These are Cordoba House's partners:
http://www.cordobainitiative.org/?q=content/ci-partnersCI partners
American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA)
http://www.asmasociety.org
The American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) is a New-York based nonprofit organization founded in 1997 to elevate the discourse on Islam and foster environments in which Muslims thrive. We are dedicated to strengthening an authentic expression of Islam based on cultural and religious harmony through interfaith collaboration, youth and women’s empowerment, and arts and cultural exchange.
United Nations Alliance of Civilizations
http://www.unaoc.org
The Alliance of Civilization (AoC) was established in 2005, at the initiative of the Governments of Spain and Turkey, under the auspices of the United Nations.
A High-level Group of experts was formed by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan to explore the roots of polarization between societies and cultures today, and to recommend a practical programme of action to address this issue. The Report of the High-level Group provided analysis and put forward practical recommendations that form the basis for the implementation plan of the Alliance of Civilizations.
Search for Common Ground
http://www.sfcg.org/
Founded in 1982, Search for Common Ground works to transform the way the world deals with conflict - away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving. We work with local partners to find culturally appropriate means to strengthen societies' capacity to deal with conflicts constructively: to understand the differences and act on the commonalities.
Here's some information on the one that really caught my eye, anything having to do with the metaterrorist organization called the United Nations:
http://centralillinois912project.com/?p=5523On May 13, the United Nations Alliance of Civiliations published a press release in which Jorge Sampaio (the UN Secretary-General’s High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations) praised the United States for becoming the 100th “member country joining the alliance.â€
That press release goes on to state:
Since 2005, the Alliance of Civilizations has been playing an increasingly important role at the forefront of the international community to improve understanding and cooperative relations across nations, cultures, and religions to counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism.
As a global platform for intercultural dialogue and cooperation, the Alliance welcomes the United States membership as a very significant opportunity to maintain the issue of cultural diversity high on the global agenda, scaling up efforts to expand cross-cultural education, promote dialogue and understanding with special focus on relations with the Muslim world, and forge the collective political will to address the world’s imbalances.
According to the Heritage Foundation, the Alliance of Civilizations (AoC) is the successor to the Iranian-proposed Dialogue of Civilizations and brainchild of former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The AoC’s website states that the organization has the following objectives:
* Develop a network of partnerships with States, international organizations, civil society groups, and private sector entities that share the goals of the Alliance of Civilizations, to reinforce their interaction and coordination with the UN system;
* Develop, support, and highlight projects that promote understanding and reconciliation among cultures globally and, in particular, between Muslim and Western societies. These projects should be related to the four main fields of action of the Alliance: youth, education, media and migration.
* Establish relations and facilitate dialogue among groups that can act as a force of moderation and understanding during times of heightened cross-cultural tensions.
Previously, the United States had been the only one out of 20 major advanced and emerging countries (excluding Israel) that had not yet joined the Alliance’s “Group of Friends,†which now includes some 118 member countries and organizations. These include countries in Europe, Latin America, and Asia, as well as the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). When the Alliance first formed in 2005, the United States shunned membership in the organization, citing concerns (corroborated by the Alliance’s 2006 “Report of the High Level Group,†which you can <<<READ HERE>>>) that the organization could become a forum mainly for criticizing Israel and the West.
For example, the report cites the 1948 establishment of Israel as being the starting point for major tensions between the West and Muslim societies:
The partition of Palestine by the United Nations in 1947, envisaging the establishment of two states -- Palestine and Israel -- with a special status for Jerusalem, led to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, beginning a chain of events that continues to be one of the most tortuous in relations between Western and Muslim societies. Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories and the unresolved status of Jerusalem -- a holy city for Muslims and Christians as well as Jews – have persisted with the perceived acquiescence of Western governments and thus are primary causes of resentment and anger in the Muslim world toward Western nations. This occupation has been perceived in the Muslim world as a form of colonialism and has led many to believe, rightly or wrongly, that Israel is in collusion with “the Westâ€.
The AoC has also stated that freedom of expression should be limited in order to counter the presumed rise of Islamophobia. The report cited above states that terms such as “Islamic terrorism†have “contributed to an alarming increase in Islamophobia†— the unstated conclusion being that such terms should not be used.
