"In Islam, a mosque means 'We have conquered this country,'" one man told CNN affiliate WTVF. "And where are they? They're in the center of Tennessee. They're going to say, 'We have conquered Tennessee.'"
Never mind: "Islam" is a religion, not a language. Never mind: In Arabic, the language in which the Koran was written, "mosque" means "a place of prostration" (a submissive position before God, usually for prayer), not "we have conquered this country."
They're coming to conquer us!
In the Nashville suburb of Murfreesboro, opponents of a new Islamic center say they believe the mosque will be more than a place of prayer. They are afraid the 15-acre site that was once farmland will be turned into a terrorist training ground for Muslim militants bent on overthrowing the U.S. government.
They're coming but -- uh.... they're really... slow?
"The Islamic center has been here since the early '80s, 12 years in this location. There's nothing different now except it's going to be a little bigger."
Oh. Never mind.
They're coming and they're evil and wicked and attacking us!
"...Islam has attacked us. The God of Islam is not the same God. He's not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It's a different God, and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion."
Never mind: In 2007, President Bush said Islam is a great religion that preaches peace and prays to the same God of other faiths.
Ahead of hosting an iftar celebration at the White House, President Bush said the Islamic religion "is a great religion that preaches peace," and that Americans are free "to worship any way they see fit...." stating his own belief that the global community, regardless of individual faiths, "prays to the same God."
They're coming with Nukes!
...the U.S. is peppered with compounds at which Islam fundamentalists are training terrorists for jihad. ...Islamic extremists are hoarding nuclear materials with plans to simultaneously attack at least seven major American cities in what would result in a stateside Hiroshima.
...Islamic terrorist groups have at least 500 underground bunkers and caches of weapons. I thought there were only 14 jihad training compounds throughout the States. Now I know there are more than 40.... There could be as many as 200...
They're coming and they're scary black guys with big muscles and scary costumes!
... robust and muscular African-Americans in full Islamic garb...
They're coming and they're the #1 problem facing America!
Americans need to seriously consider how Islam and its supremacy dogmatic philosophy is to be handled least we revert into 7th Century Old World barbarism. A good first step would be to think about Islam as a political and social system first and foremost, that is exactly opposite from our own social and political values, and one whose advance needs to be stopped. Considering the birth-rate of American infidels, to give total freedom of Islam to grow here in America is the same as generating our own death-wish, demise, and all the values we hold dear.
They're coming and they've got the Devil on their side!
"These people are crazed fanatics, and I want to say it now: I believe it's motivated by demonic power. It is satanic and it's time we recognize what we're dealing with. The goal of Islam, ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not, is world domination"
They're coming and the president and his buddies are helping them destroy America!
We can see, in the concrete, the left's coalition with the Islamic Supremacists and how it is undermining American sovereignty and our national self interest -- as is meticulously documented in my book, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America. It's hard for Americans to understand how to fight a shadowy enemy you can't see.
... a Machiavellian backroom power grab and the takedown of American sovereignty ....
They're coming to kill us!
...there need be a line drawn somewhere in kissing moslem ass.
The line is here.
They wish to kill us, all of us. Or enslave or convert.
They're coming and they're really violent!
Two years ago, several men broke into the Islamic Center of Columbia, about 30 miles southwest of Murfreesboro, and torched it with molotov cocktails, stealing a stereo system and painting swastikas and "White Power" on the front of the building.
Oh... wait. That was somebody else. (ahem) Never mind.
They're coming and they're really scary people!
Islam is a political system of global domination... 30%... ARE terrorists.... There's 35 training camps across the United States of America.... We know we've got a huge terrorist network here in Tennessee. The Nashville Islamic Center appears to be the mother ship...
They're coming and it's a holy war!
Parsley says there is a war and he wants bigger war, as America can only "fulfill its divine purpose" by seeing to it that Islam, "this false religion, is destroyed." Though he spells out no specific strategy, he writes things like, "We find now we have no choice. The time has come" to destroy "this anti-Christ religion," inspired by demons who spoke to Allah.
