Michael Paul at AFDI/SIOA 911 Freedom Rally (2011)

UPDATE: Please scroll down for FULL TEXT of Michael Paul, a former Muslim (text compliments of Pamela Geller)

Michael Paul is a Christian activist from Iraq and advocate for the persecuted Christians there and around the world.




On 9-11-11, the then anniversary of the attacks against America by Muslim terrorists, AFDI and its Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) program encouraged all Americans to stand against the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero and the anti-Semitic Durban III conference that will be held in New York City at the same time. It is time to stand for American values on the tenth anniversary of the worst attack ever on American soil.

FULL TEXT of speech:

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From Pamela Geller, " I thought Atlas readers should see the full text of former Muslim and human rights activist Michael Paul's remarks."

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Freedom Rally Speech 9-11-2011, Michael Paul

I am here today, not to speak against Muslims, but to talk directly to those who adamantly demand to build a mosque here at Ground Zero and name it the Cordoba mosque.

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I’m going to give proof through the Quran and Sunah that their plan is ill-conceived. If they believe in these proofs they will have to stop the construction of the mosque. If they don’t believe and instead they go far away from them to some Islamic theologians’ extremist radical interpretation of the Quran as justification to build the mosque, then we will all know that they believe in the interpretation used by the terrorists who attacked on 9/11.

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But before I go into that, I would like to thank the American people for their brave efforts that have liberated Arab and Muslim countries from the grip of dictatorship and tyranny. Through direct military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq. Also through diplomatic intervention, in international forums and material and logistical support as in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria. Etc.

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There are already many Sunni and Shiite mosques in New York. Some have been penetrated by terrorist ideology, others washed in the tide of Islamic Iran’s Revolutionary thinking. Now, that poison is being spread from here across the United States to other mosques. The true purpose of this mosque isn’t for daily worship. Most Muslims  don’t worship on a daily basis because they are too busy working during the week. The true purpose is suspicious.

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You, you who want to build the mosque, should appreciate America as a country that supports and sacrifices for the right of man to be free no matter what the sex, race, or religion. Muslims living here have the full rights given in the Constitution and American society. And those rights far exceed those given in your native country.  Why do you now try to use the same laws that have set Muslims free from slavery as a weapon against the people who created those laws? Why do you want to build a mosque on the lives and wounds of the society that liberated so many Muslims around the world? Is it necessary to build the mosque here in this spot on ground that still moans from its wounds? Do you need to renew the pain of all those who’s loved ones were killed here? The extremist ideology that killed them grew up in a mosque.

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Ground Zero has seen the worst form of mass murder and crimes against humanity. The act was carried out by criminals who hate, even though they ate and drank of the best of this country, and breathed the human freedom she gave them. It is an act of shame that they attacked her and killed in the name of Islam.

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It is a reminder of the ugly colonial history that is based on attacking people and trying to force a change of religious beliefs by the sword. A history that includes Spain, where the original Cordoba mosque was built over the Christian Church of Saint Vincent. Where that Christian country was occupied, men killed, and women captured and taken to Muslim’s countries as maids and servants who provided sexual pleasure for their conquerors. Many in Islam still boast about that and glory in that conquest. They consider it a symbol of their power and greatness. For them, this new Cordoba mosque will also be considered a symbol of Islamic supremacy, part of their long tradition of building structures on the holy ground of their conquered enemies.

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Do you see how desiring the mosque to be named Cordoba is not just an innocent choice? It is being done because the name carries the seeds of dreams that destroy freedom and individual rights. The fruit will be the expansion of radical Islam.

I would like to refer to verse 107 of Sura Repentance in the Qur’an, which says “And there are those who put up a mosque by way of mischief and infidelity– to disunite the Believers – and in preparation for one who warred against Allah and His Messenger aforetime. They will indeed swear that their intention is nothing but good; but Allah doth declare that they are certainly liars.”

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You, who want to build this mosque, know the story of Dirar. It was a mosque built at the time of Mohammad in Medina, by the tribe of Auf, on land they stole from Christian Priest Abu Amar. And you know it was stolen because of their jealousy of their cousin tribe who had already built a mosque nearby. The Christian priest told Caesar about the terrible injustice done to him by the tribe of Auf and Mohammad sent three men to burn the Dirar mosque.

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As we see in the story Dirar, and through the action Mohammad took, if the construction of any mosque causes division among people it is permissible to burn it.

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Most of the Muslim theologians said that the meaning of  Dirar (which in English means devastating and is what Allah named the mosque in the story) is when you do something that doesn’t even benefit yourself while it damages your neighbor.

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Most Muslim theologians have gathered and agreed that no mosque should be built on dirar, and if it is, it is not permitted by Allah to be prayed in.

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My question to these men and women who are demanding construction of the mosque is, how do you believe in Islam and you don’t follow what your Prophet Muhammad has said? Instead you try to make the people fear you with your determination to build the mosque here. Muhammad said, “I swear in God’s name, anyone who causes his neighbor to fear him is not a Muslim Believer.”Also, the Prophet of Islam said: By Allah, the ground of all the earth has been my mosque and cleansed for me. All the earth except five places. One of those five places is the cemetery or the grave, or place of death.

