New
York Mayor Michael Bloomberg: Could it be that he's part
of
a Jewish conspiracy to build a mosque near Ground Zero?
The Jakarta Post, Indonesia
The Ground Zero Mosque,
Jewish People and Indonesia
"If it
isn't paranoia to believe that a grand Jewish conspiracy was responsible for
the September 11 attacks - a suggestion, in fact, that was the headline of a
major newspaper in this country just days later - I don’t know the meaning of
the word 'paranoia.'"
Feisal Abdul Rauf, executive director of the Cordoba Initiative, has traveled the world to talk to moderate Muslims on behalf of the U.S. State Department. He now finds himself ensconsed in a fierce battle to prevent his initiative from being completed.
JAKARTA: I'm
not quite sure whether anti-Semitism is an issue in Indonesia, but judging by
the easy availability of books with incendiary themes of some Jewish conspiracy
to control the world, people in this country have a strong suspicion toward
Jewish people - to say the least.
Add to this to the frequent
missteps made by the Israeli government in dealing with the Palestinian
occupation and suspicion can easily turn to paranoia toward anything Jewish.
If it isn't paranoia to believe
that a grand Jewish conspiracy was responsible for the September 11 attacks - a
suggestion, in fact, that was the headline of a major newspaper in this country
just days later - I don’t know the meaning of the word "paranoia."
Late last year, I attended a
seminar where speakers, without a hint of irony, discussed how this Jewish
conspiracy was responsible for almost all of society's ills, including our
changing diets, the outbreak of mysterious illnesses, adding Alzheimer's to a
vaccine for hajj pilgrims and even our changing educational curriculum.
Whenever George Soros, the
wealthy Jewish financier drops by at the State Palace, some people on the
fringe of the political spectrum suspected he was cooking up yet another
sinister plan to control the country.
I'm no believer in
conspiracies. I agree with British author Joseph Conrad who said
that all notions of political plots and conspiracies are childish; just crude
inventions for the theater or a novel. Yet I have had difficulty proving that
such paranoid people are wrong.
And then the Ground Zero mosque
controversy broke out.
Some conspiracy theorists don’t
want to admit this, but long before President Barack Obama threw in his support
for the construction of the Muslim community center on a site two blocks from
Ground Zero, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg championed the plan. That's right
- Bloomberg is a Jewish financier who made his fortune by founding the financial
news and data company Bloomberg, which comprises about a third of the $16
billion global financial data market.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
In his emotional speech to
defend the construction of the community center and mosque, Bloomberg said that
the project should go ahead as, “this nation was founded on the principle that
the government must never choose between religions, or favor one over another.”
[video below]. In taking this position, Bloomberg first consulted those who are
for and against the community center, including Muslim community leaders in New
York.
In backing the project, Bloomberg
heeded the suggestions of local Muslims, saying that the community center would
be the only place in New York City dedicated to having Muslims share their faith
with Jewish and Christian friends.
Construction of the center is
also a personal crusade for Bloomberg. He wants to repay the injustice that
befell his own family. In an unwelcoming Massachusetts suburb, his parents had
to ask their Christian lawyer to purchase a house and sell it back to them in
order to hide their identity. Bloomberg may just think that under his watch, Muslims
shouldn't be victims of discrimination.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
And he isn't the only Jewish person
defending the Ground Zero mosque.
Pulitzer Prize-winning
columnist Thomas Friedman, a Jew from Minnesota, was another early defender of
the project, believing that construction
of the mosque will further nurture American diversity, which will in turn
boost the country’s most competitive advantage: “The sheer creative energy that
comes when you mix all our diverse people and cultures together.”
Friedman said in his August 3
column Broadway
and the Mosque, that defending the mosque also means defending Broadway
- the epitome of American cultural diversity.
What about Jews in the White
House?
For all I know, Obama’s chief
adviser David Axelrod has been reduced to chief spokesman for Obama’s stance on
the project. Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel - a Chicago Jew who once served in
the Israeli Defense Force and is arguably the most powerful voice in the White
House - must certainly have had something to say during the discussion that led
Obama to enter the debate on controversy. If, as reports tell us, he failed to
convince Obama to stay out of it, we now know that Jews don’t always get the
upper hand.
Cynics will dismiss this as
nothing but politics, but I'll be more than happy to highlight these points to
demonstrate that reality is never as simple as conspiracy theorists want us to think.
*M. Taufiqurrahman is a
staff writer at The Jakarta Post
