Fw: Mosque of Conquest

Mosque of conquest?

By William J. Federer Â© 2010 Muslim groups are proposing a 13-story $100 million mosque in the most prominent spot in America - the heart of downtown New York Cityy near the World Trade Center site.

Is this mosque a sign of America's tolerance, or is it a sign of Muslim conquest?

The past may hold answers:

In 630, Muhammad led 10,000 Muslim soldiers into Mecca and turned the pagans' most prominent spot, the Ka'aba, into the Masjid al-Haram Mosque.

In 634, Rightly Guided Caliph Umar conquered Syria and turned the Christians' most prominent spot, the Church of Job, famous for being visited by Saint Silva in the fourth century, into the Mosque of Job.



In 638, Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem. In 691, Caliph Al-Malik ordered the _Dome of the Rock_ built on the most prominent spot in Judaism, the Temple Mount, followed by Caliph Al-Walid building the Al-Aqsa Mosque there in 705.



In 710, Gen. Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Pakistan, defiled the prominent Sun Temple in Multan, which house the great idol "sanam," and erected a mosque.


After the conquest of Egypt, Caliphs al-Mamun
(813-833) and al-Hakim (996-1021) turned prominent Coptic Christian churches and Jewish synagogues in Cairo into mosques.




In 1387, Turkish Muslims conquered Thessaloniki and turned the Katholikon Monastery and the Church of Aghia Sophia, which housed the relics of Saint Gregorios Palamas, into mosques, as Symeon of Thessaloniki recorded: "The greatest number of the buildings of the churches fell to them, of which _the first_ was the Holy Church of the Savior. … These weree trampled underfoot and the infidels rejoiced in them. … Most of thhe religious buildings in the city were despoiled, while altars were demolished and sacred things profaned."

On May 29, 1453, Sultan Mehmet II conquered Constantinople and turned the great Byzantine church, Hagia Sophia, into the Ayasofya Mosque. The _largest_ church in Christendom for a thousand years, the church's four acres of gold mosaics were covered with whitewash and Quran verses.

In 1458, Sultan Mehmet II conquered Athens and turned the Greeks' most prominent spot, the Parthenon on Acropolis hill, into a mosque. When Venetian Gen. Francesco Morosini drove the Muslims out in 1687, a cannonball hit the gunpowder stored in the mosque, blowing it up.

In the 15th century, Ottoman invaders turned Saint Clement's Macedonian Orthodox Monastery in Plaosnik, Balkans, into the Imater Mosque.


India's Mughal Muslim ruler, Jahangir (1605-1627), wrote in Tujuk-i-Jahangiri: "At the city of Banaras [was] a temple. … I  made it my plea for thhrowing down the temple …  and on the spot, with the very same materials,, I erected the great mosque."

In 1543, Hayreddin Barbarossa's 30,000 Muslim troops wintered in Toulon, France, and turned the prominent Toulon Cathedral into a mosque.






In World War II, Nazis allied with Bosnians and turned the prominent Artists' Gallery Museum in Zagreb, Croatia, into a mosque.




In 1981, Muslim immigrants to the Netherlands converted Amsterdam's historic Catholic Sint-Ignatiuskerk into the Fatih Mosque, and a synagogue in The Hague into the Aksa Mosque.


In light of history, reasonable citizens have a right to question if the mosque proposed at Ground Zero is a sign of America's tolerance, or a sign of Muslim conquest?

William J. Federer is the author of "What  Every American Needs to Know About the Quran: A  History of Islam and the United States."


Anonymous said...


If I had an awesome memory for world history, or the time to do the research, I could publish an even longer list of Christian conquests and establishment of churches.

Which would have about as much to do with the proposed Islamic Cultural Center in downtown NYC as this list does.

gruaud said...

If you think building a god
damned cultural center means
that we're on the verge being
conquered or that (gasp!) we've already been conquered...you
seriously need your prescription

CharlieE said...


Uh, OK. In that case, shouldn't we also ask about the significance of the mosque that's two blocks away that's been there since 1970, as well?

ferschitz said...

Well the Park 51 cultural center isn't a Mosque, and it's not at Ground Zero. and Ground Zero ain't sacred.

So, what's the deal?

Oh yeah: it's an election year; a black fella's in the White house; so let's gin up a buncha stupid outrage over nothing proving once again how nasty and bigoted US citizens have become these days.

Great! Got it.

Hooray4US said...


Bigoted 'Baggers are now against their former "messiah" Gen. Petraeus, who is warning that all this anti-Muslim hysteria, including the stupidity about Park 51 and this jerk in FL burning the Holy Korans. It might be bad for our troops, as in those in Muslim countries may dislike the USA even more and be more retaliatory to our troops.

But hey! Who the EFF does Gen Betrayus think he is? And WTF do 'Baggers care about useless troops who cost 'Baggers' money, esp when there's a Democrat in the White House, and did we mention the President is BLACK???????

Conservatives continue to jump the shark, moving whining temper-tantrum throwing jerks, to being complete bigoted bullies, and now to being almost traiterous.

But IOKIYAR continues to prevail. Disgusting.

Anonymous said...

If RightWingers really feel threatened by Islam, they might want to actually find out something about the religion--like which sect are the fundamentalists. (Hint Sunnis' are not the ones building this mosque.) The mosque will mean as much to al qada as a Presbyterian church means to a Mormon.

Anonymous said...

Now, which righteous Caliph conquered an abandoned Burlington Coat Factory and turned into a mosque?

Because I would not want to be that conqueror's PR guy.

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