Phil Orenstein's Open Letter to Mayor Michael Bloomberg Regarding the Ground Zero Mosque

Source. Here's the complete text:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

This letter is addressed to the mayor as well as to all public elected officials in New York City to recognize the only reasonable action to take for the City of New York and for all the people of America. In the name of righteousness and common sense, I demand that you to speak out in opposition to the proposed mosque, the 13-story Islamic Cultural Center called the Cordoba House, just a stone’s throw away from Ground Zero where the former World Trade Towers crumbled into dust on September 11, 2001 along with nearly 3000 New Yorkers.

The opening date for the Ground Zero mosque is September 11, 2011, the 10 year anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack which is seared into the memory of all Americans and directly touches the lives of every New Yorker through friends, family or co-workers who perished on that day. As long as we have memory that sustains us, we will never forget the horrific tragedy, and we emphatically oppose the construction of any mosque on the hallowed grounds where our fellow New Yorkers and loved ones were murdered in the horrific plot by 19 Muslim terrorist hijackers. This is not a freedom of religion issue. It is an issue of speaking out in name of righteousness. We have no objections to the construction of mosques. But why at Ground Zero? By the same token, who would allow the symbolic ignominy of a Shinto shrine commemorating Emperor Hirohito at Pearl Harbor with the opening day of December 7th?

The proposed mosque, a joint venture of the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), is presided over by its founder, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf who paid $4.85 million for the building in December 2009. His bogus claim that the money came from New York Muslim contributors needs to be investigated. Where did the $4.85 million come from and above all who is footing the bill for the projected $100 million cost of the project? According to a New York Post report, the founding organizations have accounted for only a fraction of the projected costs and it’s likely that wealthy Saudi benefactors will pick up the tab. The 2009 financial statement of Rauf’s organization, ASMA, shows that they received large donations from foreign sources, including $576,312 from Qatar, a nation notorious for funding international terrorism.

As mayor of the greatest city in the U.S., you as well as all public elected officials need to take a stand as Mayor Rudy Giuliani did in 2001. He rejected the $10 million donation for September 11th relief efforts from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal after the prince suggested that United States’ foreign policies contributed to the 9-11 attacks, in a statement warning that the United States "must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack." Imam Rauf, with his deceptively “moderate” demeanor, also made a similar assertion about one week before the Saudi prince. On the CBS News broadcast of 60 Minutes on September 30, 2001, Rauf said: “…United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened…Because we have been accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, in the most direct sense Osama bin-Laden is made in the U.S.A."

Imam Rauf will predictably follow in the radical tradition of his father, Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rauf and his Islamic expansionist plans for building mosques and Islamic centers in New York City. Dr. Rauf senior built the Islamic Cultural Center on 96th St. purchasing prime Manhattan real estate and completing the massive project with funding from 46 Islamic nations including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Libya. Is it any wonder why Imam Rauf is hiding the funding sources for the purchase of the building for the mosque at Ground Zero? It is unconscionable that the Ground Zero mosque will have similar funding sources, including Saudi Arabia, which produced 15 of the 19 terrorist hijackers, and continues to finance jihad operations world-wide.

The greatest insult to the memories of our fellow New Yorkers who perished on 9/11 is the scandal that after 10 years, Ground Zero remains a gaping hole in the ground while construction for the new World Trade Center is being pushed back many more years and perhaps decades. Now a 13-story mosque at Ground Zero whose imam blames America for the terrorist attacks, will be completed within one year.

I call on the mayor of the great City of New York and all our elected officials to take a public stand and end this national disgrace. Terminate plans at once for the construction of the Ground Zero mosque.

Sincerely,

Phil Orenstein

Nothing here with which to disagree, nothing to add. Except... well, wouldn't it be ironic if the Islamists do build their big mosque and somebody sort of blows it up with a bomb or a missile or something? Just saying.