DAR AL HARB - U.S.A. - FLORIDA: POLITICIANS PANDERING TO MOSLEMS

Were our planners pandering to Muslims in approving mosque?
By JOHN HERBERT

The traffic and noise arguments that kept a Wal-Mart off Barclay Avenue were not enough to block the building of a big Muslim mosque north of Elgin-Powell Road.

The neighbors tried, but the net result of a Hernando County Planning and Zoning Board unanimous decision recently to green-light the mosque is that we could be breeding tiny terrorist cells right in our own back yards. The board was no doubt bending over backwards not to show any prejudice, even though the Tampa Bay area has sustained its share of Islamic-related grief. There are already two churches on Barclay, so what's another house of worship, for 400 Muslims?

Of course, there are good reasons to welcome a Muslim mosque to our neighborhood. Foremost, there's a 400 BC saying by Chinese military guru Sun-tzu: "keep you friends close and your enemies closer." There are two words why we shouldn't open the door to more potential Muslim terrorism: The attacks of 9/11.

Yes, I realize the excuse has probably worn thin by now. But so has Muslim barbarity. Our planners probably thought they were ringing one up for world peace as well as for anti-discrimination. But there are limits to political correctness. Our bureaucratic decision-makers must realize that Muslims just don't want any Western enlightenment.Name another world-class religion that has the abolition of Israel and the extermination of all Jews "by the end of time" on its to-do list. Not every move the Muslims make is Israeli- or American-targeted terrorism. The Muslims have commanded bloody headlines throughout Western Europe.

They've killed thousands of what they see as "infidels" in Africa, among Indian Hindus and Thai Buddhists. The Indonesians and Philippinos have their own sordid memories of Muslim terror. And we have the current wave of terror in Iraq where differing Muslim sects are pitted against each other.

As if those examples of Muslim "ideology" aren't enough, Anna-Liisa Covell, the woman on the planning board, wouldn't have the right to vote, to drive or even to work if Islam had its way here.

Mrs. Covell would also be subject to those "quaint" Muslim traditions of multilation, of being stoned to death and of watching her grandchildren grow up to be suicide bombers.

At least she doesn't have to worry about the standard Muslim treatment of gays: hang them from the nearest or highest tree. I assume Hernando County's planning board was well meaning enough to welcome the Muslim mosque. But the members have a lot left to learn about international relations. Not to mention Muslim ideology.

There are certainly many peace-loving Muslims in the Tampa Bay area. They enjoy a totally Western lifestyle, even jogging with their customary headgear still on. Why are they so silent, then, when we are up against radical Muslims who are hogging all the ink?


Pertinent Links:

1) Were our planners pandering to Muslims in approving mosque?