Observing Ramadan without fasting and prayers

It is the new year in the traditional calendar back in the old country.  This time, it coincides with Ramadan.

I suppose it can look bizarre for this atheist to post about religious observances like Ramadan.  But, I have never been one of those militant atheists making a fanatical religion out of atheism.  As long as the religious do not impose their practices on me, I seek nothing but peaceful coexistence with them.  And enjoy food and laughter and conversations with them. 

Furthermore, I am not that different from most atheists in that we reach the conclusion not with ignorance about religions, particularly the religion with which we were raised.  Even through my agnostic teenage years, I was curious about the Hindu faith and its philosophy.  Which is also why I am so familiar with ideas like dukrijnkarane that I talk about. 

Curiosity then made me find out at least a tiny bit about a few other religions.  Unlike most of the truly religious who are committed to only knowing about their own beliefs, we atheists often end up knowing a tad more about various religions.

For all the non-believer that I am, I consciously think about my existence, and worry about what it means to be human.  When bad things come my way, like when I get laid off in a Zoom meeting, I do not need a god to turn to.

"Shit happens" I tell myself.  And, for the most part, I expect shit to happen more frequently than it does.  I am acutely aware that the entire cosmos does not exist only to serve me!  The cosmos is. It doesn't have feelings towards me or you or anybody else.

In my framework, whether it is Rama Navami or Ramadan, or whatever, those religious days are designated times in order to help us mortals reflect on our fleeting existence on this "mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam," as Carl Sagan so poetically put it.  These special religious days are intentional pauses to our everyday lives.  A forced interruption that then makes us think, for at least a few minutes, about what we want to do with the little time we have on this planet.

In fact, the disconnect between such need for introspection versus the believers merely reciting the Vishnu Sahasranaamam and the Bhaja Govindam and more was the point of departure for the young me questioning the idea of god and religion and belief.  I was convinced then, and even more convinced I am now, that living a moral life has nothing to do with god and religion.

What does a true believer do during Ramadan?

By abstaining from things that people tend to take for granted (such as water), it is believed, one may be moved to reflect on the purpose of life and grow closer to the creator and sustainer of all existence. As such, engaging in wrongdoing effectively undermines the fast. Many Muslims also maintain that fasting allows them to get a feeling of poverty, and this may foster feelings of empathy.

A noble idea, right?  And this is something we ought to think about every day.  Don't we want to be empathetic every day of our lives?

Empathy is what is emphasized in Gandhi's favorites among the prayer music.  While the reference to the Hindu god, Vishnu, might distract a militant atheist or anyone committed to other religions, I ignore the Vishnu part and appreciate, and love, the ideas expressed there: 

Vaishnav people are those who:

Feel the pain of others,

Help those who are in misery 

Wouldn't you want to be friends with such people?  Wouldn't you want to be such a person?  A wonderful ideal to work towards, though a tall order for most of us mortals.

Reflecting on life in the time of the coronavirus

As I have often mentioned here, religious high holy days are important moments for this atheist to think about existence in this cosmos that I do not comprehend.  Ramadan provides me with yet another opportunity to think about it, this time against the backdrop of a global pandemic.

Ramadan begins today, and it will be completely unlike all the previous years through the centuries:

Around the world, Muslims will not be able to observe the holiday as they normally do — with 30 nights of communal prayer and post-sunset feasting. Instead, they’ll spend the long days of fasting mostly in their own homes.

Such is life now in which we find ourselves locked up in our homes, unable to get together with friends and family.   Everything is shut down!

The virus has emptied Islam’s holiest sites at the most sacred time of year. The Ka’bah, the gold-embroidered shrine in Mecca’s Grand Mosque, is closed to worshippers along with the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina and Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque.

Caption at the source: A nearly deserted Ka’bah in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on 7 April.

The pandemic does not stop this Islamophobic President from offering juicy anti-Muslim red meat to his base.  "our politicians seem to treat different faiths very differently ... They go after Christian churches but they don't tend to go after mosques."

The deafening sound that you hear is that of 63 million people cheering him!

