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Questions for Imam Rauf From an American Muslim
Questions for Imam Rauf From an American Muslim
He may not appear to the untrained eye to be an Islamist, but by making Ground Zero an Islamic rather than an American issue he shows his true allegiance.
By M. ZUHDI JASSER
After a long absence while controversy over the mosque near Ground Zero smoldered, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf finally held forth this week both in the New York Times and on CNN.
Imam Rauf and his supporters are clearly more interested in making a political statement in relation to Islam than in the mosque's potential for causing community division and pain to those who lost loved ones on 9/11. That division is already bitterly obvious.
As someone who has been involved in building mosques around the country, and who has dealt with his fair share of unjustified opposition, I ask of Imam Rauf and all his supporters, "Where is your sense of fairness and common decency?" In relation to Ground Zero, I am an American first, a Muslim second, just as I would be at Concord, Gettysburg, Normandy Beach, Pearl Harbor or any other battlefield where my fellow countrymen lost their lives.
I must ask Imam Rauf: For what do you stand—what's best for Americans overall, or for what you think is best for Islam? What have you said and argued to Muslim-majority nations to address their need for reform? You have said that Islam does not need reform, despite the stoning of women in Muslim countries, death sentences for apostates, and oppression of reformist Muslims and non-Muslims.
Bret Stephens on the book-burning Florida Pastor
You now lecture Americans that WTC mosque protests are "politically motivated" and "go against the American principle of church and state." Yet you ignore the wide global prevalence of far more dangerous theo-political groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and all of its violent and nonviolent offshoots.
In your book, "What's Right With Islam," you cite the Brotherhood's radical longtime spiritual leader Imam Yusuf Qaradawi as a "moderate." Reformist American Muslims are not afraid to name Mr. Qaradawi and his ilk as radical. We Muslims should first separate mosque and state before lecturing Americans about church and state.
Imam, tell me if you can look into the eyes of children who lost a parent on 9/11 and convince them that this immodest Islamic center benefits them. How will it in any way aid counterterrorism efforts or keep one American any safer? You willfully ignore what American Muslims most need—an open call for reformation that unravels the bigoted and shoddy framework of political Islam and separates mosque and state.
More
* Truce Is Reached in Quran Drama
* Muslims in New York Still Feel Vulnerable
There are certainly those who are prejudiced against Muslims and who are against mosques being built anywhere, and even a few who wish to burn the Quran. But most voices in this case have been very clear that for every American freedom of religion is a right, but that it is not right to make one's religion a global political statement with a towering Islamic edifice that casts a shadow over the memorials of Ground Zero.
As an American Muslim, I look at that pit of devastation and contemplate the thousands of lives undone there within seconds. I pray for the ongoing strength to fight the fanatics who did this, and who continue their war against my country with both overt violence and covert strategies that aim to undo the very freedoms for which so many have fought and died.
Imam Rauf may not appear to the untrained eye to be an Islamist, but by making Ground Zero an Islamic rather than an American issue, and by failing to firmly condemn terrorist groups like Hamas, he shows his true allegiance.
Islamists in "moderate" disguise are still Islamists. In their own more subtle ways, the WTC mosque organizers end up serving the same aims of the separatist and supremacist wings of political Islam. In this epic struggle of the 21st century, we cannot afford to ignore the continuum between nonviolent political Islam and the militancy it ultimately fuels among the jihadists.
Dr. Jasser, a medical doctor and a former U.S. Navy lieutenant commander, is the founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix, Ariz.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704644404575481882969581708.html
He may not appear to the untrained eye to be an Islamist, but by making Ground Zero an Islamic rather than an American issue he shows his true allegiance.
By M. ZUHDI JASSER
After a long absence while controversy over the mosque near Ground Zero smoldered, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf finally held forth this week both in the New York Times and on CNN.
Imam Rauf and his supporters are clearly more interested in making a political statement in relation to Islam than in the mosque's potential for causing community division and pain to those who lost loved ones on 9/11. That division is already bitterly obvious.
