Free Republic

I think it’s safe to say that President Barack Obama’s speech on the Ground Zero mosque has not been his finest hour. Which is a shame, because it could have been. The issue was a simple, powerful and emotional one: Does a mosque belong at the edge of our national graveyard within the view of 9/11 families as they mourn? Unfortunately, Obama once again voted present. “As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the . . . right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance...

Americans are aghast that the president approves of the construction of a Victory Mosque by a pro-terrorism imam six hundred feet from Ground Zero. Revolting, yes. Shocking, no. One thing we know about Barack Obama is that he is committed to ruling in direct opposition to three-fourths of the American people on all core issues. Reread his contemptible speech in Cairo, in which the president spouted flagrant falsehoods about the charms of Islam, while berating the United States for being a bit churlish about radical Muslim ideology after 9/11. Obama’s boss, George Soros, has always thought we made too much...

NEW YORK -- A Hamas leader says Muslims "have to build" a mosque near ground zero. Mahmoud al-Zahar said Muslims "have to build everywhere" so that followers can pray, just like Christians and Jews build their places of worship. Al-Zahar spoke Sunday on "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on WABC-AM. He is a co-founder of Hamas and its chief on the Gaza Strip.

President Obama, with his back-to-back statements on the proposed mosque at Ground Zero, has managed to get himself in a position where Sarah Palin has both the high ground and the practical route to progress. At the Iftar dinner at the White House, the president endorsed the constitutional rights of all religions in America to build houses of worship where they want to on private property. He spoke with his trademark eloquence, but he was off the point. So, as he toured the Gulf Coast, he took a powder, explaining that he was not commenting on what he called “the...

From the beginning, there has been speculation that Barack Obama has been an apologist for the Islamic world. His campaign rhetoric during the 2008 presidential campaign in which he indicated that he would sit down with leaders of Islamic nations such as Iran without precondition drew the ire of many who viewed him as soft on the war on terror. Then, once in office, the dynamics of our battle with the forces of Islamic extremism took an even darker turn when the terms used to describe the conflict were changed. No longer were we fighting a war on terror. We...

The Muslim Call to Prayer is one of the Prettiest Sounds on Earth -Barack Obama Americans are aghast that the president approves of the construction of a Victory Mosque by a pro-terrorism imam six hundred feet from Ground Zero. Revolting, yes. Shocking, no. One thing we know about Barack Obama is that he is committed to ruling in direct opposition to three-fourths of the American people on all core issues. Reread his contemptible speech in Cairo, in which the president spouted flagrant falsehoods about the charms of Islam, while berating the United States for being a bit churlish about radical...

The White House on Saturday struggled to tamp down the controversy over President Barack Obama’s statements about a mosque near Ground Zero — insisting Obama wasn’t backing off remarks Friday night where he offered support for a project that has infuriated some families whose loved ones died in the Sept. 11 attacks. Obama’s comments placed him in the middle of the controversy over a Muslim group’s plans for a mosque near the site of the 2001 attack — and in turn, transformed an emotion-laden local dispute in New York into a nationwide debate overnight. Republicans pounced, amid early signs that...

It was something he certainly didn't have to do. But he did it anyway. President Obama stepped into the fray of the single most divisive issue pertaining to terrorism, healing of hurt, religious disagreement, civil liberties, political fracturing, racism, and national security all in one step.

Mr. President, should they or should they not build a mosque steps away from where radical Islamists killed 3000 people? Please tell us your position. We all know that they have the right to do it, but should they? And, no, this is not above your pay grade. If those who wish to build this Ground Zero mosque are sincerely interested in encouraging positive "cross-cultural engagement" and dialogue to show a moderate and tolerant face of Islam, then why haven't they recognized that the decision to build a mosque at this particular location is doing just the opposite? Mr. President,...

John Boehner, the Ohio Republican who is the House minority leader, said: ”The decision to build this mosque so close to the site of ground zero is deeply troubling, as is the president’s decision to endorse it.” “The American people certainly don’t support it,” Mr. Boehner said. Representative Peter King, a New York Republican, said that while the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque, doing so needlessly offends too many people. “President Obama is wrong,” Mr. King said. “It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero....

President Barack Obama on Saturday sought to defuse the controversy over his remarks on plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero, insisting that he wasn’t endorsing the specific project but making a general plea for religious tolerance toward all. "In this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion,” Obama told reporters Saturday when asked about his remarks at a White House dinner marking the start of Ramadan. “I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there,” Obama...

President Barack Obama, speaking last night at the White House’s iftar dinner marking Ramadan, defended plans to build a mosque and Islamic community center near Ground Zero. The nation’s commitment to religious freedom he said, “must be unshakable.” “I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground,” he said. As WSJ reporters Devlin Barrett and Jonathan Weisman noted, the project “has generated opposition from a host of prominent Republicans, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Resistance to other mosque-building plans has sprouted around the country, but the symbolism...

By charging headlong into the ferocious controversy over the plan to build a mosque near Ground Zero, President Barack Obama may have further damaged Democratic Party prospects in the upcoming mid-term elections. For while his return to the soaring rhetoric that won him the White House in the first place will be popular with hard-core liberal supporters, it is unlikely to capture the hearts of middle-America this year. In 2008 Mr Obama was a largely unknown quantity running on the strength of untried ideas and a ringing call for moral superiority. But now all of that has changed. According to...

EXCERPT A former senior Bush aide, chief speechwriter Michael Gerson, told POLITICO last night that he supports Obama's decision. "An enormously complex and emotional issue -- but ultimately the right thing to do," Gerson said. "A president is president for every citizen, including every Muslim citizen. Obama is correct that the way to marginalize radicalism is to respect the best traditions of Islam and protect the religious liberty of Muslim Americans. It is radicals who imagine an American war on Islam. But our conflict is with the radicals alone."