The Ground Zero project to erect a monument to sharia overlooking the crater where the World Trade Center once stood, and where thousands were slaughtered, is not a test of America’s commitment to religious liberty. America already has thousands of mosques and Islamic centers, including scores in the New York area — though Islam does not allow non-Muslims even to enter its crown-jewel cities of Mecca and Medina, much less to build churches or synagogues.
The Ground Zero project is a test of America’s resolve to face down a civilizational jihad that aims, in the words of its leaders, to destroy us from within.
It would be one thing if this was rebuilding a mosque destroyed in the attack. But this is not a rebuilding project. This is a new mosque. What matters is that jihadis will look at this mosque and see a physical sign of victory in placing a place of Islamic worship on the site of one of their most glorious victories over America, in the heart of the Western world, which they achieved on September 11, 2001. It will be far more significant than razing a church and building a mosque on the same site, erasing a Christian outpost.
It doesn't even matter if the people behind the mosque project are pure of heart and earnest in bridging the gap between Islam and non-Islamic people. The worst in their midst will celebrate this as a victory, and it will help recruiting of more jihadis.
But the people behind the mosque project are not pure of heart, as McCarthy demonstrates.
Imagine if some terrorists claiming to act in the name of Christianity managed to blow up some significant building in Mecca or Medina. Then imagine somebody suggesting we build a church on the rubble of the attack to bridge the gap between Christianity and Islam. Do you really think that the Nuanced American class would support this? Do you think Moslems would approve? Would the Saudis? To ask the question is to answer it.
Finally, for those who say that Islam has nothing to do with our war on terror, doesn't putting a mosque at Ground Zero imply that Islam was responsible for the smoldering crater that once stood there? Why else try to bridge the gap right there? Isn't it symbolic of something? Why wouldn't any of the thousands of other mosques in America do that job? Why right there?
To say that it is good to build a bridge between Islam and America is fine. I think most Moslems in America just want to build a better life for themselves and their children--just like other immigrants. And I wrote of this even in the traumatic hours after the 9/11 attacks. I did not see Islam itself as our enemy even as I was determined to wage war on the Islamists. To see Moslem women in a head scarf driving mini-vans, as I see in my home town, is to see a dagger aimed at the heart of jihadist thinking. In time, assimilation should do its job, as long as we don't hinder the process with our policies.
But to then say that this mosque project is the only way to bridge the gap does not logically follow. And the problems with this project indicate it isn't so much a bridge to promote two-way traffic as it is an invasion corridor for the worst people we are trying to hunt down and kill. The jihadis have made enough progress without giving them a symbol of victory.
Heck, maybe we should deter the jihadis by building Hindu, Jewish, and Christian places of worship on Ground Zero. What would the jihadis think if every time they blew something up in a Western city, a non-Islamic place of worship was built? And if outreach is your goal, make sure that the Hindus, Jews, and Christians hold daily outreach services at those temples and churches teamed up with Moslem clerics in joint services. Wouldn't that be a better bridge between these worlds? Shoot, if putting non-Islamic places of worship seems too "provocative" (but then why isn't the mosque?), put a Hard Rock Cafe, an Internet cafe, and a Victoria's Secret store there if you really want to symbolically defeat the jihadis.
The intent of many supporters of this project is no doubt pure, notwithstanding the highly questionable intent of the project managers themselves. But the symbolism of the project in practice will be a disaster as far as that admirable intent is concerned. It will be a symbolic victory for jihadis to advance into America under their green banner. It is clearly a bridge too far. Cancel the mosque project.
