Ideological and Historical Roots for the Mosque Project at Ground Zero in New York.

Introduction:

• During the Islamic State at the time of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), the Hypocrites enjoyed freedom of opposition to an extent not matched by modern Western political systems. That included the freedom to erect a mosque to be used as a den to conspire against Muslims. The Prophet (PBUH) used to attend that mosque not knowing what transpired of schemes against his fledging community. Quranic revelation came down telling the prophet the truth about that mosque, instructing him not to attend it. The mosque stayed put, without demolition as confirmed in the Quran

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And those who built a masjid to cause harm and for unbelief and to cause disunion among the believers and an ambush to him who made war against Allah and His Messenger before; and they will certainly swear: We did not desire aught but good; and Allah bears witness that they are most surely liars 09-107

Never stand in it; certainly a masjid founded on piety from the very first day is more deserving that you should stand in it; in it are men who love that they should be purified; and Allah loves those who purify themselves 09-108

Is he, therefore, better who lays his foundation on fear of Allah and (His) good pleasure, or he who lays his foundation on the edge of a cracking hollowed bank, so it broke down with him into the fire of hell; and Allah does not guide the unjust people 09-109

The building which they have built will ever continue to be a source of disquiet in their hearts, except that their hearts get cut into pieces; and Allah is Knowing, Wise 09-110

   2-This incident which occurred more than 14 centuries ago and was recorded in the Quran, is partially being repeated in some features in this New York mosque project at the site of the attacks of September 2001.

   3- The project of building the mosque has triggered massive waves of Christian fanaticism, burning the Quran was one of them, which the I.Q.C. had previously condemned, and though Pastor Terry Jones has retracted, news were reported that another pastor was planning a Quran burning event, and another fanatic from Spain, opening a night club naming it Mecca. In other words, Islam is footing the bill for Sunni fanaticism, which found no other place, as wide and as big as America is, except to build it at the same location where “Manhattan Raid” took place, as if commemorating their triumph over America when they attacked the twin towers at the World Trade Centers nine years ago. This insistence is not a mere political move intended to agitate the wrath of the (Christian Americans) for, if it was a political act, it would’ve been a very callous and idiotic act. One would wonder how a sensible person can agitate this chauvinistic fanaticism by insisting on that location knowing well in advance the price politically and publicity wise?

 This is not your average ordinary political act, because in its simplest forms, politics is the art of garnering benefits. With those man-made Sunni religion followers, it is a matter of basic essential belief, which requires a brief fundamental and historical analysis:

First:

• For the Wahhabi Sunnite, their fundamental creed states that the World is divided into two camps, the camp of belief and peace, and the camp of disbelief and war. They also believe in the inevitability of military confrontation between the two camps, when the Muslim camp will vanquish the disbelief camp, exterminate Jews and Christians, until a rock would say, O Muslim, behind me is a Jew, come and slay him, according to a false narration attributed to Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) claiming that he knows the unseen, which they believe in, and which contradicts the Glorious Quran.
• Based on their belief in dividing the world into two camps, their unified strategy is two pronged: a)- The unification of all Muslims in a single state to re-establish the Khilafa that was abolished with the demise of the Ottoman Rule, which means the overthrow of all currently reigning regimes in Muslim lands. b)- Taking over the enemy camp by creating fifth columns made up of immigrant Muslim

Communities in the West

Second: This requires a fast analysis.

1-The Umayyads, leaders of Qureish in trade and war, opposed Islam, persecuted Muslims and forced them to migrate to Medina, thereby indirectly allowing Muslims to establish their first and last state under the leadership of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). In Medina, permission was given to defend themselves and their Islamic state against Qureish’s attacks.

That first and only Islamic state was founded on the principles of justice, absolute freedom of religion, thought, political activity, tolerance, and peace. This is what we deduce from reading the Quran relying on its own lexicon and terminology. According to the Quran, Muslims in that state, during the time of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) were at varying degrees of adhering to the tenets of the new religion. Some of them were labeled as hypocrites by the Quran and were opposed to Islam religiously and politically. They engaged in conspiring against the Prophet and the Muslims, taking advantage of climate of absolute freedom of conscience, freedom of political involvement and freedom of expression. They were many factions, hundreds of Quranic verses mentioned and talked about them. Others were believers who committed good and bad deeds; many verses came down blaming and warning them. Then there were the minority by comparison, who by their genuine faith and good deeds garnered a higher rank with God Almighty.

