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As political firestorms go, few have consumed more oxygen than last summer’s “ground zero mosque” controversy in lower Manhattan.

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The Daily Mail picks up on a story that has already done the rounds in the right-wing media in the US (the paper has in fact lifted it directly from the New York Post).

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Keith Ellison discusses the interesting if seriously flawed show that Christiane Amanpour held this past week. He rips into the format and discusses what would happen if we replaced Islam with Black or Jewish and proceeds to call for a heightened more intelligent discourse.

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Opposing the mosque and supporting the idea that America should fear Islam was anti-Muslim bigot Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, Peter Gadiel of 9/11 Families for a Secure Americaand Rev. Franklin Graham. Other special guests included: Reza Aslan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Gary Bauer, Brad Garret, Anjem Choudary and Imam Ossama Bahloul.

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When asked why they resist moving the center to defuse critics who call its location near ground zero insensitive, for example, Mr. Abdul Rauf said that a move would anger Muslims overseas and endanger American troops.

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As the debate has grown more heated, Park51, as the proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero is called, has become a litmus test for everything from private-property rights to religious tolerance.

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But sadly, in an election season, such sentiments have been stoked into a political issue. As the debate has grown more heated, Park51, as the proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero is called, has become a litmus test for everything from private-property rights to religious tolerance.

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Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the organizer of the planned Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan, arrived in Bahrain on Thursday to begin a three-country tour of the Persian Gulf sponsored by the United States State Department.

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That sums up his most carnal desire: that all Muslims stop being relevant, stop being effective, and for that matter, stop being Muslim – and instead, turn against their own faith and people in a rage of blind hatred – that’s the only way you could get a “good, heroic” Muslim in his eyes.