Webloggin » New Islamic Prayer Center Dedicated at Marine Base in Virginia

This would almost fall into the surreal news of the unexpected if it weren’t for the anti-Military comments from a Muslim woman who attended the invitation only ceremony with her Veteran husband.

Dedication of the first Islamic Center at Quantico Marine Corps Base

An Islamic Center (Masjid) will be dedicated on 6 June by the Deputy Secretary of Defense (The Honorable Gordon England) at the Quantico Marine Corps Base, Quantico Virginia.

The ceremony is being hosted by the Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command at three o’clock on Tuesday, the sixth of June at 3043 Catlin Avenue on the base. - Muslim Military Members.org

On the up side this could be the mark of increased number of Muslims in the military that are necessary to help us fight, understand and surveil the enemy we are up against.

I do not want to consider the downside. But then again, I don’t need to; the Washington Post already found it for me.

Aisha Greenleaf Abdul-Mateen sat in a folding chair behind rows of other folding chairs, listening as Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England and Gen. Michael W. Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, spoke about the significance of the day — the first Muslim prayer center for the Marines. She sat there as they pointed to the small white building behind them as a symbol of America’s religious tolerance. And she remained there after they finished their speeches, took off their shoes and walked inside the center with a gaggle of journalists in tow.

“If they would have asked someone like me to say something, they would have got the truth,” said Abdul-Mateen, a Muslim and wife of a veteran.

She would have stood at the podium and said that the Islamic Prayer Center was a “beautiful, beautiful thing” but long overdue. She would have said that it shows “equality” and “justice” and “respect,” “but that those qualities were being lost in the bigger picture of the Iraq war. That the leaders weren’t following what God wants.

If they were,” she said, “we wouldn’t be in Iraq doing what we’re doing — hurting innocent people, having them take their clothes off and siccing dogs on them, and even what they’re doing in Cuba.“

So much for the thanks.

Where does the Washington Post dig these people up? Do they ship them in or is it just an ironic coincidence that they managed to defy odds and find an anti-military activist at an invitation only event on a U.S. military base? (she is minimally anti-Iraq War/anti-Bush)

I have a question for Aisha Greenleaf Abdul-Mateen. I was wondering if you happened to criticize the 9-11 terrorists who murdered 3000 innocent Americans in the name of your religion? Is it just me or does anyone else find it strange that billions of Muslims are nearly silent when it comes to speaking out against those who murder, maim and kill in the name of Islam? Billions. Yet we have heard hardly a peep from that community. If anything is “long overdue” I would put my vote in that corner.

The addition of Islamic centers to U.S. military bases in the middle of a war against fundamentalist Islamic radicals provides a stark contrast between what is considered acceptable by the citizens of this nation and those of the Islamic terrorists we are up against. It also speaks volumes about which side operates with honor and which side does not.