After “analyzing” the image posted on the White House website, Bolling rhetorically asks Geller why the physician attending Barack Obama II’s birth back in 1961 never mentioned to his family that he had delivered the future 44th President of the United States.

Maybe it was because the doctor, David A. Sinclair, died in 2003, five years before Obama, a senator from Illinois, even entered the presidential race.

Doctor Who can travel through time. Doctor Sinclair, I suspect, could not.

They believe that the evul Mooslims have infiltrated Campbell’s (and Kellogg’s, it seems) to sell halal food in preparation for some imagined large scale Mooslim takeover of the US of A.

Raving lunatic Pamela Geller (of anti-”megamosque” at “Ground Zero” fame) is encouraging a boycott of Campbell’s. Considering she has maybe 100 or so loyal followers — and that’s being generous — I doubt Campbell’s will much care.

Apparently, in their conspiracy-plagued minds, Geller, Robert Spencer and other wackjobs, if you connect the dots, somehow offering halal foods to American shoppers somehow translates into aiding and abetting terrorists and an Islamic takeover of the US legal system.

I buy halal hotdogs in my local supermarket here in Jishou, mostly to avoid eating yet more pork. (They are labeled “Muslim food,” so maybe they are not officially halal.) So, if we follow the “logic” of Geller, et alia, Jishou will soon be a satellite state of the Taliban, or something.

How long has kosher food been sold in the USA? As a wild guess, I’d say at least a century. Last I checked, the US has not yet become another Jewish state. Although as the on-air rants of former CNN anchor Rick Sanchez demonstrates, some people would say the verdict is still out on that possibility.

When Hebrew National and Manichevitz start selling halal hot dogs and Passover wine, THEN I will worry.

Like I said already, New Yorkers are not stupid bigots.

According to the New York Daily News, the City Landmarks Commission will not block the razing of an old building to construct a Muslim-financed community center two blocks from the World Trade Center site.

Fire-breathing opponents to the project, led by dragonmasters Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, were banking on the Landmarks commissioners to put the kabosh on Park 51 Project, a community center that would include (oh, noez!) a mosque. Geller, Spencer and other Muslim haters were pressuring the commissioners to protect the historic value of the existing 152-year building at 45 Park Place in Lower Manhattan.

But it has none. It’s nothing special. From the News:

The Italianate building on Park Place, two blocks north of Ground Zero, simply does not meet architectural criteria for protection from the city, sources with knowledge of the issue said.

 
“The building is not worthy,” a source said. “It does not rise to the level of an individual landmark.”

Park51 Project conceptual drawing

The commission is expected to vote unanimously at its meeting Tuesday morning to let the project continue.

His interview is worth reading, because it contradicts the wild assertions made by the likes of Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, co-founders of Stop Islamization of America (SIOA).

Geller and Spencer consistently object to proximity of the project, which includes a mosque, to the former site of the World Trade Center about two blocks away. They claim the Muslim-backed center will somehow “desecrate the sacred ground” of the ruined buildings which entombed about 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.

el-Gamal’s response:

We are not at Ground Zero. In fact we’re as close to City Hall as we are to Ground Zero. Lower Manhattan is pretty small. You can’t see Ground Zero from our current building and on completion of our planned building some years from now, there won’t be any views of the Ground Zero memorial from the building. To honor those who were killed on September 11th, we have planned for a public memorial within our future facility as well as reflection space open to all.

He also mentions that there are two other mosques in Lower Manhattan, which are too crowded. He doesn’t mention that there two strip clubs also near the “sacred” WTC site.

Geller characterizes the project as a “Mega-Mosque,” like it’s huge. In fact, the project is mostly to build a community center, and the mosque

… will take up only a small portion of the final space. [It's] a question of meeting a need. This mosque will be open to all. There are probably one million Muslims in the tri-state area and several hundred thousand in New York City. We should understand that Muslim New Yorkers are part of the city and have been for a very long time. Just a few days ago, I stopped to pray at a midtown mosque, and the congregation was led by a New York City Police Officer. He was a Muslim serving our city, keeping us safe.

Geller lives in the Bronx, so I suppose she complain about the project, though her home is miles away from Lower Manhattan. One wonders where she was on 9/11/01. Spencer is not a New Yorker, as far as I know, but he speaks as if he’s got the right to tell NYC what to do.

