Isn’t this tantamount to extortion?
Imam fears moving NYC mosque could inflame tension
from Muslim extremists and endanger national security.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf told CNN that the discourse surrounding the center has become so politicized that moving it could strengthen the ability of extremists abroad to recruit and wage
attacks against Americans, including troops fighting in the Middle East.
"The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack," he said, but he added that he was open to the idea of moving the planned location of the center, currently two blocks
north of the World Trade Center site.
"But if you don't do this right, anger will explode in the Muslim world," he later said, predicting that the reaction could be more furious than the eruption of violence following the 2005
publication of Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Opponents say the center, which would include a Sept. 11 memorial and a Muslim prayer space, should be moved farther away from where Islamic extremists destroyed the
World Trade Center and killed nearly 2,800 people. Supporters say religious freedom should be protected.
Rauf, 61, has largely been absent since the debate over the center erupted earlier this year. He has been traveling abroad, including taking a State Department-funded 15-day trip to the
Middle East to promote religious tolerance.
In the interview with CNN's Soledad O'Brien, his first since returning to the U.S. on Sunday, Rauf responded to a number of questions that have been raised about the project.
He said money to develop the center would be raised domestically for the most part.
"And we'll be very transparent on how we raise money," he said, adding that no funds would be accepted from sources linked to extremists.
Rauf said that, in retrospect, he might have chosen a different location for what he described as a multifaith community center.
"If I knew this would happen, if it would cause this kind of pain, I wouldn't have done it," he said.
Posts
4 comments:
Isn’t this tantamount to extortion?
No.
Yep, stoke the fires of intolerance and when
it's pointed out that this could have negative
repercussions, flip on the "omg, they're
threatening us!" hyper-drive.
Amazing that people fall for this shit.
"since the debate over the center erupted earlier this year."
You mean, since the right-wing noise machine decided to CREATE a firestorm overy the issue by taking a non-issue, re-framing it using carefully-chosen inflamatory language, and ginning up the ignorant masses into thinking this is really an issue.
If the right hadn't chosen "Muslims are scary" as it's new "issue" to keep the rabble distracted, the Islamic cultural center would have been built in downtown, multi-cultural NYC with little or no controversy. The right INVENTED this "debate" the exact same way they always invent non-issues, ranging from "Welfare Queens" to the "War on Christmas".
Let's place the blame for this bullcrap exactly where it belongs.
WAKE UP, people.
Ya mean the: not-a-Mosque not-at-ground-zero, which is not-sacred?
Ya mean: the culture center, which is much like a Jewish Y?
Ya mean: the culture center that the people involved followed all the laws and local regulations and got them approved by the appropriate agencies?
Ya mean: Park 51, which is rehabbing a falling apart old Burlington Coat Factory bldg 3.5 blocks away from "ground zero"?
Yeah: ginned up stupidity on steroids created solely to distract the Tea Partiers from how badly they're being ripped off by the zillionaire Koch brothers.
Oh, and by the way, this rightwing forward is brought to you by: the Koch brothers!
I would also say: WAKE UP, but I doubt the T-party WANTS to "get it." They enjoy their fearful little universe with themselves at the center of it.
Post a Comment