with Eli Clifton

Now look, nobody in America would object to the construction of an Islamic center — however the question is: Why here? Why in this spot? This is a spot that was for hours bathed in the ashes of the Twin Towers and the thousands of innocents who died in it.

It’s not just any other spot. It’s sacred ground.

–Charles Krauthammer

As it happens, I was staying with a friend right around the corner from the site of the “Ground Zero Mosque” this past weekend, and I can second Krauthammer on the “sacred” feel of the area. From the Starbucks where young office workers grabbed their morning decaf venti mocha frappucinos to the dive bar where aging frat boys downed Jagerbombs, the whole neighborhood reflected Dan Senor’s injunction that the area “should be reserved for memorials to the event itself and to its victims.”

But as I was walking around the neighborhood, resting easy that its residents had resolved Never To Forget That We Were Attacked On 9/11, I suddenly saw something that stopped me short. In their zeal to halt the inexorable march of Islamofascism in Lower Manhattan, I realized that Krauthammer, Senor, and their comrades may have missed the real and more insidious threat that has been lurking in front of our very eyes.

This is the view from Park Place and Church Street, a few steps away from the planned mosque:

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Nothing here but 9/11 memorials, right? But not so fast — let’s take a closer look at the block:

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I couldn’t help but notice the Indian restaurant on the block. At first, I saw nothing openly alarming, naively believing that the Bengalis were Friendly Brown People rather than Islamofascists. But let’s take a closer look at this supposedly peaceful commercial establishment:

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Look carefully at the signs at the upper right of the restaurant’s awning. A vigilant observer will immediately notice that this supposedly innocuous commercial establishment proclaims, not once, but twice, that it serves “halal” food — that is, food in compliance with Islamic Sharia Law. As scholars of Islam such as Andy McCarthy have described, radical Muslims have joined forces with radical leftists such as Barack Obama to spawn “America-hating Islamic enclaves in our very midst, gradually foisting Islam’s repressive law, sharia, on American life.” It would be no exaggeration to regard this restaurant as a beachhead for the creeping Shariafication of America, mere steps from where We Were Attacked On 9/11 (which We Must Never Forget).

We should also note that the Google Maps photos above record only the stationary Sharia outposts in the neighborhood. They cannot tell us precisely how many Mobile Semi-Armored Jihad Wagons — of the kind pictured below — are operative in the area:

Yet the lack of media attention paid to these terror-promoting Islamist outposts raises troubling questions about the entire Ground Zero Mosque debate. Lovers of the American way have naturally focused their energies on stopping the mosque — but what if the mosque itself is merely a red herring? What if the wily Islamists’ real intention is to distract America’s defenders with the high-profile mosque, while in reality working to foist Sharia on America through subtler — and tastier — means?