Free Republic

Most political experts believe the opponents of the Ground Zero-area mosque and community center are on the safest ground when it comes to public opinion. While President Barack Obama has supported the Muslim community’s right to build the mosque as a matter of religious freedom, every major potential 2012 GOP White House contender has expressed strong opposition to the project. Now, some in the party, such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, are expressing doubts about whether focusing on the mosque is appropriate. In remarks to Washington Wire, two leading GOP voices — Newt Gingrich, a vocal critic of the...

fter weeks of heated debate over plans for an Islamic community center near Ground Zero – the site of the 9/11 attacks on New York - it seems Muslim leaders will soon back down, agreeing to move to a new site. The decision follows a high-profile campaign against the project that included advertisements on New York buses showing images of the burning Twin Towers, an iconic landmark razed when al-Qaida terrorists flew packed passenger planes into them in 2001. The New York Republican party is also said to be planning a hostile television campaign. Sources in New York said on...

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Firefighters from two nations took off Thursday on a round-the-clock run from Southern California to New York in remembrance of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The Tour of Duty run officially began with a flag ceremony at 8:46 a.m. - the time when the first plane struck New York's twin towers in 2001. Several New York firefighters were running, including James Dowdell. His father, firefighter Kevin Dowdell, was among more than 400 emergency workers killed while responding to the attack. Firefighters feel "a special kinship" with firefighters who died, North Las Vegas fire Capt....

Atlas reader Madeline left this comment:I say this through tears, I really mean it. When your job calls for you to risk everything for something enormous and you rise to the occasion to do it, you are driven by sheer passion for what you do. I saw Robert and Hannity as two forces to be reckoned with, as you have been Pamela. On the morning of 9/11, I was putting my youngest son on his bus to first grade. It was his first day since a week before on the correct first day of school, he woke up with acute...

Not so fast. The developers of the controversial mosque proposed near Ground Zero own only half the site where they want to construct the $100 million building, The Post has learned. One of the two buildings on Park Place is owned by Con Edison, even though Soho Properties told officials and the public that it owns the entire parcel. And any potential sale by Con Ed faces a review by the state Public Service Commission. “We never heard anything about Con Ed whatsoever,” said a stunned Julie Menin, the chairwoman of Community Board 1, which passed a May resolution supporting...

Truth, even in the tightly controlled prison of the Obama media complex, occasionally bursts forth like a swordfish cavorting on the waves of a golden August afternoon. Newsweek, the Washington Post's former progressive stepchild, published an op-ed by Fareed Zakaria, the in-house lapdog for the Administration, extolling the virtues of building the Ground Zero Mosque. A couple of sentences demand a great deal more explanation. To that end, early in its tenure the Bush administration began a serious effort to seek out and support moderate Islam. Since then, Washington has funded mosques, schools, institutes, and community centers that are...

I may be a little off from other conservative voices on the question of an alleged radical Muslim cleric building a mosque near Ground Zero but I say; let ‘em! don’t know the exact number of feet away from Ground Zero this mosque would need to be to keep everybody happy. I don’t know what would qualify this building for “landmark” status. I do know that the idea of locating a Mosque there and opening it on September 11th shows not only rank insensitivity to the victim’s families but open hostility to our way of life. Still, as a free...

Stephen Schwartz scrupulously reviews the available evidence regarding the ladies and gentleman behind the planned $100 million mega-mosque at Ground Zero. They are fronted by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, a Kuwait-born cleric of Egyptian background. What does Schwartz turn up? Let's see. Here we have a support network linked to the Malaysian Jew hater Mahathir bin Mohamad. Here we have the Perdana-supported Gaza raiders. Here we have some notable servants of the Iranian clerical dictatorship, and an Egyptian property developer associated with the pro-Hamas chief of the Arab League. And here we have Feisal Abdul Rauf's wife, Daisy Khan, one...

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says it would be un-American to investigate a mosque that is planned for construction near where the World Trade Center once stood. Bloomberg was asked Monday about GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio's demands last week that Democratic rival Andrew Cuomo investigate the mosque being developed near the Sept. 11 attack site.

As controversy surrounds the construction of a 13-story mosque just two blocks from Ground Zero, FOX News has learned that an effort to place a second mosque close to the hallowed site in New York City is in its advanced stages. The Masjid Mosque has raised $8.5 million and is seeking an additional $2.5 million to begin construction. While it apparently has not settled on a final location, it has told donors it plans to build very close to where 3,000 people were killed in the September 11 terror attacks. In fact, the website appealing for donations boldly states that...