As I wrote in this post seven years ago, in 2013, Ramadan "is an intentional pause to our everyday lives.  A forced interruption that then makes us think, for at least a few minutes every day, about what we want to do with the little time we have on this planet."  Unfortunately for the rest of us, this President and his toadies have a clear and starkly different idea of what they want to accomplish with the little time that they too have on this pale blue dot that we call home :(

The following is a slightly edited post from July 10, 2013:
**************************************************

I suppose it can look contradictory for this atheist to post about religion but without critiquing it.  But, I have never been one of those militant atheists making a fanatical religion out of atheism.  As long as the religious do not impose their practices on me, I seek nothing but peaceful coexistence with them.  And enjoy food and laughter and conversations with the faithful.

Furthermore, I am not that different from most atheists in that we reach the conclusion not with ignorance about religions, particularly the religion with which we were raised.  Even through my agnostic teenage years, I was curious about the Hindu faith and its philosophy.  Which is also why I am so familiar with dukrijnkarane.  And then curiosity made me find out at least a tiny bit about a few other religions.

This being Ramadan time, I have been thinking more about Islam.  It is a tragedy that the hysterical suspicions about followers of that religion prevents us from even appreciating the arts and literature that grew out of that faith. Thus, Rumi and his mystical works are among the many that get sidelined.  Of course, according to Islamists, Rumi and other sufis were not "real" Muslims.  All the more the reason the world will be better off without those crazy Islamists who make it difficult for all of us!

The way I--an atheist--interpret the Ramadan is this: it is an intentional pause to our everyday lives.  A forced interruption that then makes us think, for at least a few minutes every day, about what we want to do with the little time we have on this planet.  Especially with Ramadan coinciding with the hot summer days in the northern hemisphere, it is a wonderful time to stop doing whatever it is that we do day in and day out and ponder some serious questions instead.

As we do, I bet we will immediately realize that Rumi was profound when he distilled the wisdom to this:

Inside the Great Mystery that is,
we don't really own anything.
What is this competition we feel then,
before we go, one at a time, through the same gate?

May our politicians gain this wisdom from Rumi!

Sunrise ... (to) ... Sunset

Ramadan began Sunday evening here in the US.

Chances are that tRump has not tweeted--presidentially--about Ramadan.  After all, he is no Justin Trudeau, who said that in English and in French too!

But, the great dictator's office did put out a formal release:

I wonder if his white-supremacist, Islamophobic supporters will approve of their Dear Leader's office issuing such statements!

Muslims are required to from abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual relations from dawn to sunset.  Though, Neil deGrasse Tyson adds more to the timing of it all:

The Qur’an says plainly that daytime fasting during Ramadan ends at “Dark” not at sunset. “Dark” is a good match for the end of twilight. This time of year: up to 15 mins later in equatorial latitudes. 30 mins at middle latitudes. And 45 mins at higher latitudes. I’m just saying. pic.twitter.com/XAseweAIhM

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) May 6, 2019

I, of course, do not observe this or any religion's practices.  I don't fast either.  When "in moderation" is my mantra, when there is no binge involved--not even in reading or watching videos--to deny myself anything does not appeal to me.  Especially when it comes to food.

However, oddly enough, I seem to mark the passage of time by even noting the major religious observances.  It is almost as if I am an atheist without a cause ;)

Ramadan Mubarak!

Ramadan Mubarak!

Fasting. Prayer. Charity. Forgiveness. Renewal. That’s what Ramadan means to me. Here are a few things you may not know about it: https://t.co/hdZipWD0hQ

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) May 5, 2019

A season to reflect

For the atheist that I am, following the news means that I am always updated on some of the major religious observances.  Thanks to the Mardi Gras parties in New Orleans, for instance, I know that we are in the season of Lent.  Oddly enough, Fat Tuesday nearly coincided with Mahashivarathri--one could have combined both the religious/social practices and had parties throughout the night ;)

I wonder how many serious Catholics gave up anything tRump for Lent ;)

Soon after the Easter yard signs--with evangelicals reminding even non-believers that he died to save us--are put away, it will be Ramadan.

Of course, this year, too, we can expect the fake-Christian-in-chief, tRump, to stay away from saying anything about the fasting and god, or, at best, he will use that as an opportunity to remind his base that Muslims are terrorists.

But, this year, he will have at least two women across from the White House to remind him that there are Muslims in America.  And one even wears a hijab!

Bush junior, who now in contrast to tRump comes across as the grand old sage of the Grand Old Party, took the higher and correct road even in the immediate aftermath of 9/11:

Former President George W. Bush’s Ramadan message, delivered just months after the September 11 terrorist attacks, didn’t mention terrorism at all. Instead, it focused on the diversity within the American Muslim community, whose members “serve in every walk of life, including our armed forces.”

