs. It looks very much to me like American radicals are asking for trouble .
Fabulous, just fabulous. Is this really what America wants? Is this how we want to be portrayed, as bigots and Islam haters? Get real people, America is not innocent. Yes we were attacked on 9/11 and it was horrific, but it was not Islam that attacked us it was Islamic extremists Al Qaeda. This lashing out with hate a venom is only giving the enemy the ammunition it needs. It looks very much to me like American radicals are asking for trouble .