Is this Islam being insensitive or in our face?An episode of the Comedy Central cartoon South Park gets censored because a portrayal of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed might be offensive to Muslims. Yet, building a 13 story Mosque at Ground Zero in New York, the site of the September 11th attacks isn't? And in case you didn't get the message, they want to open the Mosque on the 10th anniversary of the attack. Are these people crazy, stupid or both? Mosque madness at Ground Zero By ANDREA PEYSERNew York Post May 13, 2010 A mosque rises over Ground Zero. And...

Hello New Yorkers and all Americans out there. Save the date, June 6, 2010 and come to Ground Zero for a rally to stop the spread of Islam in the US. It is time that this little known news item gets blasted into the public arena. This story has had a very low profile, in spite of the fact that the NY Times had it on their front page on the December 8th. Since then, there has been very little publicity or follow up stories. (Link: www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/nyregion/09mosque.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&ref=nyregion) The background information begins on 9/11 at 45 Park Place, the Burlington Building,...

A proposal to build a mosque steps from Ground Zero received the support of a downtown committee despite some loved ones of 9/11 victims finding it offensive. The 13-story mosque and Islamic cultural center was unanimously endorsed by the 12-member Community Board 1's financial district committee. The $100 million project, called the Cordoba House, is proposed for the old Burlington Coat Factory building at Park Place and Broadway, just two blocks from the World Trade Center site. "I think it will be a wonderful asset to the community," said committee Chairman Ro Sheffe. Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf, who helped found...

It is shocking and true: A federal judge has ordered the release of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, one of the top recruiters for the 9/11 attacks - a man once deemed the highest-value detainee at Guantanamo Bay. With but a two-sentence ruling, Washington Federal Judge James Robertson has taken the dangerous folly of granting enemy combatants entree into civilian courts to its outrageous, indecent limit. Who's next, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed? So that there is no mistake: Robertson's determination that a terrorist with the blood of 3,000 on his hands deserves life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is not the work...

One woman has not forgotten September 11th, 2001. Debra Burlingame, sister of Chic Burlingame, pilot of AA Flight 77 that was crashed into the Pentagon, wants the world to know she is not happy with President Obama’s and AG Eric Holder’s decision to try the 9-11 terrorists, including KSM, in Federal Court in New York. She’s has formed the 9-11 “Never Forget” coalition, and making arrangements for a nationwide protest on December 5th. The Coalition formed to fight the decision of President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to try the 9/11 co-conspirators in New York City’s federal court,...

Picking up the Sunday paper Nov. 15 could make a reader a little airsick -- even while standing in the driveway. The Washington Post "news analysis" on the front page carried the headline "9/11 trial could become a parable of right and wrong: Before worldwide audience, both prosecution, defense seek control of narrative." Does The Washington Post really think that the death and destruction of 9/11 "could" be right, or "could" be wrong? Liberals cannot stand it when the national media won't simply declare contentious debates over and their viewpoint settled truth. Take, for example, the allegedly inevitable impending destruction...

What a day of contrast in America. In New York Harbor sits the latest warship of the US Navy, whose bow contains tons of steel that once supported the World Trade Center towers, the USS New York. In Washington, DC Speaker Nancy Pelosi intends to ram through the House a 2,000 page bill which will rob Americans of their freedom, giving the Federal government unprecedented control over the lives of every American. The warship will be commissioned today, in the name of the American people, to defend their freedom. The Speaker will try to enslave those same people. Make no...

He gave a Grand Rounds presentation. . . You take turns giving a lecture on, you know, the correct treatment of schizophrenia, the right drugs to prescribe for personality disorder, you know, that sort of thing. But instead of giving an academic paper, he gave a lecture on the Koran, and they said it didn’t seem to be just an informational lecture, but it seemed to be his own beliefs. That’s what a lot of people thought. He talked about how if you’re a nonbeliever the Koran says you should have your head cut off, you should have oil poured...

7 AM - Meet at World Financial Center Plaza (if you want to meet up, please freepmail me) 8 AM - 21 Gun Salute SALUTE TO NEW YORK CITY AND NEW YORK STATE... At approximately 8:00 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 2, the yet-to-be commissioned ship will come to a halt in the Hudson River. There, opposite the former World Trade Center site, USS NEW YORK (LPD-21) will dip her colors, fire a 21-gun salute to the people of her namesake city and state, and proceed to Pier 88 to be formally inducted into the Fleet five days later at a...

  2009 IAFF Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial International Association of Fire Fighters honors those who have fallen in the line of duty. No Greater Love... Indebted Never Forget