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"It was offensive. It was hateful. And particularly for him to make the statement here in Manhattan, just a little north of Ground Zero, where families lost their loved ones, people of all faiths, all ethnicities who see this as the seminal tragedy of this generation, for him to make a statement like that was inexcusable,"

No, Barack Hussein Obama wasn't speaking to Imam Faisal Abdur Rauf, the spokesman - Holy man behind the building of the Ground Zero Mosque; he was speaking to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, another Islamic builder, of sorts.

“Ground zero is, indeed, hallowed ground,” Obama said at a White House dinner celebrating the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. “But let me be clear: As a citizen and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”

What's the difference? Doesn't Mahmoud have the same rights to 'free speech' as Faisal and company have rights to express their religious beliefs by building a Mosque much closer to Ground Zero than the U.N. ? And those words, and Ahmadinejad, are gone from Manhattan. Faisal and his Mosque will be planted there forever.

And in a way, Faisal spoke much in the same vein as Ahmadinejad...

Bradley: it is the Islamic belief in the afterlife that could be an incentive to die in the name of Islam. According to the prophet Mohammed, the next life is paradise, offering forgiveness.

Faisal: In the Islamic belief system, the next life is the primary life. The next life is more real, more intense, and more vivid.

Yusuf: I think that there are people that do these things that believe that we have a noble end, and the noble end is to bring about some kind of conflict to wake up the Muslim world, to start a global jihad against the evil west.

Bradley: And the Satan of the evil west, according to Muslim extremists, is the United States and its culture of commercialism, which Imam Farid Esack equates with a religion.

Esack: it is the fastest- growing religion in the world, the religion of consumerism, and everybody is being drawn into this new religion. And if you do not buy into this, you are an outcast, you are a heretic, and there is the hellfire of utter poverty which awaits you.

Bradley: And throughout the Muslim world, there is also strong opposition to America's foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East because of its support of Israel and economic sanctions against Iraq.

Faisal: it is a reaction against the US government politically, where we espouse principles of democracy and human rights, and where we ally ourselves with oppressive regimes in many of these countries.

Bradley: Are you in any way suggesting that we in the United States deserved what happened?


Faisal: I wouldn't say that the United States deserved what happened, but united states policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.


Bradley: You say that we're an accessory? How?


Faisal: Because we have been accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.

Mr. Obama, can you get your story straight? Either a man has a right to free speech whilst in this country or he doesn't. Either Ground Zero is hallowed ground or it isn't. Just make up your mind, m'kay?

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