They're coming and we'd better stop them!
...be afraid, be very afraid and maybe we all can stop the American Jihad before another attack happens from the practitioners of the 'Religion of Peace'.
They're coming and they're self-contradictory (both commie and fascist?)!
"If we don't stop covering up what Islam is ... Islam is a violent -- I was going to say religion, but it's not a religion, it's a political system, it's a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world and world domination," Robertson said. "You're dealing with not a religion, you're dealing with a political system, and I think we should treat it as such, and treat its adherents as such as we would members of the communist party, members of some fascist group."
They're coming and they've declared war on us!
You have join forces with the other side...again and that side is bent on destroying our republican form of government replacing it with a theocracy and your helping the Jihadists accomplish their goals. That once again makes you one seditious progressive bastard without a thought of true patriotic duty.
You fail to see that Islam establishes Sharia Law as it's judicial system which establishes Islam as the official state religion, that my seditious progressive foe goes against our First Amendment establishment clause and that makes Islam unconstitutional....
Your failure to recognize this makes you worse than an 'idiot', it makes you an Islamic Appeaser and traitor since Islam has declared WAR on the U.S. and other non-submitting nations....
Oh dear me, such terrible trouble we're in! The Others are coming! The Others are coming! The strange, foreign anti-you-and-me Others are coming! Or not.
Here are a few inconvenient facts that destroy this know-nothing narrative:
Fact: Muslims "invaded" what is now the USA about 250 years before there was a USA.
Fact: The first of three "Americans" to cross the continent in the early 1500s was a Muslim.
Fact: American Muslim history is longer than most might think, extending back to the day that the first slave ship landed on Virginia's coast in 1619.
Fact: The very first country to recognize the newly formed USA as a sovereign nation was an Islamic nation.
Fact: The longest unbroken treaty relationship in U.S. history -- 223 years -- is with an Islamic nation.
Fact: The oldest U.S. diplomatic property is in an Islamic nation.
Fact: The only building on foreign soil that is now a US National Historic Landmark is in an Islamic nation.
Fact: At least two states -- Arizona and New Mexico -- owe their beginnings to a Muslim.
Fact: Thousands of Muslims were among the slaves in the American colonies, one of whom was Broteer (renamed Venture by his owner) who escaped with an Irish indentured servant named Heddy, but was recaptured when he turned Heddy in for stealing food (the theft violated Venture's moral standards). The Muslim colonial slave best known to modern Americans is Kunta Kinte. He fought to hold on to his Islamic heritage, scratching Arabic phrases in the dirt and praying daily.
Fact: Muslims fought in the American Revolutionary War, rising to the ranks of officers and gaining notice for their heroic participation. They also fought in every American war since, from the War of 1812 to the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq. In fact, you'll find the graves of fallen Muslim soldiers and Muslim veterans in military cemeteries across the country.
Fact: In 1776, John Adams published "Thoughts on Government," in which he praises the Islamic prophet Mahomet (Mohammed) as a "sober inquirer after truth."
Fact: In 1788, in the North Carolina ratifying convention, those opposed the new US Constitution stated their fear that some day Catholics or Muslims might be elected president was a reason for their anti-Constitution position.
Fact: In 1785, George Washington stated a willingness to hire "Mahometans," as well as people of any nation or religion, to work on his private estate at Mount Vernon if they were "good workmen."
Fact: In 1796, President John Adams signed a treaty declaring the United States had no "character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen"
Fact: In his autobiography, published in 1791, Benjamin Franklin stated that he "did not disapprove" of a meeting place in Pennsylvania that was designed to accommodate preachers of all religions. Franklin wrote that "even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service."
Fact: In his autobiography, Thomas Jefferson wrote:
"[When] the [Virginia] bill for establishing religious freedom... was finally passed,... a singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word 'Jesus Christ,' so that it should read 'a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion.' The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend within the mantle of its protection the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan the Hindoo and infidel of every denomination." (emphasis added)
Fact: While president, Jefferson participated in an iftar with the Muslim ambassador of Tunisia in 1809.