By contrast, where was el-Gamal on 9/11?

On September 11, 2001, I went down to the site of the attacks and spent two days handing out water to first responders and other victims. Hundreds of Muslims died on that day. New Yorkers of all faiths and no faiths died together. There are also hundreds of Muslims in our police force and fire department and many Muslims who volunteered to help the injured and the hurt. One of my close friends, a Muslim and a New Yorker, headed down to Ground Zero after the attacks, and helped set up a triage.

She was buried in the rubble when the towers collapsed, but she was dug out, thank God, and went right back to work. We understand the horror of that day because we lived it. Terrorists attacked our city and our country, and terrorists have continued to threaten our city and our country. We’re proud of the many Muslims who have worked with our fellow Americans to keep our city and country safe.

So, here’s the point. This project is by New Yorkers, for New Yorkers. It’s for the people who live and work in Lower Manhattan. No one is forcing Pamela Geller or Robert Spencer, or anyone else to visit the mosque. If they don’t like where it is, then they can just shut up. It’s none of their damn business.

Let’s get some facts straight first.

I am a native New Yorker. I visited the World Trade Center at least twice before it became a pile of rubble and a tomb for 3,000 people. I was one of the millions of Americans who watched in horror as a part of my hometown – my hometown! — was destroyed live on TV.

The people, the terrorists who committed this horrible act are dead. They were extremists, crazy people. They happened to be crazy Muslim people.

Now, a group of Muslims in NYC want to convert a old, nearby building that was also damaged in the attack into a community center with mosque. Local community officials have approved the plan. The neighbors have no problem with it.

And I don’t either. Read the third and fourth paragraphs again. Then read my lips. I don’t care if they build a mosque near the former WTC site. (I refuse to call it Ground Zero. Sorry if I offend anyone. It’s not fucking Hiroshima.)

Now that we got that straight, it’s time for me to cut loose.

Would all the know-nothing, paranoid, conspiracy-theorist, bigoted, knuckle-dragging idiots just shut the fuck up? Get outta town.Take a long walk off a short pier. Stuff a sock in it. Dry up. Shut yer piehole. Find somebody to fit you with cement boots for a dip in the East River. Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, the Tea Party, Glenn Beck — I mean you! STFU!

I have never heard such a load of pure bullshit as these people have been dishing out for several weeks now. If you believe their tripe, the community center and mosque planned for a rundown building two blocks from the WTC site will do one or more of the following:

(1) desecrate sacred ground (by which they mean the WTC site, which is two blocks away and you can’t see it anyway);
(2) denigrate the memories of all the people who died or were injured on Sept. 11, 2001;
(3) serve as the headquarters of an extremist Islamic group bent on overthrowing our way of life, starting with Lower Manhattan (a great strategy — start with a densely populated metropolis);
(4) be yet another footstep toward the imposition of sharia law on Americans;
(5) celebrate the attackers as Muslim heroes;
(6) (as yet unspoken publicly, but implied) represent yet another chance for brown-skinned people to act uppity.

Here’s some background. Two blocks from the Twin Towers, at 45 Park Place, there used to be a Burlington Coat Factory outlet in an unimpressive-looking 130-year-old building. It sustained some damage when the landing gear from one of the WTC jetliners hit it. (Photo from Google Maps.)

The outlet closed, and the owners of the building put it up for sale. In 2009 a Muslim-owned development firm bought it for $4.8 million. (I’m no expert in NYC real estate, but that sounds pretty damn cheap for a 13-story building in Lower Manhattan.)

The Cordoba Initiative, a Muslim organization, intends to convert the building into a public community center that would also have a mosque and an education center for visitors to learn about Islam. It went through the regular municipal approval process for real estate development, got approval from the local community board and even has support from the neighbors, Jews, Christians, and the mayor of New York City.

Then the rightwing, anti-Islam noise machine, led by Geller and Spencer, got into the act, leveling such delusional and bigoted accusations against the Cordoba Initiative and the owners of the building that perhaps even Sen. Joe McCarthy would blush. Geller and Spencer are co-authors of a book about President Obama, The Post American Presidency, and co-founders of the quintessential paranoid’s delight, Stop Islamization of America (SIOA).