This classification falls in line with the historical events at the time of the Quranic revelation, and at the time of the Seal of all messengers, upon him and all of them let there be peace. In general, the dominant culture throughout the world was that of tyranny, injustice, corruption and the misuse of man-made religions to serve all those negative values. This same classification is also in agreement with the normal Arab Bedouin lifestyle, which is founded on armed conflict, the burying of newly born females, enslaving others, captivating them, allegiance to tribe rather than higher Islamic values of justice, freedom, peace and tolerance, in addition to sincerity of belief in God Almighty, with no sanctification of Man, Stone, Shrines, Tombs or Idols. So, there were three factions who embraced Islam; the one saturated with prevalent mores, was forced to coexist with Muslims to protect its interests. A second faction, which experienced an internal struggle between the new Islamic moral code and value system, against what he was brought up believing in, fluctuating back and forth, mixing a good deed with a bad one. Then a third faction, who purified itself and abandoned all pre Islamic values and customs, replacing it with Islamic values and principles. At any rate, their living Islam, their accompaniment of the Prophet (PBUH) for few years, was hardly enough to erase years and generations of deeply rooted habits and customs.

Then there were the Umayyads, who led the persecution of Muslim until they migrated to Medina, then continued their wars against them after the migration, to protect their economical interests. Finally, the Umayyads concluded it is in their best interests, economical and political; to embrace Islam after most Arab tribes had done so, and started to threaten Qureish’s Eastern trade routes, from India to Europe and Byzantium through Syria and the Yemen.

2-After a long history of enmity and wars with Islam and Muslims, the Umayyads embraced Islam a short time before the prophet’s departure. What concerns us here is the fact that the Umayyads unified their efforts with already Muslim Qureishites, forming a united Qureishite front. After the prophet’s passing, the Umayyads took the Muslim Arabs and others, including the world history to a new phase of exploiting Islam in invading and colonizing most of the known world at that time, thereby committing aggression against people that, not only were they non-antagonistic towards the Muslim Arabs; moreover they never heard of them before. With that military aggression, the schism between Islamic teachings and the actions of the companions of the Prophet, the rightly guided caliphs and the Umayyads, after the passing of the Seal of all prophets widened, necessitating justification and vindication on religious grounds.

Whereas the Persian Empire was totally annihilated, the Easterly conquests reached even the frontiers of India and China. Yet the Western World power represented in Byzantium, preserved its capital Constantinople intact facing, along with the rest of Europe, the Arabs’ aggression under the banner of Islam, even though Islam is innocent of and contradictory in nature to the actions of those Arabs.

3-The conflict between Muslims and Byzantines lasted for centuries, leading in essence to the formation of two camps, like it was between the Persians and the Byzantines, and since religion was exploited by both sides according to the culture of Medieval Times, this military conflict carried religious overtones, where each camp regards himself as being righteous and on the right path, hence the Sunnite division of the world into the camp of faith and peace, versus the camp of disbelief and war.

Naturally,since application preceded codification and establishment of rules and regulations, and since the Muslims founded a vast awesome empire facing Europe and the West, and since those actions contradicted the teachings of the Quran, it was imperative to fabricate legislations attributing it to Islam justifying all that transpired. They found their prize in all those narrations and sayings falsely and slanderously attributed to Prophet Mohammad more than two centuries after his passing, and by distorting Quranic legislations through various methods that we have covered in other writings. The Sunnite religion accomplished that in defense of the Umayyads, the Abbasids, the Memluk and the Ottomans.

4-The Empire of the Muslims reached its zenith under the Umayyads, stretching from the frontiers of India and China in the East, to Andalusia and southern France in the West. The Muslims became the Eastern Power in the face of the West. Europe paid the price when the Muslims occupied many islands in the Mediterranean and southern Italy, monopolized Eastern trade with India. The Byzantine Empire suffered the most, for along with its prestige, it lost most of its territories in Asia Minor. The Umayyads even tried to conquer its capital Constantinople twice, both attempts failed.

5-In the first attempt to invade Constantinople, a springboard to launch an attack was established in the camp of faith and peace against the war camp. They called it inlets, ports or seaports, harbor or bay. It is derived from Arabic (thaghr), which essentially means mouth or front of the mouth, and it is always located at or nearby the frontiers of the two warring states. The encampments at such places were referred to as (Land of mooring, where frontline garrisons are stationed for defensive purposes). In that first attempt to invade Constantinople in 670 A.D. during Mu’aaweya’s reign, the first Umayyad Caliph, the invading army was forced to retreat; among them was The Companion Abu Ayyoub Al-Ansary who died there. Before his death, he asked that he be buried at the closest point to the enemy encampment, the camp of war, and for his grave to be used as the launching pad, the springboard for future wars. Sure enough, his grave became the spiritual landmark for Jihad, Sunni style in the East, as Muslim Cordoba became the inspiring point in the West for jihad against the camp of war and disbelief.

