MARTY GOLDEN: “It’s very difficult. It’s their religious right to put up these individual mosques as one would put up a church or a synagogue and it’s difficult to stop it. That’s what the Constitution is based on.”
Too pusillanimous to qualify as a statement in support of the First Amendment’s right of free religious exercise, Golden’s statement on the proposed Sheepshead Bay Mosque (which, under the applicable zoning, is "as of right") is more a weary acknowledge of the First Amendment’s vitality; something more on the order of “You can fight City Hall, but you can’t fight Madison and Jefferson”
Still Golden’s statement illustrates the vitality of the Arab/Moslem vote in Bay Ridge, as well as the virtues of electing politicians who have actual real-world experience with zoning matters (although, this hasn’t stopped Ben Akselrod, a former District Manager, who should know better, from demagogue-ing the same issue).
Marty Golden, I salute you.
And I mean it.
Contrast this to the irrational, frothing mouthed, almost obscenely libelous ravings of someone whose real world experience in politics consists mostly of denying on far right wing websites that Muslims have ever been the victims of genocide:
"The residents are also concerned with who is backing this construction, saying that there is evidence that MAS (Muslim American Society), the organization that is in charge of overlooking the project, has links to radical organizations, and been under numerous investigations by federal authorities due to their alleged support for Hamas and Hezbollah. Both are listed by the U.S. State Department as terrorist organizations."
People tell me I should get over it and lay off David Storobin, who is so anti-Muslim I'm surprised he hasn't introduced a bill banning circumcision, or a reso calling for the repeal of the First Amendment.
Some elected officials like Mike Nelson and Steve Cymbrowitz have dodged the issue, while Marty Markowitz has raised some zoning technicalities he feels should be studied (and he may even be right, though I tend to doubt it).
But even Bob Turner who made opposition to the proposed Fantasy, But Never to Be Built, Young Men’s Islamic Association at the Holy Mother Coat Factory a central point in his race for Congress, confined his activities concerning the Sheepshead Bay Mosque to nods winks and dog whistles.
During his first race for Congress Turner said “If they want to build a mosque, they can build it somewhere else—anywhere but Ground Zero." But a month later he spoke at a rally opposing both mosques, giving the distinct impression that “anywhere else ” did not include Sheepshead Bay.
But once in office Turner has taken the Markowitz-Zoning technicality quibble dodge.
Thus, Storobin is so far the first and only elected official of any party to put his official imprimatur on stopping a Mosque from being built in Sheepshead Bay (although I wouldn’t bet the mortgage money on Steve Cymbrowitz’s not sacrificing the few remaining vestiges of his tattered dignity before primary day) based upon accusations that its backers are associates of a muderous international criminal conspiracy or two.
Asked about the Muslim American Society, The FBI said it has "no indication whatsoever the Muslim American Society is affiliated with any organization that threatens our national security.”
But Storobin obviously fancies his instincts and those of the proposed Mosque's neighbors are superior to the intelligence of our nation's leading law enforcement agency.
Well, Storobin is a cloak and dagger man. He not only founded the International Analyst Network, but removed all evidence of it from the web. The man was born to be a spy.
So we must ask:
Does Storobin know something that the FBI doesn't?
Will somebody in the press please ask Storobin to reveal the source of his information?
And, while they are at it, will they ask him for his on the record opinion of the accusations made about Huma Abedin?
In truth, it is clear Storobin knows nothing.
Read his words:
"The residents are also concerned with who is backing this construction, saying that there is evidence that MAS (Muslim American Society), the organization that is in charge of overlooking the project, has links to radical organizations, and been under numerous investigations by federal authorities due to their alleged support for Hamas and Hezbollah. Both are listed by the U.S. State Department as terrorist organizations."
Here is David Storobin, a member of the Bar, attaching his name to a letter accusing his constituents of links to murderous international criminal enterprises, and asking a government to deny his constituents their due process of law, based upon being told there “is evidence” there is no indication he has seen or evaluated, by a bunch of local homeowners who comprise a coalition of people worried about their parking in an alliance of convenience with a lynch mob.
And he can’t even manage to do it in proper English.
David, MAS is not in charge of "overlooking" the project, though you may be in charge of overlooking the truth and the constitution.
Something does needs to be investigated.
The press needs to investigate David Storobin’s character and fitness to hold office.
And the Disciplinary Committee needs to investigate whether an attorney who signs his name to an official document accusing people of associations with murderous international criminal enterprises, which Storobin has done here, deserves to continue holding a license to practice law.
To be fair, David Storobin doesn't want to persecute all Muslims; he likes the sort of Muslim who is willing to have a beer with him; the sort of Muslim who take his religion as seriously as he does.
David Storobin’s family fled to this country to escape religious persecution. One would think he would have some rachmonis for people who just want to worship their G-d.
This man is a merchant of hatred; he is really beyond contempt.