By Judy Shedlock
First we overlooked the travesty of the Shanksville, Pennsylvania “Crescent of Embrace” memorial “honoring” those killed on Flight 93 on 9/11. Surely the god of political correctness has been appeased, and we can go back to sleep. So what’s the problem?
The problem is the Cordoba Initiative, better known as the Mosque at Ground Zero. While our own Memorial to the Victims of 9/11 flounders, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, has endorsed the building of the mosque at Ground Zero as the epitome of the exercise of freedom of religion.
The two sides on this issue range from the Muslims saying they are trying to build religious understanding by joining the lower Manhattan community, to opponents saying the mosque will desecrate hallowed ground.
Does it really matter?
Mohammad founded his religion in Mecca. That is why Muslims pray toward Mecca and take their pilgrimage to Mecca. Yet the Meccans did not receive Mohammad and his message, preferring to maintain their worship of some 360 pagan idols centered around the Kaaba Stone. Mohammad fled to Medina, and only later returned to Mecca with force of arms, “converting” not only the inhabitants of Mecca, but also the Kaaba worship site to his “religion of peace”. The Kaaba or Black Stone is at the center of this most holy shrine in Islam, where millions worship each year as part of the Hajj. After circling the Kaaba seven times, they run to and fro, drink from a special well, stone the devil, shave their heads, and perform animal sacrifices.
Islam’s second most holy site is the Al Aqsa Mosque, also known as the Dome of the Rock, located in Jerusalem, Israel. It was built after Muslim Caliph Umar captured the city in 638 AD. That “rock” is the same threshing floor King David purchased from Araunah to be used for the temple of the God of Israel (2 Samuel 24:24).
The Hagia Sophia, a Christian cathedral dedicated to the second person of the Trinity, the Logos, remained so for a thousand years, until Constantinople was overrun by the Ottoman Turks and the Cathedral was converted to a Mosque.
Beginning to see a pattern?
Interestingly, concurrent with today’s news of the building of the Cordoba House Mosque at Ground Zero, is a controversy in Spain over the – surprise! – Cordoba Cathedral. Muslim groups believe they should be allowed to worship Allah in the Catholic Church, since the site was the former Great Mosque of Cordoba. So it would appear that Muslims are not the only religions taking over others’ sacred sites. Except for one little thing: the Great Mosque of Cordoba replaced the Christian Cathedral dedicated to St Vincent of Saragossa, a 3rd Century Christian who refused to burn the Word of God, choosing rather to die a martyr’s death.
So by now, no one should be surprised that Islam wants to erect a Mosque near the site of Islam’s greatest 21st Century conquest. They exercised Islamic Freedom of Religion on 9/11, and now they want to finish what they started.
Don’t forget, Islam means submission.