Debra Burlingame confirmed to us that Politico.com accurately reprinted her comments (below) in response to Mayor Bloomberg’s ridiculous assertions:
It is bad enough that Mr. Bloomberg covers himself in the memory of the heroes who died on 9/11 in order to silence legitimate criticism of the mosque project, it is even more shameless of him to do it while misrepresenting the position of their loved ones. Mr. Bloomberg cited that his chairmanship of the memorial board made him privy to what family members think. Mr. Bloomberg knows full well that family members on the memorial board have grave concerns about this project, and that some of us have publicly opposed it. If he really cared what we think, he would have come to us and asked. We’re still waiting for the call.
Mr. Bloomberg has now crossed the line from merely supporting the mosque to participating in a public campaign aimed at silencing its critics. He has improperly invoked private conversations of 9/11 family board members who, unfortunately, are all too aware of his power, both as chair of the foundation which will memorialize their loved ones and as mayor of a city where that memorial will be built. He is recklessly wreaking havoc among families, running from media event to radio interview to photo op to Comedy Central gagfest, shamelessly hawking this narrative that we, those whose family members were the true victims of religious intolerance, must also carry the burden of proving we’re not intolerant. He’s a disgrace.
Re other politicians: He has the audacity to go out and stump for the mosque all over the media, while at the same time calling other political leaders — who reflect the position of 70% of the public — “shameless” or suggesting they don’t really care–like him. We have said over and over that this isn’t a challenge to freedom of religion. We are appealing to the mosque developers as a matter of decency. Bloomberg sticks his fingers in his ears; he will have none of it. Instead, he is causing grave injury to 9 /11 family members, while painting this insensitive, arrogant imam as a victim. Mr. Bloomberg is casting himself as a principled champion of the first amendment even as he is telling the rest of us to shut up. The mayor is pulling out all the stops to bully New Yorkers into falling in line with his politically correct nonsense at the last place in America where there should be any pretense about what happened on 9/11.
Our message to the mayor: we aren’t going away, not now, not ever.
Say what? Proselytizing for Islam from the "
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since when did the mayor of New York become our dictator of New York. he tells us there will be NO compromise and the mosque will be built even though over 70% of Americans are against the mosque being built. and I voted for that dictator I went to the first protest and I will go to the next on Columbus day. the pro mosque people were calling us raciest and bigots. they got it wrong I’m an American Italian Infidel. and I got the right to protest where I want for what ever I believe. I’d like to know what side of the fence they would be on if a Church or Synagogue were to be build in a muslem neighborhood. I work with a guy from Indonesia he just got back from there and he told me the muslems are burning churches in Indonesia and nothing is done about it because the Christians fear for there live. so where is freedom of religion in muslem land
I, too am concerned about the Mayor’s support of the mosque at Ground Zero, and his bizarre statements. One of them was that because of the events at the Bowne house (the historical “Flushing Remonstrance”) Jews have religious freedom (and, by implication, therefore, the mosque should be allowed to be built at Ground Zero).
However, the remonstrance made by John Bowne was simply a rebuke of Christian prejudice against other Christians, and included his refusal to lock other Christians out of his home, at a time when there were few churches, and Christians of varying denominations had few (or no) places to worship, so they used each others homes. When some of them (Lutherans? Methodists? Episcopalians?) didn’t want other sects (Catholics? Puritans? Calvinists? — who knows?) to share their service, he said that all would be welcome. But it was a conflict among many different forms of Christianity. They wouldn’t likely have allowed the Jews to be present, nor Muslims — not in the 1600′s, certainly.
So the Flushing Remonstrance only shows that different Christian groups finally accepted other Christians among them — not that they necessarily would have permitted Jews or Muslims to be present. Thus, Mayor Bloomberg’s use of the Flushing Remonstrance is not necessarily a valid reference in this situation, and is somewhat irrelevant.
This is especially so because the problem with the mosque is not the idea of having one — it’s the idea of having one at Ground Zero — when everyone knows that Muslims traditionally build mosques at the site of their victories — and no one who loves democracy and opposes shar-ia law — wants to see a mosque built there for that reason. Also, since so many mosques have become the point where collections are made for terrorist groups, and money funneled back to them, the idea of a mosque at Ground Zero — destroyed by terrorists — is particularly repugnant. The fact that the imam who is spear-heading the building of the mosque is connected with so many groups that practice taqiyya, and support jihad, is further reason why many are protesting.
We do not object to a mosque — we object to one at Ground Zero — and so do many moderate Muslims.
Lets keep up the fight
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