Fact: In his autobiography, Jefferson also wrote:
Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word 'Jesus Christ,' so that it should read 'a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion.' The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination." (emphasis added)
Fact: The new United States signed peace treaties with Algeria in 1795, Tripoli in 1796, Tunis in 1797, and Muscat (Oman) in 1833 -- all Islamic nations.
Fact: The Treaty of Tripole of 1797 reads, part:
Article 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
Fact: In 1786, Jefferson's long and bitterly debated statute for religious freedom finally passed the Virginia legislature. In Jefferson's words, there was now "freedom for the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan, the Hindu and infidel of every denomination." The bill guaranteed, in Jefferson's own words, "that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever." It guaranteed, too, that no one should suffer in any way for his "religious opinions or belief." When the First Amendment to the Constitution went into effect in 1791, Jefferson's principle of separation of church and state became part of the supreme law of the land.
Fact: In 1807, Yarrow Mamout, a Muslim slave, was set free in Washington DC, and later became one of the first shareholders of the second chartered bank in America, the Columbia Bank.
Fact: In 1832, the Village of Mahomet, Ill., was planned. Originally named Middletown, it became Mahomet during the 1840s.
Fact: In 1833, the US entered a treaty of friendship with what is now Oman -- a relationship that has continued to today.
Fact: 1846 Elkader, Iowa, at the time a village in the Missouri territory was named after the Emir of Algeria Abd el-Kader.
Fact: In the 1850s, Mahomet, Texas, was founded
Fact: In 1856, the United States cavalry hired a Muslim, Hajji Ali, to experiment with raising camels in Arizona. He became a local folk hero in Quartzsite, Ariz., where he died in 1903. He was known as "Hi Jolly", his tombstone is a stone built pyramid with a camel on top of it.
Fact: In 1861, Muhammad Ali ibn Said arrived in Detroit where taught school before, in 1863, he enlisted in the 55th Massachusetts colored regiment and became a Civil War hero.
Fact: In, 1875, a wave of Muslim immigrants arrived, mainly from Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine.
Fact: in 1880, in what appears to be a forefather of the Falwell-Robertson-Graham-Parsley-Etc. Gang, a minister named O.C. McCulloch wrote, "The Tribe of Ishmael: A Study in Social Degradation in favor of castrating the men and separating the children and women." (Yes, you read that correctly -- a Christian American proposes castrating Muslim men and separating Muslim mothers and their children.)
Fact: In 1889, Edward W. Blyden, noted scholar and social activist, traveled throughout the eastern and southern states, proclaiming Islam.
Fact: In 1893, another wave of Muslim immigrants arrive, this time from the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, etc.
Fact: In 1897-98 a monthly magazine called the "Ishmaelite" was published by and for Muslims living in Cincinnati.
Fact: Between 1899 and 1914, another wave --more than 86,000 -- of Muslims arrived from Syria.
Fact: In 1907, the first compulsory sterilization law in the world, a draconian eugenics law, was enacted in Indiana against Muslims. (Yes, you read that correctly, too -- a law passed to force Muslims to be sterilized.)
Fact: In 1913, the Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA) was established in Newark, NJ.
Fact: In 1915, Muslims built a mosque in Maine and established an Islamic association.
Fact: In 1919, Muslims built a mosque in Connecticut.
Fact: In 1920, the Red Crescent, a Muslim charity modeled after the International Red Cross, was established in Detroit.
Fact: In 1926, the Universal Islamic Society was established in Detroit.
Fact: In 1926, Muslims built a mosque in Brooklyn, which is still in use.
Fact: In 1928, the Islamic Propagation Center of America was founded in Brooklyn.
Fact: In 1930, Muslims established a mosque in Pittsburg. The organization that will become the Nation of Islam was begun.