Here is Karen Armstrong, a member of the AoC, stating (56 seconds into this video): “Of course I’m a passionate advocate of free speech. I’ve had the privilege of living and being able to write and speak in whatever way I chose. But I am very much aware that I have responsibilites too. And once your words have left your mouth — as I know myself, people interpret them in mischievous ways, and make them a force for evil -- there’s a lot of ill will out there and that is playing into a scenario which will make it very difficult for us to have a good world to hand on to our children. We really cannot afford bigoted talk. Political correctness has had a very bad press. It’s idea is to think of what we’re saying and ask ourselves if it’s really true….â€
Ms. Armstrong’s saying in one sentence that she “of course†supports free speech and then going on to say that we “cannot afford†to have bigoted talk would seem to fundamentally contradict itself. What exactly is the dividing line between “free speech†and “bigoted talkâ€? Presumably, she believes that the criteria put forth by â€political correctness†should be used to determine what exactly should be tolerated as “free†speech and that which should not be tolerated, due to “bigotry.â€
So is it really all that important that the U.S. has decided to join the AoC? Will any changes be forthcoming as a result? Answers to these questions are mixed. The Heritage Foundation has concluded that an affiliation with the AoC is not likely to substantively change the activities of that body. The Jerusalem Post has recently quoted an Israeli official as questioning why the US would choose to join an organization that is “completely insignificant,†adding that US citizens should question exactly why such a move is even being made. However, the Jerusalem Post went on to say the following:
Another [Israeli] government source said it was not inconceivable that the decision to join the group was yet another hint to Israel that Washington could make things uncomfortable for Jerusalem if it chose, without causing a public rift. The source said this move, along with the reports that the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency will take up the question of Israel’s nuclear capabilities at its board meeting next month, something that has never happened before and which the US could have prevented had it chosen to do so, indicated to a certain degree a change of tenor coming from Washington. “I’m not saying the US is deciding to join the organization to send a message to Israel, but it clearly was mindful of how this would be interpreted in Jerusalem,†the source said.
So what will be the outcome? Only time will tell — but one thing is certain. Israel is making no plans to join the Alliance.
Although the article's focus is the Israeli point of view, Islamists who hate Israel generally hate the United States. This could be said be an understatement.
Here we go. This is really all you need (unless you also want to note the usual obsession with Israel) about this group's core mindset:
Relations Between Societies of Western and Muslim Countries
4.3 Selective accounts of ancient history are used by radical movements to paint an ominous
portrait of historically distinct and mutually exclusive faith communities destined for
confrontation. Such distorted historical narratives must be countered. More important
for the purposes of this report is the fact that this history does not offer explanations for
current conflicts or for the rise in hostility between Western and Muslim societies.
See the Global Agenda for the Dialogue Among Civilizations (A/60/259).
In particular, the Declaration and Program of Action for a Culture of Peace referred to, together with the
Dialogue Among Civilizations and the Alliance of Civilizations, in paragraph 144 of the 2005 World Summit
Outcome of the UN General Assembly.
On the contrary, the roots of these phenomena lie in developments that took place
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, beginning with European imperialism, the
resulting emergence of anti-colonial movements, and the legacy of the confrontations
between them.
http://www.unaoc.org/repository/HLG_Report.pdfSo to this group,
we're the selective ones because we have the crazy idea that history goes farther back than the 19th Century. Excuse me, but it is
Islam that swept out of the Arabian peninsula to make war on the whole of the eastern world, Mediterranean, and Europe, it was not the West, such as it was at the time, that began extirpating Moslems; it was Islam that has nearly eradicated Christianity in the middle and near east. If we're going to take an historical view, let's begin at the beginning.
Certainly the people who named Cordoba House had a sense of history extending back more than two centuries. So did the Madrid bombers.
I haven't investigated the other two yet, but this tells me what I need to know about this group:
Iranian-pushed, UN-sponsored, and proceeding from the first principle that Western society is to blame for the conflict between Islam and the West, which is stilted nonsense, or nonsense on stilts, take your pick.
So this is one of Cordoba House's
partners, and I wouldn't at all be surprised if most of the funding for this project that people have been wondering about isn't originating from here--which, by the way, means that
we're footing a huge portion of the bill, given what the US contributes to that vile sink of hatred, criminality, and despotism, the UN. When it comes to money laundering, the UN could teach the Mafia new tricks. Can we say oil for food?
Now, apart from the fact that
any mosque built by anyone on this site is a second act of war against us, war carried on by other means, do we want a mosque built in lower Manhattan that lists as one of its
partners a creature of Iran? THIS Iranian regime?!
I'll look into the others a bit later, or anyone else can. I'm betting we find more that's more than a little interesting.
