Recap of Yesterday’s Dr. Jones’ Ground Zero Rally

Hi guys, I just wanted to start off by saying the good news is that the rally was a success, and Dr. Jones continued to get the word out. The bad news is that I had filmed the entire event, including some side conversations that the MSM did not film. But at the end of the day when I went to play it all back, only the second to last segment was on the camera. Everything else was gone! This was very disappointing, because I was right next to the speakers filming. So now I can only give you the written account of the rally, with a couple of pictures. I do apologize.

I first showed up at Ground Zero at around 10:40 AM and immediately noticed a gathering of the press. NY1, the NY Daily News, NY Post, and WOR Radio, were some of MSM who attended. They were in front of the Cemetery, and I went and stood by them. I was next to a woman from WOR Radio. A woman passing by stopped and asked her why the press was there. The woman from WOR told her that Reverend Jones was coming. The lady did not know what he was. She was then told with a sarcastic face, the guy who was going to burn the Koran. The mindset of the media had already been set.

Being that it was still before 11 AM, I headed into the 911 Memorial store to see what they are selling. Out of approximately 100 or so books and DVDs there were three that were specially on Al Aqaeda, and thankfully there were none that were pro-Islamic. At least I could not find any.

When I exited the store I called Pastor Wayne Sapp of Dove Outreach Center to see exactly where they were, and he told me they were in the 911 truck up the street.

There was a pretty large police presence, so I had to call Wayne back to have him give the police the OK to let me through. About a minute later Dr. Jones and a few members of Dove exited the truck, and Dr. Jones hopped on the back of the pickup, and gave a preliminary speech stated why we there. This speech was only a few minutes and he explained that we were there to honor the victims of 911, oppose the proposed Ground Zero Mosque, talk about the violent threat of Islam, and to announce his new organization Stand up America now. From there with a police escort, we marched over to the proposed site and were told to stand behind some metal barriers. We were a crowd of about 20, which included members of Truth TV, The American Coptic Association, the International Christian Union, and the National Coptic Association. What was surprising is that no counter protesters had showed up. Part of my plan was to interview them.

Once we and the media were in place, the press conference started. The Pastor started by honoring the victims of 911, and the responders to the Islamic terrorist attack. He then went on to speak about the persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the persecution of the Christians of Iraq, and the fate of Christians across the Islamic world. Stating then when someone even suggests burning a Koran, the world is in an uproar but when Christians get murdered there is never ending silence. He was very passionate about this, and told the media we will not go away, and will continue to build up our numbers until there are enough of us to force our politicians to take a stand on this issue. That is one thing about Dove, they will not back down.

Another topic which needs to get out there as much as possible is the Sharia movement within America, and they smartly addressed this. They cited recent examples in New Jersey, and Oklahoma. After Dr. Jones and Wayne Sapp spoke, a fiery Coptic Christian woman named Manal spoke. She was something else, very passionate, to the point that it appeared there were tears in her eyes. Manal spoke of the never ending acts of kidnapping, rape, and murder, the Coptics of Eygpt are subjected to. She then hit a home run, and stated America should be ashamed of herself for letting that book in (Koran). It is a criminal book that needs to be taken to court! Go Manal!

At the end of the press conference there was a Q&A with the media, and you could see most of the media had little knowledge on this issue. Most of the questions were basically the same. Asking why we were there, and there was more interest in questioning Jones about him and his Church, than there was about the threat of Islam. Then finally one reporter asked a very good question. He asked why haven’t we heard more about the persecution of Christians? Dr. Jones correctly put the focus on the media, and told them that is part of hi point, you guys need to start covering this issue. Of course the MSM had no response. Are they so afraid of Islam, that they are afraid to do their job?

There was one more question that caught my attention. The Pastor was asked what about the 1St Amendment? His answer was that he support freedom of religion, but he also has the right to protest against the proposed Mosque. He then stated that if the Mosque is build he is OK with it, and he will not be calling for any violent acts against it. I am not calling for any violence against it as well, but my answer to the question would have been completely different. I would have stated that Islam is more of a political ideology than a religion, and that it should have banned during the Barbary Coast Wars. I then would have explained how Muslims use our freedoms against us to advance Islam, with their final goal being the destruction of the US Constitution. Then replacing it with Sharia Law. That we cannot allow Islam to takeover in the name of freedom of religion, and I know the Founding Fathers would not have either.

At the end of the Q&A Jones and the other members of Dove were quickly escorted to to the 911 truck. But I decided to stick around for awhile. On the adjacent corner I noticed a small gathering and headed over to see what was going on. The Coptic woman Manal was conducting interviews for Arabic TV.

Now here comes my favorite part of the day. As I was standing near the small crowd a woman with long blond hair in a ponytail walked by me and said to someone, “we did not ask the crazy lady anything”. It was obvious she was talking about Manal, because she was very vocal. At that point I saw my target of the day, and waited for my opening. I have to thank her for making things very easy for me. She walked over and stood by me as Manal was still conducting interviews. I then took out the camcorder, and focused on the duffel bag at her feet. On top of it was her microphone which said NY1 on it. She didn’t notice what I was doing, and I moved the camera up to her face level and asked her who the “crazy one” is. Without thinking she nodded her chin towards Manal. I had completely caught her off guard and told her she is not crazy, she is very vocal and happens to be correct. Immediately she backtracked and said that is not what I meant, yes she is vocal. At that point reality hit her, and she finally woke up and angrily asked “who are you”? I said I am Chris, and asked her if she know what goes on in Egypt between the Muslims and Christian? Like a criminal coming out of court she put her hand up in front of the camera, and told me “get out of my face dude”. So I moved the camera, and pointed it back down to her NY1 microphone, and said so the NY1 reporter has done no research on the issue. She quickly grabbed her stuff, and stormed off to the corner to be with her colleagues. I looked at her, and she had her arms up, eyes rolling, all while shaking her head. It was like I was a servant who had disturbed the Queen’s nap. I am so sorry for asking you to do your job.

From there I headed home, and once again I do apologize for losing the video. The next event I will be attending is the ACT! anti-Ground Zero Mosque rally at City Hall, taking place this Thursday the 18Th. The time of the event is 11 AM. This time I will have a camera person with me, and if I see an opening I will hold our uniformed Islamophile media accountable.

All in all, the day was a success. Onto the next rally…