The two rallies happening one block away from each other at Ground Zero will present completely opposite points of view, and will center on whether or not American citizens should have the right to build an Islamic Community Center and mosque known as Park51 anywhere near ground zero.
The Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI) and Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), both of which are billed as human rights organizations, will be hosting a “pro-freedom Rally of Remembrance” protesting the mosque. The confirmed list of speakers includes 9/11 family members and anti-Islamic Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders. Former U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton and journalist Andrew Breitbart will also speak via video messages.
Pamela Geller, executive director of SIOA, says on her website a large number of family members have contacted her and asked that she speak on their behalf on Sept. 11 to oppose the mosque.
“I would have canceled the rally, but due to the large number of family members who have contacted me and asked us to help them speak out for their loved ones, and give them a voice to express their opinions, in all conscience I cannot postpone the rally,” said Geller, a prolific blogger.
In what they say is a response to the SIOA rally, the International Action Center (IAC), a grass-roots coalition of nearly 100 peace, justice, labor, community, and immigrant groups have organized their own rally and march.
“As long as the voices of hate and racism are taking this day of 9/11 we must respond,” said Sarah Flounders, coordinator of the IAC event.
“They seized it, and we thought it was important, in all due respect to 9/11, to make this a day that would call for unity and respect,” she added.
On Wednesday, the coalition, represented by the umbrella International Action Center (IAC), held a press conference to raise awareness of their position prior to Saturday.
The IAC coalition believes that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are diverting money away from the well being of American citizens.
“It is about depression-level unemployment, about people suffering and worrying about whether they are going to have a future, and they are angry and mad,” said Larry Holmes, spokesperson for the Bailout the People Movement, a national network founded in October 2008, to oppose the trillion dollar government bank bailout.
The IAC groups also believe that the war on terror, represented locally by the ground zero mosque debate, represents an effort to scapegoat the Muslim community, which has the effect of shifting public focus away from domestic needs.
“What they really want is to create some kind of distraction so that people will not understand what is going on with them economically,” said Amadi Ajamu, spokesperson for the December 12 Movement, an NGO representing 40 million Africans in the United States.
The IAC rally will start at 1 p.m., at Broadway and Park Place, with a march starting at 2 p.m., and a second rally from 2:30 p.m. to 4pm.
The SIOA rally will begin with a brief memorial service for the victims of the 9/11 attacks, beginning at 3 p.m. at Park Place and West Broadway.
Flounders, coordinator of the IAC gathering, said careful planning and coordination with police done in preparation for Saturday’s events assures her that the event will be without incident.
But on Thursday one lone man who wandered into the press conference foreshadowed the kind of conflict that could occur when opposing points of view converge on 9/11.
“We fought for this country! You want us to bend over backward?!!” he shouted. The shouting man was escorted away by police on the scene.
