The announcement Monday by Hamburg police that they had closed down the mosque where Mohamed Atta and some of his comrades had prayed and schemed reminds us that the other-worldly activity of worship is not all that may be done in a Muslim house of prayer. The decade-long inquiry into the Hamburg mosque shows just how scrupulous Western police can be when they are faced with mayhem by religious fanatics.
In Catalonia, the mayor of Lleida reopened the mosque he had closed but warned that intolerance would not be allowed in the city.
One of the issues with the Ground Zero mosque is no one other than its officials knows who will pay for it. Perhaps Mayor Bloomberg also thinks this information is protected by the First Amendment. Do you really think that, for example, a Wahabi cleric should be established as New York’s—or America’s—premier preacher, whatever his views on women, sex, marriage, other Muslim sects, Christians and Jews, civil society et al?