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The controversy surrounding the Park 51/Cordoba House project – promoted by the Cordoba Initiative and headed by Feisal Abdul Rauf – is one that illustrates the full range of the ideological clash between the Islamic culture and the culture of the West. Whether Liberals, Progressives and apologists care to admit it or not the fundamentalist Islamist factions of the Arab world are actively attempting to advance their influence on the world; in every nation and every culture. In their attempt at establishing an elevated influence around the world this fundamentalist faction seeks not to be accepted as equals or to assimilate, but to enter into foreign cultures as a privileged and exempt class. The issue of the Park 51 Project – from this point forward referred to by its original label, the Cordoba House – is a perfect example of one particular battle theater in this culture clash: the war of ideas.

The West’s current conflict with expanding fundamentalist Islam is taking place on four different fronts, at least at the hand of the Islamists: militarily, diplomatically, economically and ideologically.

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Ground Zero Mosque: Backers Broke? Seriously?

The backers of the Ground Zero Mosque have virtually no money, one of the group's leaders says, and plan to create another nonprofit organization that would further complicate the already labyrinthine financial network surrounding the project.

Daisy Khan, one of the leaders of the project, told supporters over the weekend that the mosques organizers have "nothing in the bank" for their effort. Khan said there is no money and that she doesn't know of anything that has been raised.

Tracing the money going to the two nonprofit groups led by Khan and her husband and partner in the mosque project, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, requires a world map.

Federal tax records show Rauf and Khan direct the two groups supporting the mosque project – the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA). Those two organizations, along with Soho Properties, which owns the site of the proposed mosque and community center, are coordinating the project.

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Ground Zero Mosque: Religious Toleration Has Never Been Absolute

The First Amendment of the US Constitution requires:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

There is no quarrel that Americans have the right to have their own religion (and that the government will not select an official one) and that they may practice it; they may say what they like and write what they like; and they may have peaceful assemblies and may petition the government when aggrieved.

But the current debate over the establishment of a Muslim Cultural Center near Ground Zero is a babble on both sides. The freedoms in the First Amendment do have exceptions. We do not permit:

• Religions to sacrifice animals (or maidens, as they once did).
• Religions that sanction polygamy—an issue that faced Mormons when they wanted Utah to join the union.
• Religions to sanction murder of wives or daughters who are disobedient (honor killings).
• Religious cults that abuse their women and children—a reason that the cult of David Koresh went down in a shootout and Jonestown moved to Guyana.
• Freedom to falsely shout fire in a crowded theater, resulting in deaths.
• Violent demonstrations, a tactic favored by anarchists.