New york

I continue to be impressed by how thin the case against Faisal Abdul Rauf is. You’d have thought that by now the staunch defenders of liberty crazies would have found either a smoking gun or a ticking bomb. To be fair, Pamela Geller* certainly thinks she has found evidence that he’s just as bad as his critics would have us believe. Or maybe even – and this may make your (my!) weak dhimmi-flesh creep – worse… But, actually, all she has unearthed from a 2005 talk Rauf gave to, of all places, the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, is evidence that Faisal Abdul Rauf could be considered a neoconservative. That

Jeffrey Goldberg reports on a speech Faisal Abdul Rauf gave at a memorial service for Daniel Pearl. It’s worth reading. Secondly, here’s the Imam giving a TED talk last year on the religious backdrop of compassion. Not really my kind of thing but perhaps it is yours. I must say that he doesn’t come across as a dangerous radical but that doubtless makes the disguise all the more cunning. Now, sure, some opponents won’t be swayed by any of this but there must be some for whom it does matter. Right? [Via Alex Knapp]

According to Sarah Palin, it’s now the “9/11 Mosque” because, you know, of course it’s planned as a tribute to al-Qaeda and of course it’s perfectly reasonable to suppose that all muslims are really just the same and we know what that means don’t we? Of course we do… So, these were probably Barack Obama’s best words in god knows how long: Recently, attention has been focused on the construction of mosques in certain communities – particularly in New York. Now, we must all recognize and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of lower Manhattan. The 9/11 attacks were a deeply traumatic event for our country. The pain and suffering

Yes, when I first read about plans for a mosque “at Ground Zero” my initial reaction was to wonder why, whatever the merits of an Islamic Cultural Centre in Lower Manhattan, such a project had to be built in such a location. It seemed likely to cause offense even if none were intended. The reaction to the Cordoba House initiative, however, has changed my mind: I now think not only is there no reason not to carry on with the project but that, contra its critics, it now must be built a couple of blocks from the site of the former World Trade Center. The people responsible for changing my

The peerless Mariano Rivera. Photo: Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images. After eight long, gruelling years the Curse of Bush is finally lifted and the universe is once more on an even keel: the New York Yankees are World Series champions again. For the 27th* time. Hurrah! Fans of other teams may bridle at the notion that nine years without a championship constitutes a famine. But life in Yankee-land is different. In Yankee-years nine titleless years equals half a century of failure by other, lesser, teams. More than any other American pastime, baseball is unipolar. The Yankees 27 World Series victories eclipse all other contenders: no other team has more than 10. Perhaps