Fact Check

Newt Gingrich Statement on Proposed Mosque/Islamic Community Center Near Ground Zero

Did Newt Gingrich issue a statement condemning the building of the Cordoba House community center in Manhattan?

Published Aug. 24, 2010

Claim:

Claim:   Newt Gingrich issued a statement condemning the building of the Cordoba House community center in Manhattan.


CORRECTLY ATTRIBUTED


Example:   [Gingrich, 2010]


Did Newt Gingrich really issue this statement?
 

There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.

The proposed "Cordoba House" overlooking the World Trade Center site — where a group of jihadists killed over 3000 Americans and destroyed one of our most famous landmarks — is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites. For example, most of them don't understand that "Cordoba House" is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba, Spain — the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world's third-largest mosque complex.

Today, some of the Mosque's backers insist this term is being used to "symbolize interfaith cooperation" when, in fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest. It is a sign of their contempt for Americans and their confidence in our historic ignorance that they would deliberately
insult us this way.

Those Islamists and their apologists who argue for "religious toleration" are arrogantly dishonest. They ignore the fact that more than 100 mosques already exist in New York City. Meanwhile, there are no churches or synagogues in all of Saudi Arabia. In fact no Christian or Jew can even enter Mecca.

And they lecture us about tolerance.

If the people behind the Cordoba House were serious about religious toleration, they would be imploring the Saudis, as fellow Muslims, to immediately open up

Mecca to all and immediately announce their intention to allow non-Muslim houses of worship in the Kingdom. They should be asked by the news media if they would be willing to lead such a campaign.

We have not been able to rebuild the World Trade Center in nine years. Now we are being told a 13-story, $100 million megamosque will be built within a year overlooking the site of the most devastating surprise attack in American history.

Finally where is the money coming from? The people behind the Cordoba House refuse to reveal all their funding sources.

America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization. Sadly, too many of our elites are the willing apologists for those who would destroy them if they could.

No mosque.

No self deception.

No surrender.

The time to take a stand is now — at this site on this issue.


 

Origins:   Newt Gingrich is a Republican politician who represented Georgia districts in the U.S. Congress for twenty years between 1979-99, attaining the position of House Minority Whip in 1989 and serving as Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999. Although he has as yet made no announcement one way or the other, many have speculated that Gingrich is poised to wage a campaign as a candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

The "Newt Direct" section of
Newt Gingrich's official web site at newt.org includes copies of his newsletter writings, television appearances, and speeches, a number of which in mid-2010 focused on the controversy over the proposed building of a 15-story Cordoba House community center (more commonly referred to as the "Ground Zero Mosque") in downtown Manhattan a few blocks away from the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The text reproduced above is Gingrich's 21 July 2010 statement on that topic.

(Gingrich's statement about the Cordoba House project drew criticism from some who contended it was historically inaccurate and misleading.)

Last updated:   25 August 2010


Sources:




    Tacopino, Joe.   "Gingrich Comes Out Against Planned Cordoba House Mosque Near Ground Zero."

    [New York] Daily News.   22 July 2010.


David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

Article Tags