6- During the Abbasids’ reign, victory and defeat was mutual with the Byzantines, especially at the frontiers area. There were many jurists and religious scholars volunteers in the Abbasid’s armies. When certain regions exchanged hands between the warring combatants, a new doctrine evolved within the Muslims, who regarded Muslims’ graveyards in the hands of the enemy as sacred shrines and symbols of Islamic presence, to be preserved and visited and hence, reclaimed back to Islam. Eventually the Abbasids were weakened, and the Byzantines advanced deeper into their territories until Aleppo and other regions of Syria. The Byzantines in turn became weaker and the Europeans took the helm in what later was known as the Crusade wars, establishing many small kingdoms between Jerusalem and Asia Minor. The Memluk exterminated the Crusades presence by regaining their last stronghold, Acre in the year 690 Hijri.

7- After the Crusades presence was abolished, the Ottomans appeared in Asia Minor coinciding with Byzantines’ and local Muslims’ states weaknesses. The Ottomans worked at expanding their realm westerly at the expense of the Byzantines who were reduced to a mere capital and some small neighboring regions, rendering them like a head without a body. Thus the Ottomans came to represent the camp of (Islam) against the camp of war. The Ottomans discovered the tomb of Companion Abu Ayyoub Al-Ansary, inspiring Sultan Mohammad the Conqueror to capture Constantinople. He renovated the tomb, built a huge mosque and a shrine at the same location, and in it, he promised to capture what is left of the Byzantine Empire., thereby igniting his soldiers’ zeal culminating in capturing Constantinople on May 29^th1453, converting its church Aya Sofia into a mosque, and then renamed the city Atanbul or Islambul. The Ottomans continued their conquest reaching the gates of Vienna in Austria. In all this, Abu Ayyoub Al-Ansary’s mosque was the absolute incentive and inspiration, for the Ottomans had converted it to an official religious center, where the coronation of Sultan takes place to learn from the beginning the principles of (Sunni Jihad) against Europe, the camp of war. Not long after that, the Ottoman Empire itself became weak, prompting Europe to name it, The Sick Man, alerting Russia to get ready to devour it from the East, and Europe from the West, signaling the start of colonialism in our modern times.

8-Two things became apparent as a consequence to the wars between Muslims and the West:

a)- It was Sunni Muslims who started the war, thereby tainting( Sunni Jihad) with features of aggression, contrary to genuine Islamic Jihad, which is defensive in nature, and after exhausting all possible peaceful means.

b)-The debris and ruins of this world is at the core of this conflict. It evolved and revolved around the Eastern Trade between India and Europe, monopolized by Qureish, led by the Umayyads before Islam, and because of it, they fought Islam, and because of it, they embraced Islam. One of the principal motives behind the Crusade wars and Geographic discoveries was finding a route to India averting and avoiding Muslim lands, also to strike an allegiance with Christian Ethiopia. Due to geographic discoveries, the modern colonial movement colonized most of Muslim lands and led to the collapse and demise of the Ottoman Caliphate.

9- As a reaction to the European Colonial wave against Muslim lands, Wahhabism and Saudi state called for the return to Abbasids predecessor’s methods, and to enforce it by the sword, in the face of Western secular European modernization which Egypt held its helm. The Saudi state was established three times and had fallen twice. The current Saudi state managed, thru oil and its allegiance with America, to propagate Sunni Wahhabism among Muslims as true Islam. The Salafi jurisprudence and its derivatives spread at the expense of secularism, part of that doctrine is the concept of two warring camps.

Saudi Arabia exploited the religious freedom in the West, the Muslims’ migration to Europe and America, the need of the West and America to ally themselves with Saudi Arabia against communism and the Soviet Union, so both, America and Europe opened their doors wide open for Saudi Arabia to establish Wahhabi mosques and schools as Islamic Institutions.

10-With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the retreat of communism, nothing was left of (The Western Camp) except Europe and America. This sudden and rapid collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellite states caused a change in Wahhabi tactics while the strategy remained intact. This unified strategy is the establishment of a united Sunni state that will regain the glories of the Umayyads, the Abbasids and the Ottomans. In tandem with that, expanding influence within (The camp of disbelief) by exploiting Muslim communities and espousing Wahhabism as Islam, by agitating Muslims in America and Europe, by brainwashing them into a fifth column or a Taliban style brigades in the West, increasing their folds thereby taking it over from within, pursuing a double faced policy of camouflage and deceit, laying in wait for the appropriate moment no matter how long it takes.

