Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

From Patrol:

Surely you've all heard by now that Sufjan Stevens has released a new EP online. This is exciting news for Sufjan fans everywhere, but I would urge you to think twice before paying the 5 dollars to download the music. It was not even 10 years ago when Islamic radical extremists destroyed the World Trade Center on September 11th, and already we're going to support a man named "Sufjan" as if nothing happened on that tragic day?

It may sound like a good idea at first. Many believe that supporting this man's music will help heal the wounds left by the terrorists, but come on people, we do not live in a vacuum. The fact of the matter is that this album should be released under another name, something with less Islamic connotation than "Sufjan." Or, the album should be released in a different format. EP also brings to mind other Islamic names. Ep Shiraa. Ep Sadaar. It just hits a little too close to home.

Think of the families who suffered and lost their loved ones in that tragedy. Out of sensitivity towards them, refrain from supporting this so-called Stevens. And be warned, some sources have indicated that Sufjan's middle name is Usama. Sufjan Usama Stevens? Doesn't sound like the kind of artist I want singing our national anthem before a baseball game.

Many of you may be asking, "but is Sufjan a terrorist?" The facts here are foggier than we should be comfortable with. First of all, he has never outright condemned Hamas. Should we support someone who isn't clear in his separation from terrorism?

And many of us have heard that Sufjan is actually a Christian. Well to that point, where is his birth certificate?

Look at the last two tracks on All Delighted People, Arnika and Djohariah. Does anybody know what those words mean? I don't, but I'm not sure if I want to find out.

It's too soon, Sufjan. Even if you and your album have no connection at all to terrorism, your name reminds of Muslims, which in turn reminds of 9/11. So please, for the sake of the families still having nightmares about towelheads riding camels into their homes and stabbing their children with those big curved swords from the movie Aladdin (by the way, Sufjan's name actually means "comes with a sword." Coincidence?), please, change your plans and release your album somewhere else.

As a New Yorker, you'd think Sufjan wouldn't be acting in such poor taste on this issue. He lives in Brooklyn, practically two blocks away from Ground Zero! Is he even an American? Was this 50 States project all a huge cover-up for his Islamic plan to take over the music industry and lull us all into submission with his indie-folk-pop harmonies and "beautiful" melodies.

And if I can speak to Sufjan directly for just a moment. Mr. Stevens, have some tact! If you really love your fellow New Yorkers, you'll change your name. Sure you have a constitutional right to whatever name you want, but this issue goes deeper than political freedoms. This is an issue of the heart, and with the release of this album your heart seems to say "This is an issue of freedom, not misguidedly ignorant and possibly racist emotions." And to that I say, boo. Boo to you, Sufjan.

We had to kick a different folk-singer "Stevens" out of the country, and if Sufjan doesn't change his tune, he'll be joining Cat Stevens with Uncle Sam's boot print on his ass. Take your Islamic propaganda somewhere else, YuSuf.

• Henry Siegman: Is Israel's Legitimacy Under Challenge?

  "There is therefore something bizarre in Israel's insistence that condemnations of its violations of international law are not intended to challenge the illegality of its settlements and continuing occupation but the legitimacy of its very existence. If Israel keeps it up, that insistence may well turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Perhaps Israel's right wing government believes that by accusing the international community of seeking to undermine its existence it will distract attention from an increasingly untenable claim that Israel is a model democracy that also enshrines Jewish values. Both claims have been undermined by its settlements policy and its determination to maintain the status quo, bringing into question the very foundation of America's "special relationship" with Israel."

• Work on 3rd Metro line causes sinkhole in Attaba | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt

  "A new digging machine--dubbed the "Nefertari"--has caused a 5-centimeter deep, 2.25-meter long sinkhole on al-Geish Street in the downtown Cairo district of Attaba. The machine had been in the process of digging a tunnel for Cairo's third subway line."

• Chris Christie warns GOP on mosque - Maggie Haberman - POLITICO.com

  **Finally, one (relatively) sane Republican** "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a new national icon for the Republican Party thanks in part to his push for pension reforms, on Monday became the most prominent GOP figure to warn against "overreacting" to the threat of terror and painting "all of Islam" with the brush of terrorism amid the swirling controversy about the ground zero-area mosque. "

• Palin: Obama 'doesn't get' mosque - Andy Barr - POLITICO.com

  **No, Palin doesn't get it. She's a bigot** "“It sounds cliched to say that the president is disconnected from the American people on this issue, but how else do you describe it,” the former Alaska GOP governor said on Fox News. “He just doesn't get it, that this is an insensitive move on the part of those Muslims who want to build that mosque in this location. It feels like a stab in the heart to, collectively, Americans who still have that lingering pain from 9/11.” "

• Netanyahu to offer withdrawal from 90% of West Bank - Ynetnews

  **Absolutely no offer of East Jerusalem, absurd. This probably is not true, but the fact that Netanyahu denies offering 90% of the West Bank while excluding East Jerusalem, demonstrates how firmly against any peaceful solution Netanyahu is.** "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has prepared a "tempting" plan to be presented to the Palestinians in the direct negotiations, as part of which Israel will offer to withdraw from up to 90% of the West Bank, excluding east Jerusalem, the London-based Arabic-language al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Friday. The Prime Minister's Office denied the report, calling it "unfounded." "

• Cairo mosques begin unified call to prayer - Yahoo!

