We debate the construction of a dominating 15 story Mosque near Ground Zero.  We, justifiably, debate the impact on the families, the appropriateness of the location.  We suggest; perhaps another location?  The missing parts of the conversation exist outside of these issues because there are no acceptable alternate locations.  The location is the message!

What message will this Mosque deliver to the Muslim world?  How will this Mosque be presented from the Islamist point of view?  Is this the most agressive attempt at soft Jihand we’ve ever seen?  Out of the shadows.  Relying on, our insistence in delivering soft definitions of Islamic “moderates”; our refusal to hear what we are being told or to accept the fact that what we are told by “moderates” and what they say in their world are two totally different discussions. 

It’s a set up! It’s a set up for a very important message to the Muslim world; the message?  “See, America IS weak; we build Mosques in the belly of the beast”.  “We build on American sacred ground as a message to America; Ground Zero may be sacred ground to you, but our sacred ground is just down the street.”  “We have said to America we will build on the dust of your dead and they thanked us for it, their Mayor supported us, their politicians lined up behind their Mayor.”  “We told America that your sacred ground is not sacred to us, you got what you deserved!”  These messages to a Muslim world where just 29% of those polled in the Middle East think bin Laden was involved in 9/11! (Pew Research, 2007) 

“The fools”, they will say; “they do not know who their enemy is; we told them it was us and still they do not believe it.”  “Do we allow Christian Churches or Jewish Synagogues to be built in the Umma?”  “Of course not; “we” are not fools, “we” know our enemy, our enemy is weak!” 

“Brothers, it is Allah’s will; who can stand against Allah’s will, his messenger, peace be upon him, promised us this victory we’re we only to have faith.”  “Can you feel the wind of victory at your back?”

If we don’t build it; “we have told you that America is not at war with terrorists, they are at war with Islam, this is more proof for you.”  “They refuse a community center for your Brothers and Sisters, they deny us rights they easily bestow on others.”   

One need only recall the post 9/11 spin from “moderate” Muslim spokesmen, you could not escape them?  One might recall the joyous dancing in Middle Eastern Muslim cities in celebration of the “success” of 9/11? 

These projections of messaging are not extreme, if anything there will be much more virulent anti-American rhetoric in the Muslim world than projected here.  More will be made of it there than here.  It will be a sure sign of often discussed Western decadence and inevitable decline.   It will be taken as yet more evidence of inevitable Islamic supremacy.           

People who believe they will win, usually do!  That used to be us!