Palin: Ground Zero mosque an 'unnecessary provocation'
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/07/19/art.palin.0515r4.gi.jpg caption ="Sarah Palin said Sunday that plans to build a mosque at Ground Zero are an ‘unnecessary provocation.’"] (CNN) - Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has weighed in on the controversy surrounding the proposed construction of a mosque and community center near "Ground Zero," the site of the 9/11 terror attack in New York City, calling it an "unnecessary provocation."
"Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts," Palin wrote in a Twitter post Sunday. "Pls reject it in interest of healing."
The former Republican vice presidential nominee also posted a plea to "peaceful New Yorkers," asking them to "pls refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @ Twin Towers site is too raw, too real."
Plans to build a $100 million, 13-story center - focused on what backers describe as Islamic, interfaith and secular programming - has sparked an emotional debate.
New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission is scheduled to hold a key vote in August on whether an 1850s structure currently on the site of the proposed center should be granted landmark status. Even if landmark status is approved, however, it may not necessarily halt construction of the center.
Voices opposing the mosque dominated a hearing on the subject last week.
"It would be a terrible mistake to destroy a 154-year-old building in order to build a monument to terrorism," one woman said.
The heckling and intense nature of the hearing got to be too much for some participants.
"I'm ashamed to be an American today," said Rakif Gathwari, a Muslim-American, who reminded the crowd that people from many countries and religions died in the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
"I want to prove to this hall that I am a citizen," Gathwari said, holding up his passport.
Some Muslim community leaders say the mosque could provide an opportunity for improving interfaith relations.
The project, according to a Muslim outreach group called the Cordoba Initiative, calls for the construction of a mosque, a performing arts center, a gym, a swimming pool and other public spaces.
- CNN's Deb Feyerick, Julian Cummings, Ed Payne and Alan Silverleib contributed to this report
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You mean sort of like lying that Obama "pals around with terrorists", or that Health Care Reform includes "Death Panels", or getting her campaign rally attendees to shout "kill him" when she mentions Obama?? Last time I looked it wasn't illegal to be Muslim. Only very narrow-minded fundamentalists seem to believe so.
Just another tweet from the twit...
SHE, in all of her hillbilly ignorance, is an unnecessary provacation - with her hate, fear, paranoia.
Vote NO to the party of NO in NOvember.
How can you argue this?
How can you defend the fact that a muslim mosque is being erected at the murder scene of 2998 Americans on the tenth aniversary of the attack?
I don't have a problem with ANOTHER mosque in NYC. Just build it somewhere else!
Sarah Palin is an unnecessary provocation.
Ooooh! Palin used big words provocation! All she has to do next is look up it's definition right along with Socialism.
So much for freedom of religion in this hypocritical country.
Palin jumping in as usual to keep her name in the news.
Shut up and go away Sarah. I doubt you even know what a mosque is norcan find the Middle East on a map.
You just are always looking for a media opportunity to spout more your extremism and total stupidity. You have no credibility, are a joke, and more than 80% of Americans say you are not qualified for ANY office. Why the media keeps posting every idiotic thing you say is really annoying and NOT news.
Ding bat is at it again. If the media came as much attention to matters that effect this country instead of butts like Palin and the tea bags and Bachmann we might really find out how common the republicans are. How they want to give the rich and big business tax breaks and more money while taking it away from the poor and middle class.
AND WHO WANTS TO REDISTRIBUTE WEALTH. WHY REPUBLICANS OF COURSE. They want the rich and big business to have it all. Bush started it and the republican creeps in congress want to keep it going.
It's not a monument for terrorism... you idiots still haven't figured out that there are people in this world that do not choose to follow the same reigion as you do and this needs to be accepted. If anything maybe the mosque/community center is a way to help muslums that have had their religion raked through the mud by intolerant bigots heal from the pain of their losses on 9/11/2001.
I thought America was about tolerance of people that are different... we wanted the freedom to practice religion anywhere...not just where the white bigots want us to.
This is an EXPANSION of a mosque which has been in the area for a long time. I not sure how you can legally deny them the right to build it anyway. However, the key point is that they are expanding services for an existing mosque.
A more exact "unnecessary provocation" would be a preemptive attack on a sovereign nation based on falsified documentation.
Why on earth shouldn't Muslims have a mosque near ground zero? It's not like their entire religion committed a crime. In fact, in the interest of promoting peace and understanding, wouldn't a mosque serve as a powerful symbol that Muslims stand in solidarity with non-Muslims in condemning violence?
Wow ... something she said that I actually agree with. Amazing!
As someone acquianted with a few WTC victims who watched the South Tower crumble before my eyes from a midtown office building, saw NYMEX traders trudging up Third Avenue with their striped trading coats covered in WTC dust and lived with the acrid smell of death for several weeks, I STILL don't think I have any special insight or claim on 9/11 questions. So where does Sarah freaking Palin get off lecturing open-minded New Yorkers that those in the "heartland" who she purports to represent have some sort of special claim?”
Gotta believe that she doesn't know where and what ground zero is or what a mosque is. She is just jumping on the bandwagon again.
A mosque at ground zero is no more inappropriate than a Christian church near the site of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Wow! something that I can agree with Sarah Palin on.........
She probably isn't even sure where they want to build.
What makes her think she is capable of knowing what will truly ehlp healing? A Mosque and learning center may be the exact thing that is needed near the spot to help americans realize not all Muslims are bad and that hatred is not part of their culture.
This ignorant piece of moose crap enrages me! What a total and complete racist d-bag! I will NEVER, and I repeat NEVER, take her seriously. She tried to incite fear and hatred during the election and it didn't work then. I wish she would get lost ice fishing.
Palin, go back to Alaska and let the New Yorkers say what go on here!
You couldn't take care of your own state.
Sarah Palin you should move your butt out of this discussion. You are not a New Yorker, and you were not there. I am, and I was there. There are some misguided New Yorkers who have associated Islam with terrorism, but they are a minority. The numbers show this. I have no problem in Muslims having a place nearby, so that they too can pray for the muslim friends that they lost in the WTC. Some of them were my friends too.
Isn't it funny that the libs who want people arrested and locked up for holding a bible support building this mosque?
There will be no fallout for the Democrats in NYC supporting this. Every Democrat in NYC would vote for Osam Bin Laden if he had a little d next to his name.
Thing about who Democrats really are. Go by their words, actions, beliefs, and views of Americans who disagree with them. If you are a decent person you will never vote Democrat again.
Sarah, in her infinite wisdom, has once opened her stupid mouth and spoken about something of which she knows nothing. The percentage of the world population that practices the Islamic religion who even think what the extremists in their religion are doing is appropriate is infantesimal, kind of like her IQ! Just another opportunity for her to Tweet or Facebook her ignorance via CNN.
I, certainly am not a Palin, supporter...But for a change, I do agree with her.