Fact: In 1935, a mosque was built in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and it is still in use today. Worshippers there had used a rented building for 15 years prior.
Fact: In 1955, the State Street mosque in New York City was established -- it is still in use today.
Fact: In 1962, the newspaper "Muhammad Speaks" was begun. It grew to be the largest minority weekly publication in the US, and at its peak reached more than 800,000 readers. Cassius Clay converted to Islam and took the name Muhammad Ali. Korean War veteran Clarence Jowars founded Allah's Nation of the Five Percenters in Harlem.
Fact: In 1965, U.S. laws changed to allow Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Arabs from the professional classes (i.e., doctors and engineers) to immigrate.
Fact: In 1990, Dr. Shirin Tahir-Kheli became the first Muslim ambassador to the United Nations for the US.
Fact: In 1991, Charles Bilal of Kountze, Texas, became the first Muslim mayor of a US city.
Fact: In 1996, Denver International Airport became the first airport in the US to open a mosque.
Fact: The White House has held an annual Eid celebration, Eid al-Fitr, since 1996.
Fact: In 1997, the Muslim symbol of a crescent moon and a star is displayed for the first time along with the national Christmas tree and the Jewish menorah on White House grounds.
Fact: In 1998, a United Nations report on "Civil and Political Rights, including Freedom of Expression" in the US sharply criticised the attitude of the American media, noting "very harmful activity by the media in general and the popular press in particular, which consists in putting out a distorted and indeed hate-filled message treating Muslims as extremists and terrorists", adding that "efforts to combat the ignorance and intolerance purveyed by the media, above all through preventive measures in the field of education, should be given priority."
Fact: The Pentagon has been hosting a Ramadan meal for more than 20 years.
Fact: In 2001, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and the backlash of violence against Muslim Americans, recognized the Islamic faith "as one of the great religions of the world."
Fact: Muslim Americans died in the towers on 9/11,
Fact: Muslim Americans rushed to the site as first responders to try and help, including a paramedic/ambulance driver/police cadet who died heroically trying to rescue victims at the Twin Towers.
Fact: FBI agent Ali Soufan came within inches of unraveling the 9/11 plot, failing largely due to the CIA's failure to share its data hoard.
Fact: Between 10,000 and 20,000 American Muslims wear the uniforms of the American military and fight and die for this country.
Fact: There are more than 1,200 mosques in the United States.
Fact: Although most Americans identify Islam primarily with Arabs, two thirds of Arab Americans are Christian.
Fact: Muslim Americans are the most racially diverse religious group surveyed in the United States.
Fact: Muslim Americans face more prejudice in US than do people of other religions.
More than 4 in 10 Americans (43%) admit to feeling at least "a little" prejudice toward Muslims -- more than twice the number who say the same about Christians (18%), Jews (15%) and Buddhists (14%).
Fact: Muslim Americans tend to be political centrists.
39% of young Muslim Americans describe their views as moderate, 28% say they are either liberal or very liberal, while 20% consider themselves politically conservative or very conservative.
Fact: Barack Obama is a Christian, not a Muslim, but if he were of the latter faith, more than half of all Americans would have no idea what that affiliation meant beyond stereotypes, a new study found. Like nearly all social groups,Muslim Americans are a diverse group, both politically and socially.
Overall, Muslim Americans are, well, American. They have similar levels of career and educational attainment as the general American public; their political beliefs are just as varied as the general public; and their typical level of religious devotion is on par with that of many other religious groups, the research shows.
Fact: In the US, there are more than 500 names of places, villages, streets, towns, cities, lakes, rivers, etc., derived from words or places in Muslim nations.
Fact: Like the Bible, the Koran is open to interpretation, up to a point, and does not condone murder.
"Those terrorists (of 9/11) must be reading a completely different Koran than the rest of us," said Marine Corps Capt. Aisha Bakkar-Poe.... She said her co-workers have been asking her about Islam since the attacks in New York and Washington. "The question I get most often is, 'Who is this Allah guy,'" she said. "And how could these fanatics make these attacks.
