VDH on Mosque Semiotics

While "nice" (i.e. clueless) Americans like Mayor Bloomy think the GZM will be a sign of inclusiveness, Victor Davis Hanson writes about how the edifice will be perceived in the Muslim world:

At home, a huge mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan will rise up before the new World Trade Center (maybe Bruce Springsteen can do a sequel to “The Rising”?). To suggest this is bad taste is bigoted. To suggest that we don’t know the where, how, and why about the funding, or why a self-proclaimed ecumenical group of Muslims wants to build ties by picking this provocative spot, or who exactly is behind the idea (or where exactly the promoter now is) is the worst sort of Neanderthal right prejudice.

No problem. We can assure the 3,000 dead that their passing was marked by the enlightened harmony of a mosque preempting a new tower. What we do know is that in about a year, all over the Middle East, al-Qaeda videos will have photo-shopped “strong horse” posters and CDs of the ruins of 9/11 in the shadow of a towering mosque, with the accustomed boilerplate about how Atta et al. knocked down the looming towers in order to have Islam’s shrine rise up in their place.

No doubt videos showing all the convivial "interfaith" falafel 'n' samosas gatherings held at the edifice will quickly dispel such foolish notions.