What a contrast now with the evil simply oozing from the Oval Office and through his 63 million voters :(

And when Ramadan ended last year? No iftar!

Despite events held by previous administrations from across the political divide, this year’s Ramadan – which began on 26 May – passed nearly unobserved by the White House. It was marked only by a statement published late on Saturday afternoon, coinciding with the end of the holy month.
The first White House iftar dinner is said to have been hosted by President Thomas Jefferson in 1805. Guests included a Tunisian ambassador to the US.
Hillary Clinton, when she was first lady, resurrected the event in February 1996, hosting about 150 people for a reception for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month.

Muslim-loving Crooked Hillary; Lock her up!

For all the non-believer that I am, I consciously think about my existence, and worry about what it means to be human.  "Shit happens" I tell myself.  After all, it is not as if the entire cosmos exists only to serve me!  The cosmos is.  Yet, I seem to consciously mark the passing of time as memorialized by religious days like Ramadan, Lent, Deepavali, ...

Whether it is Lent, or Ramadan, or whatever, I am not ever sure that most of the believers really use that designated time in order to reflect on our fleeting existence on this "mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam," as Carl Sagan so poetically put it.

Eid Mubarak!

"What did you cook for Eid?" I asked my sister.

Of course, there is no Eid celebration in the traditional Hindu household.  But, she played along.  "I should have cooked mutton."

The month-long Ramadan fast comes to an end.

Here's a thought: Have you asked yourself how people in Yemen or Syria might observe Eid when they are in the middle of terrible wars?  Especially in Yemen, which the United Nations has declared as one hell of a humanitarian crisis?

First, a recap of conditions in Yemen:

Yemen’s civil war has already led to what the United Nations described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis — at least three million displaced by fighting, a cholera epidemic that is now the largest outbreak ever recorded, and eight million people on the brink of starvation.

You think people there were thinking about Eid in such a situation?

Source

And, guess what?  Saudi Arabia, which is where Islam began, and the country leading a coalition in order to fight the proxy war against Iran, decided that such a humanitarian crisis is not enough.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and UAE-backed Yemeni forces launched an assault to retake Hodeidah, a Houthi-held port city through which 70 to 80 percent of commercial and humanitarian supplies enter Yemen.

Why is this a big fucking deal?

“A military attack or siege on Hodeidah will impact hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians,” Lisa Grande, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, warned in a statement  before the offensive began. “In a prolonged worst case, we fear that as many as 250,000 people may lose everything — even their lives.”

The misery is well into three years now:

The Saudis and Emiratis intervened in the war three years ago with hopes of a quick victory over the Houthis, whom they see an Iranian proxy. Instead, the two nations have been stuck in a quagmire.

Perhaps you wonder what the US is up to here.  After all, America rarely stays away from any opportunity to bomb the shit out of brown people, as George Carlin liked to say.  Right?  Especially when we now have a President who hates brown-skinned shitholers and he also hates Iran.  So, this Yemen war is a twofer:

With little public attention or debate, the president has already expanded US military assistance to his Saudi and UAE allies – in ways that are prolonging the Yemen war and increasing civilian suffering. Soon after Trump took office in early 2017, his administration reversed a decision by former president Barack Obama to suspend the sale of over $500m in laser-guided bombs and other munitions to the Saudi military, over concerns about civilian deaths in Yemen.

But, don't ever think that Obama was any angel of peace.  I have blogged a lot about that when was the President.  In this August 2016 post, for instance, I worried that Obama's legacy will include droning the shit out of brown people!

While who is the Oval Office might make a difference in domestic affairs, when it comes to dropping bombs over brown people, it is a free-for-all.

From 2009 to 2016, the Obama administration authorized a record $115bn in military sales to Saudi Arabia, far more than any previous administration. Of that total, US and Saudi officials signed formal deals worth about $58bn, and Washington delivered $14bn worth of weaponry.
Much of that weaponry is being used in Yemen, with US technical support.

trump has merely taken that to a whole new level!

Like much of his chaotic foreign policy, Trump is escalating US military involvement in Yemen without pushing for a political settlement to the Saudi-led war. His total support for Saudi Arabia and its allies is making the world’s worst humanitarian crisis even more severe.

