Centroids :
Our new site is set to launch. In theory it should have
gone public at 9 PM
on the 23rd, but there was some kind of glitch. With luck
it ought to be
fully operational very soon, maybe today. There already is
an excellent
Press Release, accessible via Google.
but there also is a notice that simply says GroundZeroDeclaration.org
The site has been professionally designed and constructed,
thanks to Lennart's
programing work and Ernie's writing and editing.
There is a real chance that this may become very
controversial. We have aligned
ourselves with some of the "big names" who are critics of
Islam and it is possible
that some percentage of objections they get from Muslims
will devolve upon
those of us associated with the new site.
My personal feeling is that we are ready for a variety of
contingencies.
The Declaration itself is a concise but thorough statement
of principles
to refer to, to explain our motivation, and which places
us squarely in the
middle of America's First Amendment tradition.
The Questionnaire for Muslims found in the Resources
section provides a
10 question format analysis of Islam and contrasts some key
parts of the Qur'an
to the US Constitution and American law. It should be
mentioned that I circulated
a limited number of copies independently of the group and
several sites,
most notably WikiIslam , have picked it
up and are currently featuring it.
No real idea what to expect, but there is a good chance
there will be increasing
interest with the approach of 9/11.
One part of the design of the site features a Comments
section, which may or may not
be functional just yet. But the idea is for all incoming
e-mails to be made available
to anyone at this site, RadicalCentrism, for their replies.
In other words, this
is completely optional, but if anyone wants to reply to
one or more individual
e-mails that are sent to the Declaration site, this will
be open to you.
I will act as editor, in order to select the best Comments
that come in.
Some e-mails will be "published" as is if they
are thoughtful, either in support
of our efforts or to criticize what the site represents.
But there is no useful
purpose served in publishing all incoming e-mails,
especially not those which
are vulgar or hopelessly uninformed. The objective is to
focus on the
best e-mails we might receive.
Barry Sommer, who is very well informed about Islam has
agreed to help out
and is in the process of starting his own new site which
will operate in tandem
with GroundZeroDeclaration.org.
Things may become exciting around here, so be prepared. My
personal opinion
is that there will be a built-in time delay before we have
a good sense of how much
effect the site will have. We should know, as a best guess,
within about 10 days.
Look for the new site; if you cannot access it on your
first search, try again
after a few hours. Eventually it should be available to the
entire Web.
Any questions, feel free --as usual-- to contact myself
or Ernie.
It is independent of it even though some of the same people
are directly involved.
We are as much Radical Centrists as we always have been and
remain
gung ho about the Cause.
Billy
-- 