FDNY Captain William F. Burke Jr., of Engine 21, ordered his fire company to evacuate the North Tower when he learned the South Tower had collapsed. He stayed upstairs, assisted Abe Zelmanowitz in evacuating his friend quadriplegic Ed Beyea, and perished on 9/11. Mike Burke, his brother, is opposed to the mosque planned to overlook Ground Zero and writes why in the Washington Times:
Though the Muslims behind this mosque do not separate politics from religion, America does, and we are not required to dissolve the dividing line we have always recognized. The imam of the proposed mosque, Feisal Abdul Rauf, absolves Islam of all responsibility for Sept. 11 — and terrorism in general. According to him, if an act of terrorism is committed by somebody who yells “Allah Akbar,” that person is not a “true Muslim” and Islam is exonerated. In contrast, Mr. Rauf tells us, ultimately the people who jumped out of the Twin Towers are responsible for their own deaths because, as he has said, “Osama bin Laden was made in the USA.”
So, when he speaks of his Islamic center providing reconciliation and understanding, this is what he means: America must reconcile itself to its own culpability in Sept. 11, and it must understand that the sin and crime of terrorism is its own. There is no better place than Ground Zero, he believes, for Americans to come to this reconciliation and understanding.
Say what? Proselytizing for Islam from the "
{ 1 comment }
There is no room in this free republic, for a political philosophy which subjugates women and children, and approves of violence. None.
Comments on this entry are closed.