TPMMuckraker Feisal Abdul Rauf
Feisal Abdul Rauf
'Ground Zero Mosque' Imam Was A Bush-Era Partner For Mideast Peace
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Karen Hughes
Tuesday, Reps. Peter King (R-NY) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) called Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf -- best known for his work with multicultural Cordoba Initiative to build a mosque and community center in Lower Manhattan -- a "radical" and criticized the Obama Administration for including him on a Middle East speaking tour. That tour, which includes stops in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, is designed by the public diplomacy office to explain to Muslims abroad what it's like to be a Muslim in America.
Outside of how getting constantly called a radical by American politicians busy flacking the proposed "Ground Zero mosque" for political purposes might affect Rauf's view of what it's like to be a Muslim in America, there's one other big problem with King's and Ros-Lehtinen's accusation: Rauf already represented America in this way, under the Bush Administration.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (53) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)Topics: 'Ground Zero Mosque', Bush Administration, Feisal Abdul Rauf, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Karen Hughes, Muslims, Pete King, Religion
Right-wing extremism
Planned Muslim Cultural Center Near Ground Zero Prompts Massive Right-Wing Freakout
An imam at a meeting about the Muslim cultural center proposed for near Ground Zero
We told you earlier this month about Mark Williams, the top Tea Party leader who was so enraged by plans to build a Muslim community center near Ground Zero that he referred to the Islamic deity as a "monkey-god" and to Muslims as "the animals of Allah."
But it turns out that Williams isn't the only conservative driven to apoplexy by this local development project. Lately, we've seen a massive right-wing freakout over the plan for the community center. That freakout has been couched as concern about dishonoring the memory of 9/11 victims. But it's been so widespread and so vitriolic as to suggest it might just have some uglier roots.
Topics: Feisal Abdul Rauf, Islamic Terrorism, Mark Williams, Pamela Geller, Right-wing extremism, Robert Spencer, Tea Parties
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