While debate rages over plans for an Islamic center in Lower Manhattan, the imam behind this project, Feisal Abdul Rauf, is not available to answer questions in New York. Since locating the absent Rauf last week in Malaysia, I have now discovered that he’s about to embark on a nearly month-long swing through the Middle East, with plans to visit Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Qatar.
Not that I learned this from Rauf, whose Malaysian office staff told me by phone on Tuesday that “All media requests have to go through his office in New York.” Nor did his New York colleagues simply volunteer information about his imminent trip to the Middle East. It took a series of phone calls and questions to eke it out of them, starting with a vague reply from a staffer who then tried to backtrack with a message that, retroactively, her remark was “completely off the record.”
Ultimately, in response to repeated questions, a member of Rauf’s New York Cordoba Initiative foundation e-mailed me Friday, saying that Rauf’s trip to the Middle East, “in the near future,” will be hosted by the U.S. government as part of an outreach program to “bring the message of moderation, peace and understanding.”
At the State Department, which presumably will be spending taxpayer money on Rauf’s tour, I have yet to receive confirmation or any other information about his program, despite three days of my repeated requests by phone and e-mail. Apparently it is taking a while for State’s Bureau of Public Diplomacy to get “clearance” to release any details of this particular public outreach effort, though Rauf’s wife says it has been in the works for months.
All this comes at a moment when Rauf and his partners in New York are preparing to raise $100 million to build a 13-story Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero. A Manhattan Landmarks committee gave the necessary approval on Aug. 3 to tear down the old Burlington Coat Factory building already purchased for $4.85 million by a real estate developer partnering with Rauf.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/06/imam-feisal-ground-zero-mosque-opinions-columnists-claudia-rosett.html
More at Atlas Shrugs:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/08/dishonest-imam-rauf-in-saudi-arabia-dubai-abu-dhabi-bahrain-and-qatar-for-ground-zero-mosque-money.html
This is fucking incredible. Rauf’s Cordoba Project is a radical muslim group that wants to build a mosque, which is for all intent and purpose, a satellite of the network of muslim terrorist groups who attacked this country on 9/11.
And of course, the Dhimmi-in-Chief advocates this in-your-face Islamic insult.
“As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country,” Obama said to applause at an event attended by diplomats from Islamic countries and members of the U.S. Muslim community.
http://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/08/13/obama-backs-ground-zero-mosque/
This is the same Obama who opposed Billy Graham’s right to pray at the Pentagon.
It might have something to do with his empathy for muslim terrorists and the radical Islamic groups who endorsed and support him.
Obama’s regime isn’t just voicing support, it’s pouring money into the project. This is a violation of the First Amendment.
One commenter points out:
“….the First Amendment prohibition of a state establishment of religion can and ought to be applied to any state financing of religious campaigns, institutions or structures, including such financing, directly or indirectly, by a foreign state.”
Our anger over this is met with mealy-mouthed assclowns like Michael Bloomberg and radical muzzie groups arguing that critics’ attacks amount to “religious bigotry.”
When it comes to religious bigotry, intolerance, hate speech, and discrimination, no culture holds a fucking candle to Islam. That record speaks for itself.
Tell you what, muzzies. The day you support building a church or a synagogue in Mecca, is the day you can talk about “tolerance”.
Related posts:
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/nyc-landmarks-commission-clears-way-for-terrorist-victory-mosque/
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/a-reminder-ground-zero-mosque-imam-blamed-u-s-for-911/
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/the-terrorist-groups-behind-the-cordoba-ground-zero-mosque/
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/911-flashback-obamas-empathy-for-terrorists/
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/obamas-terrorist-freinds/
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2008/11/13/obama-couldnt-pass-his-own-background-check/