Pamela Geller, who is interviewed in this article, comments on it here: “The American people are sick of being deceived and misled. Stop talking, start acting. Let’s see Muslim supremacist groups lay down their arms against those of us who are exposing and reporting on jihad, and instead take up the fight against the jihadist ‘fringe’ that is at war with the West. Why is Geller or Spencer their target? Why aren’t the Muslim ‘extremists’ their target? This is all about the Ground Zero victory mosque. Notice how they all close ranks and make it about ‘Islamophobia,’ when everyone knows it is a deeply offensive, deliberately provocative act. Opposition to the mosque is not ‘Islamophobia,’ it’s ‘Islamorealism’ (hat tip to Spencer, who coined that term years ago).”
Indeed I did, and thank you, and I’m glad to see it is getting wider currency lately.
“Mosques Open Their Doors to Neighbors in Effort to Win Over Skeptics,” by Lauren Green for Fox News, October 22:
The prayers, the Koran and the people. They’re the three things Muslims would like Americans to know about.
To counter negative stereotypes, Muslim leaders nationwide are flinging open the doors to their mosques, hoping to present a positive image of Islam.
“The main thing is to open the doors and to share with people, to clarify who we are so people have no fears, so we can develop stronger relationships overall,” says Imam Al-Amin Abdul Latif of the Islamic Leadership Council of New York. […]
The neighborly hospitality is certainly part of the effort, but its fundamental impetus is to combat widespread opposition to building an Islamic cultural center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero. And it’s a hard task, indeed. A Fox News Opinion Dynamics Poll shows 61 percent – other polls put the figure as high as 70 percent — oppose building a mosque so close to the site of the worst terror attack on U.S. soil, an attack that was perpetrated by Muslim extremists.
Dr. Hafiz Rehman, who hosted the Long Island event, says, “On 9/11 the planes were hijacked and the religion was hijacked. We want to build close to there so people know Muslims are mainstream Americans also.”
It will be an uphill battle.
Pamela Geller, head of Stop Islamization of America, sees a sinister purpose behind the open-house PR campaign: “Dawa, proselytizing to Islam, bringing people to Islam to convert,” she says.
“This is not about sensitivity. There has not been one instance that they reconsidered Ground Zero Mosque…. I don’t think the American people need an education. I think that the Islamic supremacists need some sensitivity training.”…
Indeed. The accommodation is always one-sided. The concessions are always from one side. Yet no one seems to notice, or care.