[SIOA is the same organization that interfered with the Rifqa Bary runaway case that I blogged about last year.]

Geller (whom Little Green Football’s Charles Johnson has aptly nicknamed “Shrieking Harpy”) has a blog called Atlas Shrugs, referring to the book inflicted on the reading public by polemicist Ayn Rand. Geller particularly hates Muslims, Palestinians, Arabs and anyone who she feels threatens the existence of Israel, or the USA. And I mean hate. She’s not too keen on President Obama either, since he’s got a Muslim middle name and a Muslim father. Guilt by association, dontcha know?

She refers to the building as the “Ground Zero Mega Mosque,” making it sound like the New York version of the Masjid al-Harām in Mecca. She of course adulates Sarah Palin, who wants New Yorkers to “refute” the project. She’s also nuts. Here’s a milder sample of Geller at work:

The Islamic supremacist mega mosque is a stab in the eye of every American. The question is, why there? Why did the terror-tied Imam Rauf spend five million dollars to build a triumphal mosque 600 feet from the site of the largest attack, Islamic attack in American history? There have been 15,644 Islamic attacks since 911 across the world. Each one had the imprimatur of an Islamic cleric. What is being done to expunge the koran of the violent texts that inspire jihad?

Rauf is the head of the Cordoba Initiative. Geller believes he has ties to Islamic terrorists.

Spencer hates Muslims, too, because he believes Islam teaches all infidels should die. His blog is Jihad Watch, and it features every possible news story showing how awful Muslims can be to one another, and to non-Muslims. Oh, and he’s nuts, too.

Here’s Spencer at work:

[New York Mayor Michael] Bloomberg, like so many, is confused. He assumes a priori that Islam is simply a religion like Judaism and Christianity, and thus that it can fit easily into the American civic framework the way Judaism and Christianity do. He seems to have no idea whatsoever of the political and supremacist aspects of Islamic teaching, and no awareness of the fact that the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative is an open proponent of bringing Sharia — a political system that would deny the freedom of speech and freedom of conscience, and restrict the rights of women and non-Muslims — to the United States.

Geller, who really is a New Yorker but should go someplace else, and Spencer, who isn’t, have managed to whip up such anti-Muslim hatred that hearings about the project have devolved into yelling matches about emotions and bigotry, not about, well, the actual usefulness of the project itself. (You know, turn an abandoned relic into something usable and maybe halfway attractive?)

Meanwhile, in case the project gets approved by the landmarks commission, televangelist Bill Keller has announced plans to build a Christian worship center near the WTC site, too.

Keller, who’s from Ohio and Florida, has said Islam is a “1,400-year-old lie from the pits of hell” and called the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) a “murdering pedophile.” Yet on his website he says of his project, “How do you battle the darkness? With the light!” Charming fellow.

Extremists took out the World Trade Center, but Geller, Spencer and Keller are proving that Al Qaeda operatives aren’t the only fanatical, foaming-at-the-mouth extremists. We got plenty right here in the USA.

JISHOU, HUNAN — I find the whole Rifqa Bary thing fascinating, if only because it highlights the paranoia and/or religious nuttery of some segments of the American populace. I have a Google news alert set up for “rifqa bary,” so I get a daily digest of wingnuttiness. (Frankly, I prefer Nutella, though Nussa is pretty damn good, too.)

Well, it turns out that one of the speakers at the Rally for Rifqa in Columbus (capital of the Islamic Republic of Ohio) was another Muslim-turned-Christian, Nonie Darwish, an Egyptian-born author of anti-Muslim, pro-Israel books and founder of Former Muslims United. Darwish popped up in my Google news alert because of that brief association with Rally for Rifqa.

The link was to a conservative blog called, “Ruthfully Yours: The Right News, Front and Center.” Darwish was scheduled to speak at both Columbia and Princeton Universities, but both invitations were canceled at the last moment.

Apparently, the students who had invited Darwish got wind of her anti-Muslim rhetoric a little late in the game, and changed their minds.

The blogger, Ruth King — who by the way organized the Rally for Rifqa — sees a hidden agenda in the cancellations.