So, at best, it will be a subdued Eid celebration in Yemen :(

It is up to us to create a heaven right here on earth

For all the non-believer that I am, I consciously think about my existence, and worry about what it means to be human.  When bad things come my way, whether it was the refrigerator that died thanks to which I had to buy a new one with money that I don't have, or when people who are near and dear to me say awful things about me right to my face, I do not need a god to turn to.  "Shit happens" I tell myself.  After all, it is not as if the entire cosmos exists only to serve me!  The cosmos is.

Whether it is Lent, or Ramadan, or whatever, I am not ever sure that most of the believers really use that designated time in order to reflect on our fleeting existence on this "mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam," as Carl Sagan so poetically put it.

In fact, the disconnect between such need for introspection versus the believers merely reciting the Vishnu Sahasranaamam and the Bhaja Govindam and more was the point of departure for the young me questioning the idea of god and religion and belief.  I was convinced then, and even more convinced I am now, that living a morally sound life has nothing to do with god and religion.

We are well in to Ramadan.  To some fundamentalist believers, apparently this is also the best time to kill!  Who the hell are the religious leaders who provide such twisted interpretations of the human condition?  One of the many casualties of this madness was a Sufi musician in Pakistan.

One of the most prominent Pakistani singers of Sufi devotional songs, Amjad Sabri, was killed by gunmen who fired into his car in Karachi on Wednesday, raising a new outcry over sectarian and extremist violence in Pakistan.
A faction of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility, accusing Mr. Sabri of being a blasphemer.

Only sociopaths can kill a human all because he sang Sufi devotional music.  And why was Sabri considered a blasphemer, in the first place??

Mr. Sabri, 45, was one of the foremost singers of qawwali music — the devotional songs of Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam — and was part of a family of noted performers. In 2014, Mr. Sabri was embroiled in controversy after a morning news program played his version of a traditional qawwali song that referred to the Prophet Muhammad. A blasphemy case was registered against the show hosts and the television network, Geo, and Mr. Sabri was named in the complaint.

Bloody sociopaths!  May they be tortured to the nth degree in the hell in which they believe!

I had no idea about Sabri until I read that news and, therefore, will leave you with this by another Sufi qawwali singer, the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Hey, the Donald has issued his Ramadan greetings!

Think about May 27th next year--as in 2017.  I know it is difficult to think about a year from now.  But, go ahead,  Think about it.

By then, the new President of the US would have been in office for four months.  Now, imagine President Donald Trump issuing a Ramadan greetings message on May 27, 2017.

If you are not a Trump supporter, then you won't be able to imagine the fascist wishing the Muslims in America and the world.  If you are a Trump supporter, then you know well that he ain't gonna wish Muslims anything good, which is one of the few reasons that you are supporting him in the first place!  (Editor's note: What?  You have Trump supporters reading your blog?)

Trump saying anything informed about Muslims is beyond anybody's wildest imagination.  As Sam Harris remarked, everything that Trump knows about Islam and Muslims won't even take up the 140 characters that Twitter allows!

The current President, Obama, who--along with his wife--have set themselves as examples of class act for children all over the world, and who will be sorely missed after the new year--included in his Ramadan message this:

Far too many Muslims may not be able to observe Ramadan from the comfort of their own homes this year or afford to celebrate Eid with their children. We must continue working together to alleviate the suffering of these individuals. This sacred time reminds us of our common obligations to uphold the dignity of every human being.

Trump, who doesn't care about "the dignity of every human being", had this to say about Muslim judges in this country, when asked by John Dickerson:

Mr. Dickerson asked Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, if a Muslim judge would be similarly biased because of Mr. Trump’s call for a ban on Muslim immigrants. “It’s possible, yes,” Mr. Trump said. “Yeah. That would be possible. Absolutely.”
When Mr. Dickerson said there was a tradition in the United States, a nation of immigrants, against judging people based on heritage, Mr. Trump replied, “I’m not talking about tradition, I’m talking about common sense, O.K.?”

Can you imagine a President Trump having a Eid celebration dinner at the White House to mark the end of Ramadan, after uttering one contemptuous statement after another?

