Obama Celebrates Ramadan By Backing Ground Zero Mosque

Just a few weeks ago, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs declined to weigh in on the propsed ground zero mosque, insisting that it was a matter for local authorities and residents to decide amongst themselves.

“I think this is rightly a matter for New York City and the local community to decide,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said at his regular briefing.

Asked how that squares with the president’s support for religious freedom, Mr. Gibbs said: “You’ve heard this administration, and the last administration, talk about the fact that we are not at war with a religion but with an idea that has corrupted a religion. But that having been said, I’m not from here going to get involved in local decision-making like that.”

Source: NY Times

Of course, Gibbs' statement seemed like a convenient sidestepping of the issue - especially since the Obama administration has no problem meddling in every local and personal issue, from illegal immigration to your kid's diets. It seemed beyond comprehension that our President - who is not a Muslim but who was raised by a Muslim step-father and whose words and actions sometimes seem sorta "Islam-ish" - wouldn't have an opinion on a mosque being built right next door to the site of the most stunning military victory in the history of the Islamic world.

Of course President Obama has an opinion on the mosque. He's all for it! Always one to put symbolism ahead of substance, he was just waiting for the right time and place to make his big announcement - a room full of Muslims during the month of Ramadan!

President Obama on Friday forcefully joined the national debate over construction of an Islamic complex near New York’s Ground Zero, telling guests at a White House dinner marking the holy month of Ramadan that opposing the project is at odds with American values.

Obama expressed sympathy for the families of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by al-Qaeda terrorists purporting to act in the name of Islam. But he told a gathering that included Muslim and other religious leaders that blocking the mosque, as some leading Republicans have angrily demanded, would undermine the country’s claim to respect the free practice of religious expression.

“Let me be clear: as a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country,” Obama said, according to prepared remarks, at a White House iftar, the traditional breaking of the daily Ramadan fast.

“That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances,” he continued. “This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable.”

Source: The Lonely Conservative

Let's backup for a second... This is a guy who grew up in Indonesia, where he studied the koran. His first meaningful interaction with American culture happened as a teenager in Hawaii. He has spent most of his adult life surrounded by leftists, nestled in a cocoon of radicals in Chicago and Washington DC. It is not a stretch to say that he may have had less contact with mainstream Americans in his life than any other president in American history.

And he is going to lecture Americans - especially the families and friends of 9-11 victims - on our freedoms?

Keep in mind, this is what Obama wrote in the Hyde Park Herald about the 9-11 attacks:

...The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity or suffering of others. Such a failure of empathy, such numbness to the pain of a child or the desperation of a parent is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion or ethnicity. It may find expression in a particular brand of violence, it may be channeled by particular demagogues or fanatics. Most often, though, it grows out a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.

We will have to make sure, despite our rage, that any U.S. military action takes into account the lives of innocent civilians abroad. We will have to be unwavering in opposing bigotry or discrimination directed against neighbors and friends of Middle-Eastern descent. Finally, we will have to devote far more attention to the monumental task of raising the hopes and prospects of embittered children across the globe—children not just in the Middle East, but also in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and within our own shores.

Source: National Review

Riiiiiight. So, to recap, 9-11 wasn't America's fault, but we should try to understand that not every country is as filthy rich as we are and, as a result, we should expect to be on the receiving end of a terror attack every once in a while. In the meantime, we should be giving more money to poor nations so THEY can empathize with US. Big wheel keeps on turnin... To everything there is a season... Cats in the cradle, silver spoon... Settled science... yada yada yada.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is paying for the fundraising world tour of the mosque's imam.

The imam behind a plan to build a mosque near Ground Zero is set to depart on a multi-country jaunt to the Middle East funded by the State Department -- raising concerns that taxpayers may be helping him with the controversial project's $100 million fund-raising goal.

...

"Does the State Department have any idea they are sending a guy to the Middle East who is going to be fund-raising perhaps among the very same people he will be meeting with?" asked Debra Burlingame, a 9/11 family member.

Burlingame said, noting that the Saudis have contributed money to underwrite programs by the American Society for Muslim Advancement, a not-for-profit that Abdul Rauf runs with his wife and that is one of the sponsors of the Ground Zero mosque. "We know he has a fund-raising association with Saudi Arabia,""He's going to the well, and how can they say they do or don't know what he's doing?"

Source: NY Post

And finally, Greg Gutfeld (host of 'Red Eye' on FoxNews)wants to open a Muslim-themed gay bar next to the ground zero mosque. Or is it a gay-themed Muslim bar? Either way, here are some suggestions, via OFB on Twitter:

Naughty Arabia, Twink Towers, Fatwah-bulous, Mujahideway, Haraam Harem

Carry on...