If there had been a mosque in the twin towers, would Bin Laden have dared to attack it?

[Xipe Totec]

What would have been the repercussions of 9/11 if Bin Laden had destroyed a mosque?

Something to ponder.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. no the Saudi government would have had it removed first

[OHdem10]

2. Yes, absolutely--there were Muslims killed in Twin Towers.

The Twin Towers represented USA Financial Might. That was
the target. Muslims were collateral damage.

Muslims are killed by Al Queada all the time.

[Xipe Totec]

4. And we never called him on it

We let Bin Laden get away with killing Muslims.

That was stupid of us.

Imagine the outrage if there had been a mosque there.

[Ruby the Liberal]

3. The shiites and sunnis in Iraq bomb each other's mosques all the time.

[Xipe Totec]

7. And? nt

[Ruby the Liberal]

15. I was answering the OP.

[Xipe Totec]

17. And the OP is asking for you to spell it out. nt

[Ruby the Liberal]

51. Whoops - sorry!

I am thinking that it implies Islam isn't against blowing up a mosque if they think they have a good reason to do so.

[chimpymustgo]

5. Bin Laden attacked the twin towers??? While Cheny was overseeing NORAD "war games"!! LOL

[Xipe Totec]

6. Is there a mosque at NORAD? nt

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Probably b/c "wrong kind" of Muslims, i.e., not his particular brand of fundamentalism.

[nemo137]

30. This is very nearly word for word what I was going to post.

[blogslut]

9. Probably the same

GWB wanted to get his war(s) on. The 9/11 attack was his perfect excuse. Considering the incredible lies he told to take us into Iraq, do you really think the addition of a Mosque to the dead and destroyed would have made one bit of difference?

[Xipe Totec]

11. Yes, I do

The point is that that the 9/11 attack would not have happened, so GWB would not have had his excuse.

Remember that Bin Laden attacked the US to get the US out of Saudi Arabia, which he considers hallowed ground.

Oh, by the way, we no longer have troops in Saudi Arabia.

Interesting how he got just what he wanted.

[blogslut]

38. Of course it would have happened

Imaginary Mosque or no imaginary Mosque, the World Trade Center was a symbol of America. Perhaps you forget that NYC was not his only target. And yet, that other place that got hit by a plane now houses this:



125 people died in the Pentagon attack. Are they somehow less hallowed, less worthy of whispered tones of remembrance? Is the Pentagon less "sacred" because it contains our War Dept.?

[Xipe Totec]

46. The fact we did not point that out to the Muslim community was our mistake

Instead we went into full Moors vs Christians mode.

Pathetic.

[east texas lib]

10. I believe he would've followed through no matter who was killed...

Including those worshiping in a mosque. More martyrs for the cause.

[Xipe Totec]

12. It would have been a lot harder to recruit believers to Al-Qaida

if he destroyed a Mosque.

[east texas lib]

32. That's true, I think he could've filled the void, though.

His cause is considered holy by many. Ah, the many benefits of our decades of screwy foreign policy.

[Xipe Totec]

34. My point is that blocking an Islamic center from being built at ground zero is beyond stupid

it is asking for it.

[DailyGrind51]

13. A Shia mosque, possibly!

Wahabees are Sunnis and have no love for Shias. Al Qaeda in Iraq bombed the Golden Mosque setting off a wave of Sunni/Shia violence.

[Xipe Totec]

19. That's my thinking.

If we want to prevent these kind of attacks we have to be more open, not less.

Calling ground zero a Muslim-free area is making it a prime target.

[Smarmie Doofus]

14. Probably not many repercussions.

The US Air Force nuked Hiroshima knowing that US POWS would be collateral damage . ( Along with 95% Japanese and Korean civilian victims... according to the author just being interviewed on NPR).


We're pretty selective ... as a species....about what we choose to get outraged about. Pretty much anything can and will be rationalized. That's as true for jihadists as it is for the US govt, seems to me.

[Xipe Totec]

16. How many Muslims died in Hiroshima?

Just asking...

[Smarmie Doofus]

18. Don't know. Probably very few. nt

[Xipe Totec]

21. We hit Hiroshima without warning

precisely to avoid having the Japanese move POWs there as a human shield.

[Smarmie Doofus]

26. So no American POWs died at Hiroshima? nt

[Xipe Totec]

29. The point is why did we NOT tell the Japanese where we would drop the bomb?

Answer: To prevent the Japanese from moving American POWs there.

If we really didn't care, we would have told them where and when we were going to drop the bomb, and let them move POWs there.

Quit dodging the point.

[Smarmie Doofus]

36. What are ya talkin' about?

Ok... never mind. 25,000 posts. I get it: argument for argument's sake.

Gimme a holler when you decide to get serious.

[Xipe Totec]

39. Are you saying we DID tell the Japanese we were going to hit Hiroshima?

and when?

Because that would be new information for me.

[mmonk]

20. The twin towers were a political target along with the Pentagon

and Capital Hill (the MIC). So yes, they would have still hit it. The question is who ordered it. We have been told OSL and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. So which one?