As someone who has been involved in building mosques around the country, and who has dealt with his fair share of unjustified opposition, I ask of Imam Rauf and all his supporters, "Where is your sense of fairness and common decency?" In relation to Ground Zero, I am an American first, a Muslim second, just as I would be at Concord, Gettysburg, Normandy Beach, Pearl Harbor or any other battlefield where my fellow countrymen lost their lives.
I must ask Imam Rauf: For what do you stand—what's best for Americans overall, or for what you think is best for Islam? What have you said and argued to Muslim-majority nations to address their need for reform? You have said that Islam does not need reform, despite the stoning of women in Muslim countries, death sentences for apostates, and oppression of reformist Muslims and non-Muslims.
Bret Stephens on the book-burning Florida Pastor
You now lecture Americans that WTC mosque protests are "politically motivated" and "go against the American principle of church and state." Yet you ignore the wide global prevalence of far more dangerous theo-political groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and all of its violent and nonviolent offshoots.
In your book, "What's Right With Islam," you cite the Brotherhood's radical longtime spiritual leader Imam Yusuf Qaradawi as a "moderate." Reformist American Muslims are not afraid to name Mr. Qaradawi and his ilk as radical. We Muslims should first separate mosque and state before lecturing Americans about church and state.
Imam, tell me if you can look into the eyes of children who lost a parent on 9/11 and convince them that this immodest Islamic center benefits them. How will it in any way aid counterterrorism efforts or keep one American any safer? You willfully ignore what American Muslims most need—an open call for reformation that unravels the bigoted and shoddy framework of political Islam and separates mosque and state.
More
* Truce Is Reached in Quran Drama
* Muslims in New York Still Feel Vulnerable
There are certainly those who are prejudiced against Muslims and who are against mosques being built anywhere, and even a few who wish to burn the Quran. But most voices in this case have been very clear that for every American freedom of religion is a right, but that it is not right to make one's religion a global political statement with a towering Islamic edifice that casts a shadow over the memorials of Ground Zero.
As an American Muslim, I look at that pit of devastation and contemplate the thousands of lives undone there within seconds. I pray for the ongoing strength to fight the fanatics who did this, and who continue their war against my country with both overt violence and covert strategies that aim to undo the very freedoms for which so many have fought and died.
Imam Rauf may not appear to the untrained eye to be an Islamist, but by making Ground Zero an Islamic rather than an American issue, and by failing to firmly condemn terrorist groups like Hamas, he shows his true allegiance.
Islamists in "moderate" disguise are still Islamists. In their own more subtle ways, the WTC mosque organizers end up serving the same aims of the separatist and supremacist wings of political Islam. In this epic struggle of the 21st century, we cannot afford to ignore the continuum between nonviolent political Islam and the militancy it ultimately fuels among the jihadists.
Dr. Jasser, a medical doctor and a former U.S. Navy lieutenant commander, is the founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix, Ariz.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704644404575481882969581708.html
I agree with you Sara it will never go away, he is controling the rhetoric,even when its not built this will cause a furor forever .I would like to see answers about the 'insider' .
I agree. With the latest revelation about his association with an "insider", he has some questions to answer.
In the CNN interview he'd not name who the radicals were he kept mentioning. He was asked 3 times. And he wouldn't identify Hamas as a terrorist group. Said something about abhorring violence.
I don't think this mosque will ever go up. If there are problems from it coming from terrorists. He's the one who's created the controversy and is controlling the rhetoric.
In the CNN interview he'd not name who the radicals were he kept mentioning. He was asked 3 times. And he wouldn't identify Hamas as a terrorist group. Said something about abhorring violence.
I don't think this mosque will ever go up. If there are problems from it coming from terrorists. He's the one who's created the controversy and is controlling the rhetoric.
