Much has been said about the decision of a few Muslims to build a 13-story mosque and Islamic study center near the site of the 911 attacks in New York City; nevertheless I believe that I should jump in and discuss the issue from my perspective.
Most of the lawyers I’ve read as well as The New York Times take the view that the decision to allow the mosque at that location is a Constitutional one and they cite the 1st Amendment as their authority. I find it interesting how certain people can drag out the Constitution, dust it off and point to it when they believe it supports their position.
Well, I believe this is a Constitutional issue as well, but not one based on the 1st Amendment protection of freedom of religion. The decision to allow or deny the mosque, whether it is at Ground Zero or not, is a Constitutional one because Islam is not compatible with the U.S. Constitution. It is, in fact, a system completely alien to the U.S. Constitution and the protections it affords Americans.
Islam clearly teaches complete unity of “church” and “state,” while the Constitution rejects the establishment of any one particular religion as supreme.
Islam teaches that the Sharia legal system – the law of Islam – be imposed on the whole world while the Constitution, in Article VI, paragraph 2, says that it is the supreme law of the land.
Islam teaches that jihad or holy war should be waged against the unbelieving world to convert those unbelievers to Islam by force when necessary. That concept is obviously not compatible with the Bill of Rights and the respect for human rights contained within the Constitution.
Western democracies as well as the republic we have in the United States are the fruit of hundreds of years of historically Christian consensus, and it is not unreasonable at all for New Yorkers to desire that their self-governing way of life continues.
The jihadists were very excited and happy about the 9/11 attacks, and consider them a spectacular success. The Ground Zero mosque would simply be the consolidation of those victories. In other words, it would be a permanent monument to Islamic conquests and a symbolic outpost of victory over democracy. New York doesn’t have to put up with that. In fact, Americans in general don’t have to put up with that. We have every right to decide which symbols are erected in our cities.
Are there any circumstances under which I would consider letting the mosque be built? Yes, if those who want it built and who want to patronize it issue a public, unequivocal, repudiation of jihadism and Sharia law that contains the doctrine as it is stated in the Qur’an, and the Haditha. The anti-Western nature of Sharia law and Jihad must be completely repudiated.
It is not enough to announce that we are modern and not jihad Islam, for there is no distinction within the system itself, and the entire system must be completely and unequivocally repudiated as the system is contained within the Islamic writings believed to be sacred. Please see the work of Dr. Andrew Bostom, and his book The Legacy of Jihad—Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims for confirmation of the history and legacy of jihad.
To allow the building of the Ground Zero mosque without that repudiation is to allow a monument to jihad to be erected at the scene of one of its greatest triumphs, and we simply should refuse to let that happen.
- Darrell Castle
Posted by cptennesseedarrell 
