NBC and CBS have refused to broadcast this 60 second spot, sponsored by the National Republican Trust, a conservative organization that promotes American values and supports candidates running for government positions. 

As of Thursday afternoon, “Kill the Ground Zero Mosque,” has gotten more than 134,000 hits on YouTube . The ad, which pulls no punches, presents graphic footage of the September 11 attacks, including a clip of one of the hijacked planes crashing into one of the Twin Towers and one of the victims plunging to his death.  It also dares to show Islamic militants. 

The advertisement asks Americans to join the fight to “kill the Ground Zero mosque.”  

Part of the narrative of the ad reads as follows:

On September 11, they declared war against us and to celebrate that murder of 3,000 Americans, they want to build a monstrous thirteen-story mosque at ground zero.  Where we weep, they rejoice. That mosque is a monument to their victory and an invitation for war. A mosque at ground zero must not stand. 

NBC Universal advertising standards manager Jennifer Riley claims the use of the word “they” is open for misinterpretation.  She wrote in a letter:

An ad questioning the wisdom of building a mosque at ground zero would meet our issues of public controversy advertising criteria.  However, this ad, which ambiguously defines ‘they’ as referenced in the spot, makes it unclear as to whether the reference is to terrorists or to the Islamic religious organization that is sponsoring the building of the mosque. Consequently the ad is not acceptable under our guidelines for broadcast.

What are the motives of  “the Islamic Religious Organization” that is behind the Cordoba initiative, lead by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf ?  Here is some revealing information, from militantislammonitor.org:

The American Society for the Advancement of Muslims proclaims their Islamism by name. ASMA promotes jihad through da’wa and the Islamization of the West by grooming “Muslim Leaders of tomorrow”.   At the Saudi backed 2006 MLT conference in Denmark “moderate”Islamists discussions of how to increase Muslim political and social influence were euphemistically termed “bridge building”.

The Cordoba Initiative /Islamic Dialogue is led by ASMA and is also headed by the Imam of the New York Masjid Al Farah. Together with his wife Daisy Khan, they are trying to put a yuppie face on Islamism.   ASMA can be viewed as an American version of Hizb ut Tahrir after an “extremist makeover” where the khalifate idea has been couched in kumbaya.  ASMA’s young and contemporary facade makes their radical ideology harder to detect, which poses more of a threat then an overtly aggressive organisation which refers to non-Muslims as kuffars. In reality, ASMA members share the same hard-line as the radicals and their use of legal and stealth Islamist strategies makes it difficult to thwart their da’wa attempts which are made under the guise of interfaith and tolerance but are actually pushing Islam as the only true religion . An ASMA Q&A reveals the Islamist view that the “perfection” of Judaism and Christianity is found only in Islam and is another example of the concept of all non-Muslims “reverting” back to what is presented as the origins of their religions.

Although CBS did not issue an official statement, a spokesperson told The Washington Times that the ad “did not meet broadcast standards.”  Weasels.

Plans to build the $100 million, 13-story Islamic center near the site of the September 11 attacks have been in the news since May.  A vast majority of Americans believe it would be inappropriate and insensitive to families who lost loved ones during the attacks. 

More than half of New York voters oppose building the mosque, a  Quinnipiac University poll published July 1st, found.

A solid 52% of voters in the five boroughs don’t want the mosque to be built-in lower Manhattan, and just 31% support it.

Manhattan voters are the most supportive of the mosque, with 46% in favor.  More Liberals live there.

The strongest opposition came from Staten Island, where 73% of voters are dead set against it.

Community Board 1, representing lower Manhattan, voted in favor of building the mosque in May. Most politicians who represent the area have thrown their support behind it.

Those for and against the proposed mosque almost got violent during a passionate three-hour hearing of New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission Tuesday night.

The hearing was supposed to be a forum for testimony on whether the building at 45-47 Park Place, near Ground Zero, is worth preserving.  The structure dates back to the late 1850s. Preservation Commission spokeswoman Elisabeth de Bourbon said the building housed the headquarters of the Merck pharmaceutical company in the 1920s and in more recent years served as a discount clothing store.  She said she was not sure what the current owner, the Muslim outreach group the Cordoba Initiative, has been up to in the building, but people there at Tuesday night’s meeting said it was being used for prayer services.

The commission is scheduled to vote in August on whether to grant the structure landmark status, even though the Community Board of lower Manhattan, in a vote that was apparently pre-determined before they even showed up, proclaimed earlier this month that the building wasn’t architecturally significant enough to merit landmark status.

De Bourbon said just being declared a landmark would not prevent the Cordoba Initiative from making alterations to the existing structure or making it into an Islamic cultural center (mosque).  Landmark status is designed to preserve the exterior appearance of a building in New York.  It does not restrict the use of a building, nor does it prevent a property owner from adding on floors, she said.

Even if the proposed site for the mosque on Park Place is declared a landmark, “changes can be made to a landmark building with approval from the Landmark Preservation Commission,” de Bourbon said.

What happened at the hearing was fairly expected, because if the commission rules that the building doesn’t deserve the landmark status, the Muslims won’t need any additional city permission to demolish the old building and move ahead with the mosque construction.

New York residents against the building of the mosque took over the hearing.

One woman said:

It would be a terrible mistake to destroy a 154-year-old building in order to build a monument to terrorism.

Some of those at the hearing, including Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio, expressed their concerns over the suspicious nature of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the head of the Cordoba Initiative.   Feisal just happened to be out of the country and did not attend the hearing.

Lazio called for an investigation into the funding of the mosque.

Per Lazio:

We’re asking for a delay in the process to get some answers.

Given the perceived rush by New York City Government officials and the way they have bent over backwards for Imam Rauf and the Cordoba Initiative, answers would be very welcome in this appalling mess.

Sources:   you tube,washingtontimes.com, cnn.com, militantislammonitor.org