  "Is it even remotely feasible to get Cairo's 4,000 mosques to all sing the same tune? That's just what Egypt's government is aiming to do, beginning an ambitious project Thursday to unify the timing and sound of the Islamic call to prayer across the sprawling city of 18 million people, neighborhood by neighborhood. The project, which has been six years in the making, was meant to start in Cairo's northern suburbs on Wednesday, the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, but system glitches and a communication breakdown delayed it by a day."

• Glenn Beck Is Indifferent to Gay Marriage - The Atlantic Wire

  "Glenn Beck is no stranger to quoting the founding fathers in an attempt to salvage a country that's "burning down." But, in an interview with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News, he invoked the words of Thomas Jefferson ("If it neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket, what difference is it to me?") in support of an unlikely cause: gay marriage. Asked why he has remained notably silent on the recently overturned Proposition 8, he answered, "because honestly, I think we have bigger fish to fry." As O'Reilly pressed him to return to the gay marriage debate, Beck simply laughed off the idea and mocked the notion that gay-marriage was a "threat.""

• Netanyahu rejects peace talks based on 1967 borders - Haaretz

  "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday rejected a Palestinian demand that direct negotiations be based on a statement by the Quartet confirming its position that the future Palestinian state will be based on the 1967 borders. Meeting in Jerusalem with U.S. envoy George Mitchell, Netanyahu repeated his demand for the renewal of direct talks without preconditions. Mitchell briefed Netanyahu on his meeting on Tuesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and gave the prime minister the Palestinian proposal. "

• Ground Zero Mosque Goes Green - The Daily Beast

  "In the midst of the drama around the mosque that’s being erected two blocks from Ground Zero, a few details have been left out that provide some clarity as to the purpose of this project. Specifically, the project will be the country’s first certified “green mosque,” in full compliance with stringent LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, which is why organizers have named the project Park51, rather than the oft-cited “Cordoba House.”"

• The Lost Generation - The Washington Independent

  "In the report, the ILO warns of “significant consequences for young people as upcoming cohorts of new entrants join the ranks of the already unemployed” and of the “risk of a crisis legacy of a ‘lost generation’ comprised of young people who have dropped out of the labor market, having lost all hope of being able to work for a decent living.”"

• Iran-Israel-US: Goldberg Journalism “If You Build This War, It Will Come” - Enduring America

  "Let’s call this for what it is. Jeffrey Goldberg is not functioning as an analyst here. He is not even carrying out the fundamental task of a reporter. He is serving as a spokesman for the Israeli Government in its attempt to put psychological pressure on Iran, to block any resumption of talks on uranium enrichment, and possibly to push Washington into acceptance of, if not support for, Israel’s military action. Goldberg’s piece has no substance as a critique of the political, diplomatic, and military situation, for it is void of any information of — as opposed to rhetoric about — the state of Iran’s nuclear programme and its international strategy. It is void of any information about Washington’s perspective and approach, including the option — very much “on the table”, to use the cliche invoked for military action — of discussions with Tehran."

• Sorry, kid, first-borns really are smarter - Msnbc

  "Birth order within families has long sparked sibling rivalry, but it might also impact the child's personality and intelligence, a new study suggests. First-borns are typically smarter, while younger siblings get better grades and are more outgoing, the researchers say. "

• Tony Judt: An intellectual hero - Al Jazeera English

  "I only knew Judt in passing as a graduate student at NYU but his reputation was already secure then, as a leading historian of France and the European Left. What was as striking as his superior intellect was his equally clear intellectual courage. He was clearly an intellectual of both the 1960s and of the Left (a much maligned combination in Newt Gingrich's America). But unlike so many of his peers he grasped the inherent contradictions of both while they were happening. And so Judt became an astute and critical observer of why the era and its politics not only failed to bring about revolutionary change in Europe and the US, but produced a conservative backlash that is largely responsible for the slow destruction of the welfare states that had enabled unprecedented prosperity in the West in the decades after the second world war."

