A friend recently sent me this quote from Newt Gingrich, former United States Speaker (Republican) of the House of Representatives (and I quote in full):

There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia . The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.

The proposed “Cordoba House” overlooking the World Trade Center site – where a group of jihadists killed over 3000 Americans and destroyed one of our most famous landmarks – is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites. For example, most of them don’t understand that “Cordoba House” is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba , Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by trans-forming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque
complex.

Today, some of the Mosque’s backers insist this term is being used to “symbolize interfaith cooperation” when, in fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest. It is a sign of their contempt for Americans and their confidence in our historic ignorance that they would deliberately insult us this way.

Those Islamists and their apologists who argue for “religious toleration” are arrogantly dishonest. They ignore the fact that more than 100 mosques already exist in New York City . Meanwhile, there are no churches or synagogues in all of Saudi Arabia . In fact no Christian or Jew can even enter Mecca .  And they lecture us about tolerance.

If the people behind the Cordoba House were serious about religious toleration, they would be imploring the Saudis, as fellow Muslims, to immediately open up Mecca to all and immediately announce their intention to allow non-Muslim houses of worship in the Kingdom. They should be asked by the news media if they would be willing to lead such a campaign.

We have not been able to rebuild the World Trade Center in nine years. Now we are being told a 13 story, $100 million megamosque will be built within a year overlooking the site of the most devastating surprise attack in American history.

Finally where is the money coming from? The people behind the Cordoba House refuse to reveal all their funding sources. America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive
designed to undermine and destroy our civilization. Sadly, too many of our elites are the willing apologists for those who would destroy them if they could. No mosque. No self deception. No surrender. The time to take a stand is now – at this site on this issue.

There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia . The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.

The proposed “Cordoba House” overlooking the World Trade Center site – where a group of jihadists killed over 3000 Americans and destroyedone of our most famous landmarks – is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites. For example, most of them don’t understand that “Cordoba House” is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba , Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by trans-forming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosquecomplex.

Today, some of the Mosque’s backers insist this term is being used to “symbolize interfaith cooperation” when, in fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest. It is a sign of their contempt for Americans and their confidence in our historic ignorance that they would deliberately insult us this way.Those Islamists and their apologists who argue for “religioustoleration” are arrogantly dishonest. They ignore the fact that more than 100 mosques already exist in New York City . Meanwhile, there are no churches or synagogues in all of Saudi Arabia . In fact no Christian or Jew can even enter Mecca .  And they lecture us about tolerance.
If the people behind the Cordoba House were serious about religious toleration, they would be imploring the Saudis, as fellow Muslims, to immediately open up Mecca to all and immediately announce their intention to allow non-Muslim houses of worship in the Kingdom. They should be asked by the news media if they would be willing to lead such a campaign.

We have not been able to rebuild the World Trade Center in nine years. Now we are being told a 13 story, $100 million megamosque will be built within a year overlooking the site of the most devastating surprise attack in American history.

Finally where is the money coming from? The people behind the Cordoba House refuse to reveal all their funding sources. America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization. Sadly, too many of our elites are the willing apologists for those who would destroy them if they could. No mosque. No self deception. No surrender. The time to take a stand is now – at this site on this issue.

I referred my friend to a Wikipedia artcle which is, at least, balanced.

About a week ago I wrote to MEMRI because they had posted a video under the title “Feisal Abdul Rauf, Imam of Planned Ground Zero Mosque: One of Our Goals Is to Make People Understand What Islam Is”.

This is what I wrote:

I am a big fan of MEMRI but I’m not sure about this latest video of the Imam of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque.

I thought MEMRI was about revealing the truth. So why do you call a cultural center with a prayer room 2 blocks from GZ a Ground Zero Mosque in your title? This is a distortion.

I did not see a single objectionable thing in the Al Jazeera interview. I perceive no secret motives or malign intent. As far as I know, the use of the building as a Cultural Center is legal. What’s the wider context you are trying to show, here?

Please explain the ‘message’ behind your placing this on your website.

Back came the reply:

Dear Mr. Cook,

Thank you for your message. Regarding the Al-Jazeera interview, we certainly did not claim that there was anything objectionable stated in it. We translated it because it’s a media topic of much current interest. We follow the interest of the media, and do not seek particularly objectionable or commendable content. Indeed, there is nothing objectionable there, so on this we are in agreement.

As to the name “Ground Zero Mosque,” this is also the common name in much of the mainstream media. We can change it to “Islamic center close to Ground Zero,” but what we would not want to do it to close our eyes to its proximity to Ground Zero, strengthened by the fact that the initiators reject the very idea of moving it from that place, nor do we ignore the title that Imam Abdul-Rauf chose for the Indonesian version of his book, which is “A Call of Azan from the Rubble of the World Trade Center: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America after 9/11.”

So on this, I guess, we disagree. I’m sorry for that.

In other words, they DID see something sinister or else why would they publish? Did Imam Abdul-Rauf choose the title for the Indonesian version of his book? And is it that sinister? Maybe if you are suspicious about the motives of Abdul-Rauf you can spin this as a triumphalist title.

My reply:

Thanks for the reply. That is interesting. I’ll check out the Imam’s book as I wanted to know the context of the MEMRI video and you have shown that. I am still unsure about the Islamic Center and I don’t know whether 2 blocks is near or whether 3 blocks is also near.

I still don’t like perpetuating the GZ Mosque title just because the MSM are freaking out about a non-existent mosque doesn’t mean that you have to go along with it.

So on this occasion we do disagree, sadly.

Thanks for all the work you do.

But then, a little later this arrived from MEMRI:

Thank you.

By the way, the AP just today issued a directive to its staffers to avoid the phrase “Ground Zero Mosque,” and to instead say “near” it. This is what I also thought, after reading your email.

So we will follow the AP’s lead on this.

This is the new title for the video: “Feisal Abdul Rauf, Imam of Planned Islamic Center Near Ground Zero: One of Our Goals Is to Make People Understand What Islam Is” (my emphasis).

I commended them for changing the title to a more honest one.

I have replied to my friend who sent me the Newt Gingrich quote and I repeat it here with a little editing:

In the matter of the Córdoba Center, I’m yet to decide. But I am not American, not a New Yorker, no-one I know was killed in 9/11.

Do I have any right to comment? Not sure.

I recently complained to MEMRI that a video of the Imam on their site included the name ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ even though it is not at GZ and is not a mosque. They subsequently changed the headline to say ‘Cultural Center NEAR Ground Zero.

If we don’t like misleading headlines about Jews and Israel then why should we tolerate them when they are designed to mislead about other faiths and groups.

An interesting question to ask yourself is: ‘How far from GZ would a ‘mosque’ be acceptable?

Another is ‘should the United States be making decisions based on a comparison to Saudi Arabia?’

Also, ‘how many Muslims are there in Lower Manhattan?’ Why do they need such a large building? Is this a symbol of Muslim tolerance or supremacism?

What laws are there to prevent this building from being constructed?

What law would have to be enacted to stop it? Would that law be in breach of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights?

So, how far do Western Democracies, the inheritors of the Enlightenment and over 200 years of the development of civil liberties, personal freedom, the freedom of the Press, free speech, freedom of worship etc. have to compromise these hard-won rights in order to protect those same rights from a religion which does not recognise any of them and, ultimately, believes in overturning them and replacing them with a medieval Caliphate?

By using Draconian measures to stop these perceived threats, do we damage the ability of Islam to reform itself and modernise and make it even more subject to fundamentalist ideology?

So I very definitely do not know what the answer is to this controversy, but I do know that listening to very Conservative Americans is not necessarily going to provide a balanced view.