Obama Defeated by Mosque?

Barack Obama has just stepped on a landmine. By approving construction of a mosque right next to Ground Zero — during a White House dinner on Friday honoring the Muslim community at the beginning of Ramadan — the 44th president has abruptly raised a question that could cause much damage for many reasons. It is even on this question of Islam in American society that the Democrats could lose the November elections. Obama gave his opponents a topic that will mobilize Republicans.

Karl Rove, former advisor to George W. Bush, must be having fun. Without trying to, Obama used a page from Rove’s cookbook: launch big debates that polarize the electorate and — since Republicans traditionally vote in larger numbers than Democrats — ensure conservative victories. If they win the November elections, conservatives will have Barack Obama — who will have given them a big helping hand — to thank.

Even though he qualified his comments 24 hours after his statements before his Muslim guests, Obama set off a storm that is not ready to die out because it touches three sensitive nerves in current American society.

1. Barack Obama spoke out while 68 percent of Americans are hostile to the construction of mosques and places of prayer in the United States; protests have been organized for several weeks across the country. Even if the president wished to recall the tradition of religious freedom on which the United States was founded, he did so at a bad time and in a bad way. Obama could have been content to bring up this religious freedom principle. But, instead of that, he gave his support to the construction of this enormous 15-story Muslim place of worship at 45 Park Place.

2. And yet, whether they are Democrats or Republicans, Ground Zero has become a sacred place for Americans, where 3,000 people died in the worst attack on the country since Pearl Harbor — an attack led by Muslims. Whether they are fanatics or not does not enter into the equation. That the Imam of this mosque does not understand the significance of his act, which he maintains is a sign of reconciliation but which is in reality viewed as a provocation, is intolerable to many Americans. Rightly so. But, this is the technique we know in Europe, which consists of constantly pushing limits by playing on the bad conscience of the citizens and appealing to religious freedom.

3. Even if his intentions are good but naïve, the question of Islam is a super sensitive topic for Barack Hussein Obama. A relatively high number of Americans is convinced that the 44th president is secretly a Muslim (which is not the case) and that he is not aggressive enough in the war on terror. “These comments will only reinforce the fears of those who are against him,”* noted an important Republican consultant. In this matter, Barack Obama is seen as having taken sides and not as an impartial arbiter for religious freedom.

And if this were not enough, the State Department sent the promoter of the Ground Zero mosque, Feisal Abdul Rauf, on a mission to Persian Gulf countries. It is not the Imam’s first mission where he is meant to speak about the quality of life for Muslims in the United States.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

*Editor’s Note: This quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.