• IDF soldier on leave attacks group of Peace Now activists in Tel Aviv - Haaretz

  "An Israel Defense Forces soldier who was on leave attacked a group of left-wing activists from the Peace Now movement while they were passing out flyers in Tel Aviv on Friday. Tens of activists from Peace Now, which advocates a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, gathered at Tel Aviv's Arlozorov Train Station Friday morning and handed out stickers and flyers to people passing by. A soldier from the Israel Defense Force's Givati Bridade approached the group and began tearing down posters that the activists had put up. "

• Israel suffers from evoking Holocaust to justify militant policies - Haaretz

  "There are good and valid reasons for and against attacking Iran, but as long as the Holocaust is part of the equation, those who have to make the call will never be able to reach a reasoned decision. It seems that in the national Israeli psyche, backed up by the education system and the IDF, the only worthwhile lesson of the Holocaust is that Israel should be strong and defend itself, and the only purpose of defending Israel is that there should not be another Holocaust. "

• Fareed Zakaria: Build the Ground Zero Mosque - Newsweek

  "Ever since 9/11, liberals and conservatives have agreed that the lasting solution to the problem of Islamic terror is to prevail in the battle of ideas and to discredit radical Islam, the ideology that motivates young men to kill and be killed. Victory in the war on terror will be won when a moderate, mainstream version of Islam—one that is compatible with modernity—fully triumphs over the world view of Osama bin Laden." Five years ago, the ADL honored me with its Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize. I was thrilled to get the award from an organization that I had long admired. But I cannot in good conscience keep it anymore. I have returned both the handsome plaque and the $10,000 honorarium that came with it. I urge the ADL to reverse its decision. Admitting an error is a small price to pay to regain a reputation.

• Settlers Assault A Palestinian Woman In Hebron - International Middle East Media Center

  " A group of settlers assaulted a Palestinian woman in Al-Buweira area east of Hebron in the southern West Bank Friday morning. Suzan Sultan 51, was moved by local to the nearest medical clinic for treatment as she was suffering bruises in different parts of her body and head."

• Five comments on the Israel-Lebanon border clash and what it means by Daniel Levy - The Middle East Channel

  "The Syrian and Lebanese tracks, de-occupation and rights for the Palestinians, recognition and final borders for Israel, the broader Arab Peace Initiative, diplomatic efforts with Iran, and even relations with Turkey are all linked. It is time for a policy that recognizes that and wraps its head around an inclusive new approach to building an architecture for regional stability and security. "

• ADL: If mosque-builders really wanted to promote reconcilation, they'd move - The Plum Line

  "This goes considerably further than ADL's initial statement, which didn't question the motives behind the center. In other words, this is no longer just about the feelings of those still wounded by 9/11, as ADL initially claimed. With this response, ADL has strayed even further from its own stated mission. After all, the group says its "ultimate purpose" is to "put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens." And in his letter to Zakaria, Foxman says ADL will continue to stand up for Muslims who are the targets of "racism and bigotry.""

• David Ignatius - Obama offers Iran an opening on engagement - Washington Post

  ""It is very important to put before the Iranians a clear set of steps that we would consider sufficient to show that they are not pursuing nuclear weapons," Obama said, adding: "They should know what they can say 'yes' to." As in the past, he left open the possibility that the United States would accept a deal that allows Iran to maintain its civilian nuclear program, so long as Iran provides "confidence-building measures" to verify that it is not building a bomb. "

• Oil Spill Fashion Photoshoot From Vogue Italia - Refinery29

  "There's no denying that these images from the oil spill editorial in Vogue Italia's August 2010 issue are beautiful. The 24 pages of Kristen McMenamy, shot by Steven Meisel, are realistic interpretations of images of injured, oiled animals that have inundated the news media since the Deepwater Horizon explosion in April. As beautiful and provocative as they are, we can't help but feel uneasy. Creating beauty and glamour out of tragedy seems quite fucked up to us, not to mention wasteful and hypocritical, seeing as thousands of dollars of luxury clothing was flown in, and then subsequently ruined for the shoot. Glamorizing this recent ecological and social disaster for the sake of "fashion" reduces the tragic event to nothing more than attention-grabbing newsstand fodder. But that's just us. Do you think this is appropriate commentary, or just tasteless? "

The mass Islamaphobic, racist and irrational hysteria against the building of an alleged "big mosque" at the site of the World Trade Center is ridiculous. The media's role in stoking the fires of prejudice is even more disgraceful. Even worse is the ADL's opposition to its building under the pretext that it may offend someone (Well, ADL, you offend me. Can we shut you down?). Anyone against the building of the Islamic complex, is, in my opinion, prejudiced against Islam, irrational and xenophobic.
The fact that Jewish groups in Manhattan, a Jewish mayor in New York, a majority of people living in Manhattan, the Manhattan zoning board and numerous other Christian, Jewish and Islamic organizations support the Cordoba Center, or at the least, don't oppose it, suggests to me that "real America" (read bigots in Alaska and elsewhere) is simply racist and dumb.

Here is a map showing the planned location, the center is in red.