"I try to answer their questions and explain that Islam does not believe in killing innocent men, women and children."
Army Capt. Arneshuia Balial, a nurse instructor at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and a Muslim, said the terrorists claiming to act in the name of Islam was "like a knife through my heart -- that people would practice Al-Islam, but do deeds like what they've done. It's not true faith. Some people twist religion to the way they think."
Fact: Cordoba House, named for the city in Spanish Andalucia where Muslims, Jews and Christians once co-existed for centuries in an extraordinary flourishing of culture and science.
Fact: Newt Gingrich is lying about the meaning of Cordoba, Spain, the building of a mosque and of the NY Cordoba House:
It refers to Cordoba, Spain - the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world's third-largest mosque complex. [...I]n fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest. It is a sign of their contempt for Americans and their confidence in our historic ignorance that they would deliberately insult us this way.
Newt's been a Catholic for just a little more than a year, now, but I would have expected some priest might already have introduced him to The Catholic Encyclopedia. Here's what the church's encyclopedia (in the public domain and searchable online) says about Cordoba:
In 786 the Arab caliph, Abd-er Rahman I, began the construction of the great mosque of Cordova, now the cathedral, and compelled many Christians to take part in the preparation of the site and foundations. Though they suffered many vexations, the Christians continued to enjoy freedom of worship, and this tolerant attitude of the ameers seduced not a few Christians from their original allegiance. Both Christians and Arabs co-operated at this time to make Cordova a flourishing city, the elegant refinement of which was unequalled in Europe. (emphasis added)
And this about the rulers who expanded the mosque there:
In 962 Abd-er Rahman III was succeeded by his son Al-Hakim. Owing to the peace which the Christians of Cordova then enjoyed [...] the citizens of Cordova, Arabs, Christians, and Jews, enjoyed so high a degree of literary culture that the city was known as the New Athens. From all quarters came students eager to drink at its founts of knowledge. Among the men afterwards famous who studied at Cordova were the scholarly monk Gerbert, destined to sit on the Chair of Peter as Sylvester II (999-1003), the Jewish rabbis Moses and Maimonides†, and the famous Spanish-Arabian commentator on Aristotle, Averroes. (emphasis added)
Contrary to Newt's fib, to be legitimate in Muslim eyes during the time when the Great Mosque was being expanded, it was important that rulers stress a peaceful succession of Islam from the other religions in the area. A caliph was expected to have arrived at harmony with the Christians and Jews under his authority. Rather than Newt's asserted "(symbol of) their victory," the mosque has been held up by Muslim historians a symbol of peaceful coexistence with Christians.
I'm thinking Newt owes a "hail Mary" or two, but I'm hoping that his penance will be a vow silence.
"Cordoba House," then, is the perfect symbolic name for a community center created by Muslims in one of the largest and most famous cities, known for its large Jewish population, in a Christian-majority nation. Newt wants us to believe that "Cordoba" is a dog whistle word to tell Muslims to secretly and smugly snicker at their "conquest." As noted, Newt's own church says newt is lying. Instead, the name is obviously a reference to -- perhaps an invocation of -- the spirit of a place and time in which the Big Three Abrahamic religions lived and studied together in peace, elegance and splendor.
There is no escaping the fact that, today, Islamic extremism is a very real problem (as is a number of forms of extremism, religious and otherwise). But there is also no escaping that there are more than a billion Muslims who are not part of that problem, a billion Muslims who are good people trying to live, love, provide for their families and live in peace. And there is no escaping that millions of Muslims have always been part of America, have helped build America, and have sacrificed to defend America. There is no escaping that "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together."
How deep, how painful, is our shame -- whether born of ignorance of history or of knowing bigotry -- that so many Americans would stand in opposition to such a symbol. How deep, how painful, is our shame -- whether born of ignorance of our own history or of knowing bigotry -- that so many Americans would hold and express such prejudice against our our fellow Americans, our fellow patriots. What, then, shall be our penance?
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