"Ground Zero" Imam: Radicals Win If Mosque Moves

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf followed up his Times Op-Ed defense of the proposed Islamic community center and mosque near the World Trade Center with an appearance on Larry King Live last night. During the interview, Rauf made the obvious observation that, "If we move from that location, the story will be the radicals have taken over the discourse. The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack." Rauf framed the issue as a matter of national security, adding, "If we don't do this right, anger will explode in the Muslim world. It could become something very dangerous indeed." To some critics, that sounds like a threat.

"The whole national security thing: that's a veiled threat," Andy Sullivan, a union construction worker who wants all New York construction workers to boycott the proposed Islamic center, told Anderson Cooper last night. "He's saying 'you make me move' and, guess what, the whole radical Muslim world is coming after us. This is a turf war." And Rosaleen Tallon, whose firefighter brother died on 9/11, told Cooper, "On 9/11, it didn't take a mosque for extremists to come and attack the World Trade Center and kill my brother. What I'm finding here to be very disturbing is that now... this mosque has to go up or there will be retribution."

Rauf also expressed regret about the election-year outrage stirred up by right-wing demagogues who say the project with make a mockery of 9/11. Rauf insisted, "If I knew that this would happen, that this would cause this kind of pain, I wouldn’t have done its." And when asked whether he would consider moving the site, Rauf said, "Nothing is off the table. We are consulting, talking to various people about how to do this so that we negotiate the best and safest option."

Moving it somewhere else would seem to suit one of the property owners just fine. Hisham Elzanaty, the Egyptian-born businessman who says he provided a majority of the $4.8 million to snatch up the two buildings where the center would be built, tells the AP, "Develop it, raze it, sell it. If someone wants to give me 18 or 20 million dollars today, it's all theirs. I'm a businessman. This was a mere business transaction for me." We're not businessmen but we think $20 million is a steal if it means everyone will finally STFU up about this.

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By John Del Signore in News on September 9, 2010 10:11 AM

Comments [rss]

Dan

They are taught to hate, dislike and die for a belief of a better life with many women. Sounds fun does it not?

You build it, they will still dislike us.

You don't build it, they will still dislike us.

You can't change years of aggression and hatred.

Not all muslims are terrorists....but all terrorists are muslims...

TERROISTS: refer only to those violent acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for a religious, political or ideological goal, and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (civilians).

WAKE UP U.S.A. We are the home of the BRAVE and land of the FREE!

John L

I hate that we've gone from the strong fearless America to some chicken shits scared of our own shadows! Fuck the terrorists! That's their job to "terrorize" and we're letting them by showing how scared we are of their religion. I'm ashamed at my fellow Americans running around with these irrational fears. Meanwhile we've destroyed two countries killed thousands during these wars yet they're still not showing any fear but we're spending billions on security, in wars, etc and still scared.

Stand up America!

In the 50's and 60's the threat of annihilation through nuclear war was greater than it is now and American stood tall.

This was the home of the brave, what happened?

"A coward dies a thousand deaths, but the valiant taste death but once"

BDS=(Boycott.Divest.Sanction)

this will likely fall on deaf ears, but eh.

I encourage you to

talk to a muslim.

visit one of their countries

talk to people who have been to the middle east

read a world history book...

watch one of these doha debates

http://www.thedohadebates.com/

if you do it with an open mind, you'll find that most of what you believe about muslims is false..if you keep your mind closed and dont let information in, you are choosing to be ignorant. its your choice. g-d speed.

Jamie McDonald

Why don't you quote from "Imagine" while you're at it? The whole idea that all we have to is get to know one another and all hatred and ignorance, etc. will end is a complete crock. Most of the worst violence that has happened and continues to happen in the world is between people that have lived next to or among one another for decades and centuries (just ask the Serbs, Croats and Bosnians, or the Hutus and Tutsis, or the Armenians and the Azeris, etc., etc., etc.).

By the way, the first Muslim I ever met was a Saudi. In our first conversation, he passionately defended judicial dismemberment as practiced in that country. The Muslim I know best drinks, does drugs, dates non-Muslims, etc. but that doesn't stop him from getting sanctimonious and pious whenever someone says something he doesn't like about Islam. I had a much better opinion of Islam and Muslims before I met either one than after.

kevd

I'm sure that there aren't any out of work construction workers willing to take a big job in this economy. So, good luck with that boycott Andy! I'm sure it will work out great.

Jamie McDonald

Wait a minute. So now - if the mosque isn't built, the radicals have won. But if it isn't built, then radicals will explode with anger...uh, because they've won? Someone help me out with the logic here.

Jon

Sure it does. That they are angry is a constant - it's a "win" because the perception of US hostility to Islam increases their numbers. It encourages more moderates to become radicals, because the moderate argument is weakened.

Jamie McDonald

OK, but if it's a "win," then why does he say that they are going to explode with anger?

Jamie McDonald

OK, but that doesn't answer my question.

Politburo

It would be considered a "win" for the radicals because it would support their assertion that the US is at war with Islam.

SilentShout

This is what I believe about enemies: You must earn their respect or their fear. These Jihadis believe if they kill you and die in the act they'll be screwing a virgin in 15 minutes. There is no reasoning with them. We can capitulate to their demands, but that will inflame them more than it would to move the center. Radically religious people do not believe in religious freedom. It seems patently obvious to me that showing tolerance in this case will just be seen as weakness, as these people don't believe in tolerance. I'd rather have them mad at us than sneering at us with contempt. We're going to get violence either way.

jt10000

I'm not going to buy into your premise that being tolerant of religions in the US is being weak toward terrorists.

SilentShout

I gathered that.

jt10000

"We're going to get violence either way."

If we're really going to get violence either way, why should we screw over our values and change?

Let them sneer that we believe in tolerance. So what?

SilentShout

I think tolerance is a naive concept, one of those idealistic post-wwii ideas that didn't really work out. It assumes a shared base set of beliefs about the world which the latinate cultures may share but the rest of the world does not. Tolerance assumes that all people are equal, something Middle Eastern culture openly rejects. They don't see their enemies as people on the other side of a war - they seem to see them more as nuisances, demons, or parasites. Asking them to tolerate irritating things about others is like asking an American to tolerate the deer in his cornfield, because deer are people too. He's not going to do it, he not only disagrees he mocks you for holding that belief. They just don't get it.

BDS=(Boycott.Divest.Sanction)

good lord those are some choice quotes

'I think tolerance is a naive concept, one of those idealistic post-wwii ideas that didn't really work out."

WOW

or

'Tolerance assumes that all people are equal'

HOLY FK. Thanks for being so honest.

SilentShout

Taking quotes out of context doesn't really work when the full quote is two inches away.

kevd

Your idiocy is clearly evident in both,.

SilentShout

It's so easy to snipe "idiotic" and move on. Let's hear your great thoughts on the subject.

kevd

"They don't see their enemies as people on the other side of a war - they seem to see them more as nuisances, demons, or parasites."

One of the dumbest things I've ever read on Gothamist. Where did you pick up this brilliant insight on "Middle Eastern" cultures. Let me guess, your years of study and work in Cairo, Lebanon & Dubai, right? Is it from your Arabic language and culture degree from Yale? Or more likely, just some bullshit you made up based on little more than your own biases?

Your statement an uninformed, generalization based on zero evidence. There isn't even a single misrepresentative example.