[Xipe Totec]

22. Uh, yea, it was probably Cheney who ordered the attack on the twin towers...

:eyes:

[mmonk]

24. I do not follow you or your rolling eyes.

Where was I short on facts?

[Xipe Totec]

27. Short on facts?

All I see is your assertions.

Where are the facts?

[mmonk]

28. I'm asking you.

They hit the Pentagon and the Twin Towers and the plane that went down in Pennsylvanis was supposedly headed for DC. Again, what is your assertion if we are speaking of assertions?

[Xipe Totec]

31. My assertion is that they hit the twin towers

and there was no Mosque there.

Care to refute?

[mmonk]

35. I can not refute what I don't know just like you can't.

They have tried on more than one occasion to bring them down. I have no idea about a mosque or if one was in it, they would or would not have hit it.

[Xipe Totec]

41. Assuming there WAS one,

would they have been as able to recruit more adherents, by boasting they destroyed a Mosque, a holy Muslim place?

Think about it.

[mmonk]

43. I have no idea. They were already operational.

Could be problematic since they use religion like many pols do to incite anger.

[etherealtruth]

23. I have no doubt he would have

His perversion of Islam would has no problems with those considered less pious than he considers himself; undoubtedly, collateral damage was an acceptable risk.

[Xipe Totec]

25. And if he did, would it have been the recruiting tool it has become,

If he had destroyed a mosque to protect Muslim holy ground?

[etherealtruth]

37. If his sole target was a mosque ... probably not

I don't think the presence of a mosque would have dissuaded him, nor would its presence diminish the recruiting value.

Bin Ladin and his ilk are not pious Muslims ....they are deranged zealots .... often assigning some amount of "blame" to Muslims that would actually choose to live in "western culture"

[Xipe Totec]

40. It would have changed his targets. That's my point

to expose the stupidity of preventing an Islamic center from being built on "hallowed ground"

Meaning "Christian ground"

[etherealtruth]

48. I don't believe it would have changed his target or hindered his recruitment

I have absolutely no problem with a mosque being built at this site (though what is proposed is NOT a mosque).

Islamic law prescribes how non-Muslims are to be treated in Islamic "lands" or culture .... it does not describe Muslims choosing to live outside of these areas ... some zealots can't conceive that a true believer would choose to live among the "infidels."

[Posteritatis]

33. He'd've blown them off as apostates. (nt)

[Xipe Totec]

42. And won the battle but lost the war. nt

[geek tragedy]

44. Yes, just like Sunni extremists target Shiite mosques

in Iraq all the time.

[petronius]

45. I doubt it would have made any differences - any muslims or mosques in

the WTC would be viewed as the 'wrong kind' by anyone likely to support Bin Laden. There's nothing wrong in his mind with killing other Muslims if you can declare that they have violated the faith. (Same thing in Christian history - plenty of groups have unilaterally declared other groups to be non-Christian.)

Mosques have been deliberately destroyed in sectarian violence before - consider the Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra - and it doesn't seem to lead to any blowback from likely followers of the destroyers...

[Xipe Totec]

47. And instead of pointing that out, we united them

by attacking them BOTH.

[RagAss]

49. You do realize there's a mosque in the Pentagon.

[lunatica]

50. That's a moot question. He attached the most flagrant Western economic symbols

Osama Bin Laden attacks buildings that are symbols of the Western world such as embassies, the military and Western Commerce. As far as I know he's never attacked churches although he will also attack transportation lines such as the Subway in Britain and the train in Spain. If innocent people die in the process that's good in that he wants his attacks to have spectacular body counts.

[Vogon_Glory]

52. Yes, Osama bin Laden Would Have Attacked The WTC IF It Had A Mosque

Yes, Osama bin Laden would have attacked the World Trade Center had there been a mosque on the premises or had there been one standing nearby. Anyone who remembers previous al Qaeda terrorist attacks knows that al Qaeda attacks killed dozens of Muslims in Tanzania and in Kenya when al Quaeda attacked the US embassies there.

For that matter, I doubt that the minds who planned the 911 attacks would have been much bothered by the presence of a nearby mosque.

I'd like to point out that al Qaeda consists of fanatics, extremist fanatics. It isn't enough for people like that to kill Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Wiccans, etc., but also Shi'ites and those many Sunnis who aren't as extremist as they are.

I think that had there been a mosque in a very close to the 911 attacks, a lot of Muslims who weren't that bothered by the thought of Christians and Jews being killed by the score when the towers came down (Despite the Muslims working in the Twin Towers who were also killed by the 911 attackers) would have been repelled by the video of dead and injured victims being pulled out of a Muslim center that had been hit directly or as collateral damage.

That's one reason I favor letting the cultural center go forward--not because I endorse their religion, but because I want there to be a clearly Muslim target that would make hitting the Freedom Tower and environs a third time a source of unfavorable blow-back for al Qaeda and their friends.