Meanwhile, in the old colonial headquarters, London, from where the white supremacists bled half the world in order to make themselves rich and fat, it will be the first Ramadan while in office for the newly elected mayor, Sadiq Khan, who is the son of Muslim immigrants.  Khan embodies two words that fire up Trump and his faithful fanatics: "Muslim" and "immigrants"

Khan said that Trump's "inflammatory remarks about Islam could threaten security in Britain and the United States":

“Trump’s ignorant view of Islam could make both our countries less safe,” Mr. Khan wrote on Twitter on Tuesday morning. “It risks alienating mainstream Muslims. London has proved him wrong.”

Reports suggest that Trump will soon be visiting the UK.  No, it is not to meet with political leaders and show that he can be presidential.  Trump will be there in less than three weeks to, get this, "at the Turnberry hotel at the golf course in south-west Scotland on 24 June for its official relaunch following a £200m redevelopment."  Which draws the appropriate response from across the party divide:

Tommy Vietor, a longtime aide to President Obama and a former US National Security Council spokesman, said the fact that Trump is “leaving the country this close to the election to promote his golf resort is another reminder that he cares more about himself and making money than his campaign”. 

So, yes, go ahead and imagine President Trump!!!

Ramadan slows us down ... to think, again, about "why this competition?"

Taking the back road is always wonderfully scenic in this part of the world.  A writer's paradise. Well, a paradise for this wannabe writer too ;)

But, there are reasons why a back road, with only one lane in each direction, might not have been taken even by Robert Frost. The sight of dead deer is not for the faint of the heart.   Traffic, however feeble a trickle that might be, can come to a stop if there is any mishap on the road. Or, even when the traffic moves, it can be at a snail's pace because of farm vehicles, like what happened the other day.

I was about six miles away from the destination when the smooth drive was interrupted by brake lights ahead. And then we crawled at between fifteen and twenty miles per hour.  Five miles more and my mind worked out the math of the additional time this stretch would take because of the differential of forty miles an hour. (We will find out how good you are at math.)  I tell ya, there is no shortage of materials to keep my mind occupied!

Some of us take life the way it unfolds, and then there are others.  The driver in the vehicle that was immediately behind me was one of those others.  He (yes, it was a male driver) made clear he wanted to pass me by edging the nose of the vehicle into the other lane and then pulling back because of oncoming traffic.  I wondered what he could possibly achieve by passing me when there were at least six other vehicles in between me and the farm vehicle in the lead.

And then, just like that he shot into the other lane and jumped back in immediately in front of me.  I hit the brakes. I grabbed my cellphone. And clicked.

It was a long line of vehicles behind me.  Nobody was going anywhere until the farm vehicle was off the road and, yet, the impatient driver couldn't be patient.

Thus it was on a hot summer day that I was, yet again, reminded of Rumi:

Inside the Great Mystery that is,
we don't really own anything.
What is this competition we feel then,
before we go, one at a time, through the same gate?

Perhaps the driver of that Suburban has never thought what Rumi wants us to reflect on.

If only all of us thought more about that competition in daily life at least during the scheduled calendar dates of a Christian's Sunday, or a Hindu's Ekadasi, or a Muslim's Ramadan.

Caption at the Source:
In this photo taken in Sarajevo on Tuesday, July 15, 2014
a restaurant waitress dressed in traditional clothes of Bosnian Muslims prepares food for iftar

Ramadan slows us down ... to think about "why this competition?"

I suppose it can look contradictory for this atheist to post about religion but without critiquing it.  But, I have never been one of those militant atheists making a fanatical religion out of atheism.  As long as the religious do not impose their practices on me, I seek nothing but peaceful coexistence with them.  And enjoy food and laughter and conversations with them.

Furthermore, I am not that different from most atheists in that we reach the conclusion not with ignorance about religions, particularly the religion with which we were raised.  Even through my agnostic teenage years, I was curious about the Hindu faith and its philosophy.  Which is also why I am so familiar with dukrijnkarane.  And then curiosity made me find out at least a tiny bit about a few other religions.  Thus, it did not surprise me one bit when a Pew survey, a few years ago, found that atheists often know more about religions than the believers themselves.

This being Ramadan time, I have been thinking more about Islam.  It is a tragedy that the hysterical suspicions about followers of that religion prevents us from even appreciating the arts and literature that grew out of that faith. Thus, Rumi and his mystical works are among the many that get sidelined.  Of course, according to Islamists, Rumi and other sufis were not "real" Muslims.  All the more the reason the world will be better off without those crazy Islamists who make it difficult for all of us!

