Saudi officer opposes Cordoba mosque

A former military officer who has worked with Americans and in the US says in the Saudi press that he thinks the Cordoba mosque is a big mistake - that unnecissarily upsets a stable situation, because New York's Muslim community lives in peace and prosperity. Abdulateef Al-Mulhim was a Royal Saudi Navy commodore and former Saudi Royal Navy liaison officer at Pensacola Naval Air Station (1991-95). What is really happening in the Arabic-speaking world? It's hard to know since our news media don't speak Arabic. But there is a way: Midle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) works busily in the background to translate the news and important documents into English. M.E.M.R.I.

"[T]he U.S. is the most tolerant country regarding building an Islamic center," he writes, adding, "but why [did] Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf choose Ground Zero [as a location for build Cordoba House]?"   He concludes by saying, "We Muslims have to carefully consider the place where the mosque will be built... The Muslim community in New York is living in peace and prosperity and has a lot of places for worship. Let us not have them encounter unneeded confrontations with the people from the great and beautiful Big Apple City."