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Originally Posted by Lamplighter

I have posted this statement by Obama, and previously posted Mayor Bloomberg's statement, in the hope that people will see that this is not an issue for partisan politics or even of the "war on terrorism".

Too late for that. Sarah Palin wasted no time using hate to gain political support. From The Economist of 7 Aug 2010:

In a tweet last month from Alaska, Ms Palin called on "peaceful Muslims" to "refudiate" the "ground-zero mosque" because it would "stab" American hearts. But why should it? Cordoba House is not being built by al-Qaeda. To the contrary, it is the brainchild of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, a well-meaning American cleric who has spent years trying to promote interfaith understanding, not an apostle of religious war like Osama bin Laden. He is modelling his project on New York's 92nd Street Y, a Jewish community centre that reaches out to other religions. The site was selected in part precisely so that it might heal some of the wounds opened by the felling of the twin towers and all that followed. True, some relatives of 9/11 victims are hurt by the idea of a mosque going up near the site. But that feeling of hurt makes sense only if they too buy the false idea that Muslims in general were perpetrators of the crime.

Even The Economist notes bin Laden is the enemy. And that blaming Muslims can only promote more pain and hate. So why do so many extremists promote that loathing. It was not just Palin.

The former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives may or may not have presidential pretensions, but he certainly has intellectual ones. That makes it impossible to excuse the mean spirit and scrambled logic of his assertion that "there should be no mosque near ground zero so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia". Come again? Why hold the rights of Americans who happen to be Muslim hostage to the policy of a foreign country that happens also to be Muslim? To Mr Gingrich, it seems, an American Muslim is a Muslim first and an American second.

... Imam Feisal says he chose "Cordoba" in recollection of a time when the rest of Europe had sunk into the Dark Ages but Muslims, Jews and Christians created an oasis of art, culture and science. Mr Gingrich sees only a "deliberate insult", a reminder of a period when Muslim conquerors ruled Spain. Like Mr bin Laden, Mr Gingrich is apparently still relitigating the victories and defeats of religious wars fought in Europe and the Middle East centuries ago. He should rejoin the modern world, before he does real harm.

Why are extremists quoted by The Economist using expressions such as "deliberate insult", "ground-zero mosque", and "stab" American hearts? Same revulsion that also said, "We want Obama to fail."

A strong movement in the Republican party even attacks their own including moderate Republicans including Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins. These Conservative Republican Senators are too liberal for extremists inspired by animosity and daily doses of Limbaugh and Beck.

This mosque made painfully obvious the hate and resulting nastiness behind extremist posts. Hate that even blames immigrants for crime waves that do not exist. Hate intentionally used by Palin to rally support.

Kudos to Imam Rauf for exposing this hate fundamental to and that inspires our extremists.