The GZ Mosque & The Missing Riot (4#) -

The Ground Zero Mosque
Debate is based on revisionist history . . .

First, a clear-headed Op Ed piece by Editor Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid is a welcome contribution to the discussion. Nevertheless, at this point, I feel obliged to fill in some historical background on this controversy.

Circa 1989, I became an accidental witness to history while listening to a live radio talk show in the New York City Metropolitan area, during which people began calling in to the show, reporting that a riot was in progress on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan around 19th Street. As more calls came in those of us listening were trying to make sense of what was happening. What was this all about?

A fatwa had been issued on the writer Salman Rushdie. An angry mob was outside the Barnes & Noble Bookstore, demanding that the bookstore produce Rushdie and turn him over to them so they could kill him. Murder for hire or contract killing is a crime in the US. Despite this arrangement being illegal in NYC, the mob seemed intent on carrying out the fatwa and was besieging the bookstore. They were a lynch mob, we realised in horror.

Was Rushdie in the bookstore? No one knew. Maybe there had been a rumor that Rushdie was going to appear there to sign his books.

The talk show, which was being hosted by Jay Diamond, began following the events in the street, which seemed to be increasingly spinning out of control. At some point, the mob burned Rushdie in effigy, and, at some point someone called the police. But when the NYPD entered the scene, they just stood by and did nothing. The police informed the citizen reporters on the street that they had been given orders to stand down and let the mob "vent."

The situation was becoming angrier and even more riotous, we were told. The management of the bookstore became concerned about the safety of their employees. They were worried that the mob could grab an employee and hold him hostage and then kill him as a proxy for Rushdie. The mob began to run through the streets, terrorizing pedestrians and passers-by.

It was frightening to listen to over the radio; it must have been more frightening to experience on the street.

The issues which emerged from that event were concerns over our FA/FOE, the bullying tactics being used, and the attempts to dominate or control us as Americans.

Much of the local New York City Media successfully suppressed the story and has continued to cover it up ever since it happened.

At the bottom of the current controversy about the proposed Ground Zero Mosque is the coverup by the local NYC Media about the fatwa riot on Fifth Avenue, which is distorting their coverage of why some New Yorkers feel threatened. Their coverup is dishonest.

NYC residents and workers have had real concerns over these issues long before this mosque, and their concerns are based on factual events which have already happened.

Let's not pretend that the fatwa riot
never happened - that trick won't work anymore.

:: Op Ed: Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid ::

:: Christopher Hitchens ::

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