Some good news

A while ago I wrote about the stalemate over the re-building of a Greek Orthodox Church in Lower Manhattan that had been destroyed in the 9/11 attacks. It seems that the stalemate might be on its way to being resolved.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that he, joined by Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward, representatives of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and St. Nicholas Parish and Majority Leader Dean Skelos, signed the agreement that permits the rebuilding of the Church with a nondenominational bereavement center at the east end of Liberty Park, at 130 Liberty Street. The agreement follows a four-month independent engineering study commissioned by the Port Authority and the Archdiocese, which found that the Church could be built on the site with minor modifications to the original plan and with no impact on the World Trade Center construction schedule.

Next stage: the actual building of the church.

A real reformist Muslim

This is very well worth reading: an article by Irshad Manji about the Ground Zero mosque Islamic community centre and prayer space, about Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and about tolerance. Professor Manji suggests that whenever people feel inclined to support the building of a mosque in the name of religious tolerance they should ask where the men's side will be thus establishing whether it will be segregated and whether women will even be allowed into the building.

Un-American Activity?

The days of HUAC are long gone (and by the way that was House Un-American Activities Committee, therefore had nothing to do with Senator McCarthy) but as we have noticed for some time or, to be precise, ever since people have started treating President Obama just like any other politician and criticize or disagree with him, the tendency to throw that expression around has increased. Most recently the accusations have been levelled at those who opposed the building of the Muslim Centre and mosque near Ground Zero. They do not oppose building it in general somewhere in New York, where there already are numerous mosques, but on that particular spot. Faugh, we hear, how un-American. Why? Errm, well, errm, freedom of religion and whatever.

Roger Simon has appealed to Speaker Pelosi, who has been throwing around the expression rather freely, to investigate him before anyone else. One could say that this shows Mr Simon to be somewhat egocentric but he is a writer and a commentator so that goes with the territory. Madam Speaker has suggested that there should be a government investigation of who is financing the opposition to the mosque on Ground Zero and given that the majority of the population is in that opposition, the financing must be phenomenal.

But what's this? Apparently, at some point when she was clarifying what she said or her office was clarifying what she said (what a lot of clarifying goes on these days among politicians) Madam Speaker also suggested that there should be some investigation of the financing behind the organization that is determined to build a whacking big mosque near Ground Zero.

James Taranto thinks that there is only one possible outcome: Madam Speaker will have to be investigated for Un-American Activity. After all, Mayor Bloomberg thought that the Republican gubernatorial candidate in New York was indulging in UAA when he called for transparency on the subject. Then why not the Speaker? Not to mention various other Democrat politicians who, staring at the looming November elections, are coming out against that mosque. If HUAC is reconstituted it will be a very busy organization.

A little bit of trouble near Ground Zero

This was sent by a regular reader of this blog, who pointed out that this could be of interest with all that fuss about a certain place of worship that is being discussed somewhat vehemently on the other side of the Pond. It seems that while the building of the Muslim centre and a mosque just there next to Ground Zero is a matter of the First Amendment, the rebuilding of the Greek Orthodox church in Lower Manhattan that was actually destroyed on 9/11 is of less importance.

Fox News reports that negotiations between the church and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (not an organization I have much admiration for) have broken down. Without taking sides as I do not know the truth of what was said by whom and when, I cannot help wondering whether the President will make any comments about this. Of course, whatever he says will have to be withdrawn the following day.