The way I--an atheist--interpret the Ramadan is this: it is an intentional pause to our everyday lives.  A forced interruption that then makes us think, for at least a few minutes every day, about what we want to do with the little time we have on this planet.  Especially with Ramadan coinciding with the hot summer days in the northern hemisphere, it is a wonderful time to stop doing whatever it is that we do day in and day out and ponder some serious questions instead.

As we do, I bet we will immediately realize that Rumi was profound when he distilled the wisdom to this:

Inside the Great Mystery that is,
we don't really own anything.
What is this competition we feel then,
before we go, one at a time, through the same gate?

So, hey, whether or not we are Muslims is immaterial to inquiring within about what we want to do for the time that remains for us on this pale blue dot in a vast universe.  And, maybe read a little bit of Rumi, too, this Ramadan season.

Caption at the source:
Women hold prayers on the first night of Ramadan at the Istiqlal mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Tuesday, July 9

If only we had bold, responsible, and no-nonsense leaders like Gov. Christie

What an awesome statement from Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey. (ht)  And in time for Ramadan ...
Makes me damn proud to be an American :)



What a crazy anti-Muslim hysteria we have in this country. 

I wonder how this anti-Muslim mania compares with the anti-Catholic and anti-Semite viruses of the past. It is awful that we haven't learnt from those and many other ugly aspects of our history.

Even more pathetic: there are very few politicians like Governor Christie who bluntly dismiss such hysteria with the kind of an attitude and words he uses.  Yes, "crazies" and "crap" are the best way to deal with them.

And, by the way, what ever happened to the Islamic Center project across from NJ, in the Empire State?  Remember that one?

Photo of the day: Ramadan begins

Caption at the source:

Indonesian Muslim women pray on the first night of Ramadan on July 31 in Jakarta.

A remarkable coincidence with the Ramadan this year: I re-connected with an old classmate, "Y," from my childhood years, the poignant memory of whom I have is from the second grade--doing watercolors and art work together. The coincidence because that "Y" notes in the email about observing Ramadan.

The call to prayer in the early minutes of daybreak--even on regular and not any special days--from the loudspeakers at the local mosque, is one of the best ways to start a day.

At my parents' old place, I always headed out to the local park for a brisk walk.
Picture this:

early dawn, dark enough that some of the street lights are still on
no traffic on the roads
only a couple of stray dogs stretching themselves
a few squatters on the sidewalks getting ready for the day

Overlay on this the lovely call to prayer from afar.

One of the best reasons to be an early bird!

BTW, the park has a tower, which was built for an exposition in the early 1970s.  The photo here is a view from that tower from quite a few years ago.

On the anti-mosque hysteria

Christopher Hitchens swings a mighty bat even when he is not well when he points out that:

Where to start with this part-pathetic and part-sinister appeal to demagogy? To begin with, it borrows straight from the playbook of Muslim cultural blackmail. Claim that something is "offensive," and it is as if the assertion itself has automatically become an argument. You are even allowed to admit, as does Foxman, that the ground for taking offense is "irrational and bigoted." But, hey—why think when you can just feel? The supposed "feelings" of the 9/11 relatives have already deprived us all of the opportunity to see the real-time footage of the attacks—a huge concession to the general dulling of what ought to be a sober and continuous memory of genuine outrage. Now extra privileges have to be awarded to an instant opinion-poll majority. Not only that, the president is urged to use his high office to decide questions of religious architecture!
Nothing could be more foreign to the spirit and letter of the First Amendment or the principle of the "wall of separation." In his incoherent statement, Foxman made the suggestion that it might be all right if the Cordoba House was built "a mile away." He appears to be unaware that an old building at the site is already housing overflow from the nearby Masjid al-Farah mosque.

Fellow Indian-American, Fareed Zakaria, is disgusted with the ADL's statement and has returned their honors from four years ago for their "Hubert Humphrey Award for First Amendment Freedoms":

I hope the Palins, Gingrichs, and Foxmans will lower their rhetoric right away ... else, here is one possibility: Ramadan begins on August 12th, and this unnecessary attention on a proposed Islamic Center in New York could easily become the topic for inflammatory sermons from some of the imams in Iran and Iraq and Saudi Arabia and ... who are always looking for a good fight portraying the US as the satan ... and we want to provide them with more ammo?