Obama supports "Ground Zero Mosque" (of course he does)

[Bilge_Rat]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Say what you want about GW Bush but he loved America and would not support this crap as President.

President's Greeting for Ramadan - November 5, 2002



I send greetings to Muslims in the United States and around the world as you observe the holy month of Ramadan.

Islam is a peace-loving faith that is practiced by more than one billion people, including millions of American Muslims. These proud citizens contribute to the diversity that makes our country strong, and the United States is grateful for the friendship and support of many Muslim Nations that are vital partners in the global coalition to fight against terrorism.

The Qur'an teaches that Ramadan is a time for fasting, prayer, worship, and contemplation. Muslims observe this month by renewing their dedication to caring for those in need, doing good deeds, and strengthening family and community ties. These actions reflect many of the values that Muslims share with people of other faiths across our Nation and around the world, including courage, compassion, and service.

America remains committed to freedom, justice, and opportunity for all people. During this season of reverence and examination, we continue to work together for a future of peace, tolerance, and understanding.

Laura joins me in sending our best wishes for a blessed time. May you be well during Ramadan and throughout the coming year.


GEORGE W. BUSH

...whatever...

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

...whatever...

Oh thats his obligatory thing he had to do, shouldn't but he did.Whole different ballgame with Obama.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Oh thats his obligatory thing he had to do, shouldn't but he did.Whole different ballgame with Obama.

And how exactly do you 'know' this. It looks like nothing more than your opinion.

Tribesman, really going to say someone who majored in legal studies/pre law and begins law school in less than a month is ignorant of the constitution? get real.

Get real? The problem is that you don't argue like a college graduate. You argue, and write, like the average trailer-park scholar whose only knowledge is what he's heard from Rush Limbaugh. You give your opinion, call it fact, and if somebody questions it you become defensive and cite your 'credentials'. If you don't like what somebody says, you call him "scum". Sorry, but you don't sound like you're ready to start high school, much less law school.

Everything I just said has nothing to do with who you are, but only with how you express yourself.

This is not a constitutional issue as I see it.I see people who think the constitution is outdated and never invoke it unless it serves them, such as in this purpose , trying to make it a constitutional issue but it's not.

Had any good 'Church and State' discussions lately? You're correct about people on the Left only supporting the Constitution when it suits them, but it's true of the Right as well, so you need to give more facts and less opinion.

This just about about gloating of radical muslims and using the ridiculous amount of "tolerance" we have for muslims etc against us.The liberal fools like Bloomberg etc are too blinded by their pc mentality to see it.

No, this is solely about the legal right to build a building, and people who want to stop it because they hate the people who want to build it.

While we are at it lets build some type of Hitler memorial at Normandy or a Japanese shrine at Pearl Harbor, give me a f'n break.

And there you go with the childish pseudo-swearing again. As for the memorials you mention, of course I would stand dead square against them, but in the case of Pearl Harbor, it's America, and if the local zoning commission approved it and it passed muster with the higher authorities, I would support it, on LEGAL grounds. If you're going to law school you'd better learn the difference between what you like and what is right, because they aren't always going to be the same. Call it PC if you like, but you are the one opposing the freedoms we stand for simply because you don't like the folks who want to build a building.

[Bilge_Rat]

Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980

Oh thats his obligatory thing he had to do, shouldn't but he did.Whole different ballgame with Obama.

That is a disingenuous statement. President Bush and President Obama made the same statement, the only statement they could make as president of all Americans, including Muslims.

from the Politico:

The harsh Republican response to President Barack Obama's defense of a mosque near ground zero marks a dramatic shift in the party's posture toward Islam — from a once active courtship of Muslim voters to a very public tolerance after Sept. 11 to an openly aired sense of mistrust.

Republican leaders have largely abandoned former President George W. Bush's post-Sept. 11 rhetorical embrace of American Muslims and his insistence — always controversial inside the party — that Islam is a religion of peace. This weekend, former Bush aides were among the very few Republicans siding with Obama, as many of the party's leaders have moved toward more vocal denunciations of Islam's role in violence abroad and suspicion of its place at home.

The shift plays to a hostility toward Islam among many Republican voters, and it fits with traditional Republican attacks on Democratic weakness on security policy.

"Bush went against the grain of his own constituency," said Allen Roth, a political aide to conservative billionaire Ron Lauder and, independently, a key organizer of the fight against the mosque. "This is part of an underlying set of security issues that could play a significant role in the elections this November."

(....)


Bush is hardly remembered fondly by Muslim Americans, many of whom blame him for a wave of detentions and deportations immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks and for conflict with Muslims abroad. But a less-remembered element of his legacy is the battle he fought within the Republican Party on Islam's behalf.

By the day after the attacks, then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer recalled, Bush had expressed his intense concern at the possibility of a backlash against American Muslims, and his aides had begun discussing "the need to balance getting America ready for war against the people who carried out the attacks without infringing on Muslims' right to practice their religion."

On September 17, 2001, Bush visited Washington's Islamic Center with a simple message: "Islam is peace."

Those words didn't sit well with key segments of the Republican base, including some Christian leaders. In June 2002, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention suggested that the God of Muslims would "turn you into a terrorist that'll try to bomb people and take the lives of thousands and thousands of people."

Fleischer took public exception to the statement on Bush's behalf.
"It's something that the president definitely disagrees with. Islam is a religion of peace, that's what the president believes," he said.

Today, Fleischer says he thinks the mosque's organizers would be more sensible to go elsewhere, but that the GOP risks taking too hard a line on Islam as the 2012 elections approach.

"The real issue is going to be the rhetoric of presidential candidates in '11 and '12, and whether they try to strike a balance or whether is it much more vitriolic," he said. "We are at war with radical Islam; we are not at war with Muslims writ large, and we have to find that right balance."

Other former Bush aides backed President Obama's defense of the mosque. Former Bush consultant Mark McKinnon called Obama's Friday remarks an example of "bold and decisive leadership."

"An enormously complex and emotional issue — but ultimately the right thing to do. A president is president for every citizen, including every Muslim citizen," said former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson. "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."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41076.html