BULLETIN:  HAMAS ENDORSES MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO – AT 7:56 A.M. ET:  Hamas has brought its huge moral authority down on the issue:

A leader of the Hamas terror group yesterday jumped into the emotional debate on the plan to construct a mosque near Ground Zero -- insisting Muslims "have to build" it there.

"We have to build everywhere," said Mahmoud al-Zahar, a co-founder of Hamas and the organization's chief on the Gaza Strip.

"In every area we have, [as] Muslim[s], we have to pray, and this mosque is the only site of prayer," he said on "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on WABC.

"We have to build the mosque, as you are allowed to build the church and Israelis are building their holy places."

Hamas, he added, "is representing the vast majority of the Arabic and Islamic world -- especially the Islamic side."

Well, I guess that settles it, doesn't it?  Oh, and get this:

Zahar said Muslims around the world, including those who live in this country, are united in a common cause.

"First of all, we have to address that we are different as people, as a nation, totally different," he said.

"We already are living under the tradition of Islam.

"Islam is controlling every source of our life as regard to marriage, divorce, our commercial relationships," Zahar said.

Let us state immediately our awareness that not all Muslims think that way, but that is a very chilling statement.  Next time Jimmah Carter tells us that we must treat Hamas with respect, remember those words.  Plenty of people, in the 1930s, thought we should treat Hitler with respect.  The outcome speaks for itself.

August 16, 2010