For those of us chronicling the advancing islamisation of America, things have gotten decidedly worse since Obama took over. We have entered a dark age.

That’s right, folks! Soon, we will be the Islamic Republic of America! Preventing Nonie Darwish from speaking at two Ivy League schools (and keeping a minor child away from predatory Christians) is just the tip of the iceberg. Just wait until Obama replaces the entire Congress with imams especially imported from Kenya, or Indonesia, or some other place that ends in “a.”

Meanwhile, back in the Islamic University of Princeton, the student organizer of Darwish’s visit admitted that she did not vet the scheduled speaker thoroughly. (And now I get to link to the newspaper I worked at for three and a half years. Cool!) From The Daily Princetonian:

[Incidentally, the Columbia Spectator has nothing on Darwish's appearance or the cancellation, so sorry, Columbians, I can't link to your campus daily. As always, the 'Prince' is still more on the ball.]

So, if we try to follow Ruth King’s reasoning here, somehow the leadership of Tigers for Israel and the Center for Jewish Life have been islamified and turned into mindless automatons of the Worldwide Islamic Conspiracy™. Indeed, religious-right bloggers are saying the talks were canceled because of “Muslim pressure.”

Or, if we exercise the rational parts of our brains, we can see that Darwish’s own invective led to her dis-invitations. Saying that Islam “is of the devil,” or something like that, does not open doors in traditionally secular institutions like Princeton and Columbia. To put it another way, teaching hate is not socially acceptable in general society.

In the ’50s, it was the Commies. Now, it’s the Muslims. (And the gays. I reckon the antichrist will be a gay Muslim from North Korea, who also reads the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.) The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[NOTE: In the interests of full disclosure, I must now admit that I roomed with two Muslims for part of a summer while at university. One was from Turkey and the other from Pakistan; both are pursuing, to the best of my knowledge, perfectly legitimate careers in their respective countries. From them, I learned how to make a proper pot of tea and a mean chicken curry. Somehow, bomb-making and political infiltration never came up. Still, according to Ruth King and Pam Geller, I have probably been islamified, too. Guilt by association, y'know.]

People held signs that said “Free Rifqa” and “Sharia sucks. Free Rifqa Bari. (sic)” There was a large poster that showed violence done to Muslims who have converted to Christianity, as Bary said she did four years ago. People prayed, and people spoke, and people made a controversy where none exists.

Hence, a manufactroversy.

How many people? Well, one of the organizers demagogues, Pamela Geller, says “hundreds.” The Columbus Dispatch says “about 120.”

Bary ran away from her Columbus home back in September. She and her family are Muslims from Sri Lanka, and according to newspaper accounts, her parents were perfectly OK with her reading the Bible, hanging out with Christian kids, and being a cheerleader.

But her many “supporters” — most of whom are fervent Christians — fervently believe her family, or the middle-of-the-road mosque to which they belong, will put the girl to death if she is sent back to her family. Law enforcement officers discount that likelihood, but since when do True Believers™ believe John Law?

The rally “crowd” was also upset that a family court judge has closed to the public the hearings being held to decide whether Bary is an unruly teenager, as her parents allege, and whether she can leave foster care. They also have their underwear in knots about court orders restricting the girl’s access to the Internet, email and her cellphone.

To them, it’s all some kind of sinister Islamic plot to subvert the American justice system and wage war on Christians, right there in the newly formed Islamic Republic of Ohio. If they didn’t have their heads on backwards, they might realize that closing custody issue hearings and limiting a minors’ access to possibly harmful influences are pretty routine stuff, nothing to see here, folks, just move along.

Bary took off from her home after meeting some Christians on Facebook and spending time with a pastor in Columbus. Her Christian friends helped her take a bus to Orlando, Florida, where she stayed with a rather dodgy sounding Baptist minister and his wife for nearly two weeks before anyone notified Florida’s child welfare office of her whereabouts.

Meanwhile, her worried parents had no idea where she was. But, hey, it’s OK to keep them in the dark, because they’re “evil, murdering Muslims.”

You think I exaggerate? The Dispatch says some folks at the rally were wearing T-shirts that said “Islam is of the devil.” Such warm hearted folks.