With the fall of the Soviet Union and Communism the tactics were altered. Now we have Al-Qaeda, representing a younger hasty generation that could not tolerate the long winded approach adopted by the Saudi regime, an approach established by Abdul Aziz Al Saud himself, founder of the current third Saudi State. Following this long winded approach, The Muslim Brotherhood operates in Egypt, a group founded and funded by Abdul Aziz’s agent.

The hasty younger generation in Egypt exited the tent of the Muslim Brotherhood, and followed the two paths at the same time:

 a) - Toppling existing regimes as a prelude to establishing a United Sunni Islamic State.

b) - Battling the West.

Haste means resorting to violence and to terror acts, as a short cut to achieve objectives. This is what Al-jama’a Al-Islamiyya and jama’t Al-jihad had done. Then Al-Qaeda was formed as an alliance between Saudi Bin Laden and Az-zawahry the Egyptian, with a stated goal, combating Jews and Christians. They carried out the attacks on both embassies in Kenya and Uganda, then the two towers at the World Trade Center in New York.

11- Then came the New York Mosque Project near ground zero of September 11, bringing the advocates of both tactics together, in the service of a unified strategy, turning the proposed mosque into a symbol of inspiration and inducement, a gathering place for Wahhabi Sunnites inside America to fulfill the promised hope within the American soil itself. As much as the mosque and tomb of Abu Ayyoub Al-Ansary represented in the faceoff with Byzantium in the East, and as much as old Cordoba symbolized jihad in the West, and as much as new Cordoba represent for Wahhabi Sunnite in regaining Andalusia, Arabic and Islamic.

It is not strange that they plan to name the proposed mosque Cordoba, as it is not strange for Sunni mosques in Switzerland to spread misinformation that every Muslim cemetery in any hamlet within Switzerland is considered a sacred place, since it contains an Islamic landmark in the (abode of disbelief), according to widespread belief in Asia Minor during the Abbasid era.

Third:

We wonder…

• Why the insistence on building that Sunni mosque precisely at that location? Did the American soil become so scarce that they could not build it any place else? Do the American Muslims suffer due to scarcity of mosques? Is it wise or prudent to erect a mosque there to rekindle the pains for Americans? Wouldn’t be more wise and prudent for American Muslims to apologize for the crimes of September 11^th, to erect a memorial for the victims, to share in their sorrows, and to condemn Bin Laden and his comrades?
• Let us imagine; some western fanatic Christians attacked the palaces of the royal Saudi family wiping them out, attacked the Ministry of Defense in Riyadh demolishing it , then the Westerners rejoicing over those acts, even the Christians within Saudi Arabia, assuming they were still alive ,enjoying their full religious freedom, intend to build a church at the sites of destruction and ruin…let us imagine to the extent of being totally insane, that the king of Saudi Arabia came out in full support of building such a church, praising and commending Christianity, wooing Christians within and at large, would that ever happen in our wildest dreams?...This is the difference between American tolerance and Wahhabi criminality.
• We wonder…assuming the existence of the abode of faith and peace, and the abode of disbelief and war, where do the values of justice, freedom and tolerance practically exist? In the West or in the lands of Muslims? Where do injustice, tyranny, enslavement, corruption, torture, subjugation of man to his fellow man, genocide, civil wars, explosions that annihilate thousands, mosques that are transformed into military barracks, or become targets for armed attacks, where do all of the aforementioned exist?  Do the Christians of the West commit all of the above, or do the Sunnite and the Shiites of Afghanistan and Iraq, and before them of Algiers and Egypt commit it all? And now, the Sunnites in America and Europe are doing the same harvesting the souls of innocents.
• We wonder…If Islam in dealing with others is the height of civilized advancement and the height of noble values, in perseverance, in justice, in benevolence, in peace, in freedom of conscience, of thought, of belief, in sacrifice, in preference of others, in compassion and in mercy even with animals, and if Almighty God had sent the Seal of all messengers as a mercy to mankind, then which of the two camps is closer in implementing the tenets of the true Islamic doctrine? Is it the lands of the Muslims or the lands of the West? Where is the camp of evil? And where is the abode of war and bloodbaths?

Finally….where is the redness of  shame?