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A second place that it is forbidden in Islam to build a mosque is coerced land. I am sure that those who want to build here will criticize me, because they will say that they obtained  the land by the regular way. But Mohammed says that anything that you obtained the regular way from people who were bashful to give it to you is the same as coercing it from them.

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You who demand to build this mosque and name it Cordoba know full well that this place is a place of death. A place where over 3,000 innocents died. It is a cemetery of their souls. To build a mosque here is forbidden by Islam. If you believe that Allah cleansed all the earth for a mosque, why must you build on this specific site? Also, you are in effect seizing the land by coercion because the majority of Americans don’t want it built here. And beyond that it doesn’t benefit you because there are already many mosques in the area, and other sites that you could build on. It doesn’t benefit you and it damages your neighbors. This is dirar.

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I can’t believe that you claim the mosque and Islamic center to be built here will be a center of peace. How can it be when the Prophet of Islam said in the hadith  that was narrated in Saheeh Muslim’s book: Don’t begin to make peace with Jews and Christians. If you meet one of them along the way, make the way narrow for them.

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I am sure that the people insisting to build the mosque understand the meaning of that Hadith. But I want to explain the meaning for my American audience. It means if you are among Jews and Christians there  is an obligation from Muhammad to every Muslim to not start peace with them or even give a simple greeting like “Salam aleikom.”

The broad interpretation of that hadith is when it speaks of “meeting Jews and Christians along the way,” it means “ meeting them in life.” It is saying when you meet Jews and Christian’s in life, make their life Hell.

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Also, the Qur’an says in Surat Repentance verse (28): ‘’Ye who believe! Truly the Pagans are unclean, so let them not after this year of theirs, approach the Sacred Mosque. And if ye fear poverty, soon will Allah enrich you, if He wills, out of His bounty , For Allah is all-knowing, all wise.”

The Qur’an text clearly states here not to allow non-Muslims (Jews and Christians) to get close to the mosque because we are unclean. So why insist on the construction of the mosque in our midst? The Qur’an forbids it. I challenge you who want to build this mosque to tell me this is an untruth.

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So I ask again how we can believe this mosque will be a center of peace, especially when the area where Ground Zero is located is populated mostly with Christians and Jews. America itself is about 78% Christian and 1.7% Jewish.

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You who insist to build this mosque at the site of Ground Zero, if you refuse all of this conclusive evidence I have given from the Qur’an and Sunnah, and continue to make your claims, it seems that you believe in the same diabolical interpretation of the Qur'an (verse 109-110 from Surat Repentance), which the terrorists based their attack on when they struck this region in 2001. Most Arabs and Muslims heard about that through the media and internet, though most did not agree with the terrorists.

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But the majority of Americans do not know that when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York they believed they were fulfilling a prophecy which is based on the Sura of Repentance verses (109-110). The verses say: “Which then is best - he that layeth his foundations on piety to Allah and His good pleasure? –  or he that layeth his foundation on an undermined sand cliff ready to crumble to pieces? And it doth crumble to pieces with him, into the fire of Hell. And Allah guideth not people that do wrong.”

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I will  now clarify the prophecy the terrorists thought they were fulfilling. The Sura of Repentance is Sura number 9 in the Qur’an and it is found in part number 11 of the Qur’an. The terrorists understood that to be a date: 9-11. Then with further mathematical calculations, using the letters of the surat, they came up with the number 2001. This gave them the date 9-11-2001.  The date of the most terrible attack ever on our soil. Even the number of stories in the towers, 110, matched the number of the Sura verse I just quoted.

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The terrorist were dreaming to let the prophecy be fulfilled because in the same verse 109 it speaks of building a mosque, laying the foundation on piety to Allah is better than a building built on a sand cliff.

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There is a lot of this kind of demonic interpretation used by radicals and killers. Today I have told you about some of them, but there is a lot more that we haven’t heard about. Other demonic interpretations that they believe in.

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Last but not least, I am an Arab citizen, but I live free in this country, and I speak freely. There is no question that there is a legal right to build the mosque here.      But what is legal is not always just. You who follow the moderate interpretation of the Qur’an, separate yourselves from the extremists. Unite and raise money not to build a mosque, but to rebuild the WTC. Extend your hand in peace. There is no excuse for these claimants to build a mosque here. Their intentions are dreadful, cynical, and suspicious, suspicious, suspicious.

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And to Mayor Bloomberg and the Obama administration I plead with you and I am trustful that you will protect and defend America by using wisdom when you administer her laws and offer her freedoms to others.

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My hope to all who have heard my speech and the evidence I have presented, whether Muslim or of any other religion, is that you will do everything in your power to prevent the work of evil trying to be done here at Ground Zero.

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God bless America. May His will be done on earth.

Michael Paul

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Next is Helen Freedman