I actually found this article compelling! I think this guy is asking a few really good questions. The one question that bothers me personally is, "can you look into the eyes of children who lost a parent on 9/11 and convince them that this immodest Islamic center benefits them? How will it in any way aid in counter-terrorism efforts or keep one American safer?
Speaking for myself only, I am not for sure how any church is aiding in counter terrorism efforts. The only church efforts in the news lately has been the guy in Florida who wanted to burn the Quran. I don't see that as any help but it surely is a freedom of expression and or speach. And since I am not a religious man of any sorts, I would like to know how any church...Mormon, Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopal, a Mosque, a Temple/Synagogue...how would they benefit anyone who lost a parent, child, or other relative?
Pertaining to any church at the site, and its benefits, it really sounds as if we are putting religion at the forefront of our protection in this country. Its fitting really. More lives have been lost in the name of God than for any other cause or perhaps all causes combined. it is happening today, and will surely happen tomorrow. There is no number of lives lost in the name of God, and the same can probably be said of the lives saved by God. Speaking of God, where was he on that day? Where was God when those planes struck those towers, and all of those innocent people perished? God fearing people of all faiths perished on that day, and God may have been in their hearts but he did nothng to stop what happened.
I am just playing the devil's advocate here. (I don't believe in him either) Couldn't it be safe to assume that if this Imam is behind something more sinsiter and is lying through his teeth, couldn't the same be said for this American Islamic fellow...who holds a Dr.s degree? I mean, doctors don't lie, do they?
Everyone is really quick to rush to judgement, (I understand that 9 years since the event isnt really quick) but any mainstream religious person worth their salt knows that God is the only true judge. In a perfect world, maybe we would all have the same beliefs. That would certainly rip individuality to shreds. Ones opinion would be in unison, no opinion would take precedent over another.
We can't even come together in our own neighborhoods, let alone our communities, counties, states, or nations. Coming together is never going to happen on a global scale. We all have different opinions on everything, and that is what has made this country great. At the same time, it is what's now helping divide the country.
What a great time to be alive, eh?
Speaking for myself only, I am not for sure how any church is aiding in counter terrorism efforts. The only church efforts in the news lately has been the guy in Florida who wanted to burn the Quran. I don't see that as any help but it surely is a freedom of expression and or speach. And since I am not a religious man of any sorts, I would like to know how any church...Mormon, Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopal, a Mosque, a Temple/Synagogue...how would they benefit anyone who lost a parent, child, or other relative?
Pertaining to any church at the site, and its benefits, it really sounds as if we are putting religion at the forefront of our protection in this country. Its fitting really. More lives have been lost in the name of God than for any other cause or perhaps all causes combined. it is happening today, and will surely happen tomorrow. There is no number of lives lost in the name of God, and the same can probably be said of the lives saved by God. Speaking of God, where was he on that day? Where was God when those planes struck those towers, and all of those innocent people perished? God fearing people of all faiths perished on that day, and God may have been in their hearts but he did nothng to stop what happened.
I am just playing the devil's advocate here. (I don't believe in him either) Couldn't it be safe to assume that if this Imam is behind something more sinsiter and is lying through his teeth, couldn't the same be said for this American Islamic fellow...who holds a Dr.s degree? I mean, doctors don't lie, do they?
Everyone is really quick to rush to judgement, (I understand that 9 years since the event isnt really quick) but any mainstream religious person worth their salt knows that God is the only true judge. In a perfect world, maybe we would all have the same beliefs. That would certainly rip individuality to shreds. Ones opinion would be in unison, no opinion would take precedent over another.
We can't even come together in our own neighborhoods, let alone our communities, counties, states, or nations. Coming together is never going to happen on a global scale. We all have different opinions on everything, and that is what has made this country great. At the same time, it is what's now helping divide the country.
What a great time to be alive, eh?
I think with the latest controversy, hurt feelings, members calling other member names, accusations and the like, I think you can think what you like, believe what you will, I will no longer contribute to this discussion. I think all who know me know where I stand on this.
I think these are good questions for him. What do you think????
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