Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 04:59 pm
In a blistering special comment on his MSNBC program Countdown, Keith Olbermann dispelled the hysteria and politically motivated fear of the so called Ground Zero Mosque. Olbermann said, “What better way could we honor the dead of the World Trade Center than to do the terrorists heavy lifting for them?”
Here is the video from MSNBC:
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Olbermann described the Right’s campaign as, “Yet in a country dedicated to freedom, forces have gathered to blow out of all proportion the construction of a minor community center to transform it into a training ground for terrorists, and an insult to the victims of 9/11, and a tribute to the Medieval Muslim subjugation of the West. There is in fact no Ground Zero Mosque. It isn’t a mosque. A mosque technically is a Muslim holy place where only worship can be conducted. What is planned for 45 Park Place New York City is a community center. It’s supposed to include a basketball court and a culinary school. It is to be thirteen stories tall, and the top two stories will be a Muslim prayer space. What a cauldron to terrorism that will be, terrorist chefs and terrorist point guards.”
Olbermann pointed out that since 9/11 Muslims have been at greater risk of being victims of US terrorism than non-Muslims. After he debunked Newt Gingrich’s fear mongering over the name Cordoba House, which he called a figment of Gingrich’s imagination, the MSNBC host pointed out that the community center will be open to all New Yorkers.
He also knocked down the falsehood that the community center is located on Ground Zero, “This place Park 51 is not even at Ground Zero, not even right across the street. Even the description of it being two blocks away is generous. It is two blocks away from the northeast corner of the World Trade Center site, from the planned location of the 9/11 Memorial, it is more like four or five blocks even.” Olbermann showed that there is no view of the World Trade Center visible from the community center.
Olbermann also pointed out that the official explanation for the Iraq invasion was the liberation of the Iraqi people, but, “Well who lives in Iraq? Muslims. I hate to reveal this to anybody on the Right who did not know this but when they say Iraq is 65% Shiia and 32% Sunni you don’t know that Shiia and Sunni are both forms of the Muslim religion, right? We sacrificed 4,415 of our military personnel in Iraq to save Muslims, and there are thousands of us still there tonight to protect Muslims, but we don’t want Muslims to open a combination culinary school and prayer space in Manhattan?”
He later said that by selling out our freedoms the terrorists win, “The terrorists who destroyed the buildings from which you could only see 45 Park Place as a dot on the ground wanted to force us to change our country to become more like the ones they knew. What better way could we honor the dead of the World Trade Center than to do the terrorists heavy lifting for them?” Olbermann concluded by pointing out that the actual place that is the actual equivalent of a Ground Zero Mosque has been up and running since before the World Trade Center was open.
This was one of the better special comments that Olbermann has delivered in a long time. Olbermann took apart the politically motivated hysteria behind the ginned up Ground Zero Mosque story with facts, and maps, and pictures. The Countdown host said it best. There is no Ground Zero Mosque, but what he didn’t add is that this whole story is a shameless and sleazy attempt to scare a group of ignorant and vulnerable people about Muslims, in the hopes of getting to vote Republican in November 2010 and 2012.
It is ironic that the same people who label themselves patriots have no qualms over destroying the basic freedoms our nation, which they claim to love and hold so dear. These same people who are so willing to sell out our freedoms are the greatest and most lasting victory for the 9/11 terrorists. They are the legacy of the hijackers. These people who are so governed by fear that they are willing to take away what the terrorists hated, are not only Osama Bin Laden’s legacy, but they are also the biggest threat to our freedoms as Americans.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
