FACTS about Feisal Abdul Rauf is the Imam of Masjid al-Farah. DID YOU KNOW THESE?

• FACTS about Feisal Abdul Rauf is the Imam of Masjid al-Farah. DID YOU KNOW THESE?
• New York City Imam who was first associated with the proposed contruction of
  the "Ground Zero Mosque"
• Said that "United States policies were an accessory to the crime" of
  9/11
• Stated that "in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the
  USA"
• Claimed that "the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al
  Qaida has on its hands of innocent non-Muslims"
• Conducted post-9/11 "sensitivity training" for the FBI
• Asserts that the “American political structure is sharia-compliant”
  

See also: American Society for Muslim
Advancement


Born in Kuwait in 1948, Feisal Abdul
Rauf is the Imam of Masjid al-Farah, a New York City mosque. He holds a
bachelor's degree in physics from Columbia University. His father was the late Muhammad Abdul Rauf.

In 1990 Feisal Abdul Rauf
became affiliated with the al-Farah
Mosque (which was founded in 1981 by the Turkish Sheikh Muzaffer
Ozakin) in lower Manhattan. Seven years later, he established the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), a
New-York based nonprofit organization which has been run by Rauf's wife, Daisy
Khan, since 2005. (ASMA's original name was the American Sufi Muslim
Association.)

Rauf is a permanent trustee of an Islamic Cultural Center (ICC)
which his father founded in New York City. Until September 28, 2001 -- seventeen
days after 9/11 -- the ICC employed Imam Sheik Muhammad Gemeaha, who later would say that “only the Jews” could have
perpetrated the 9/11 attacks; that if Americans only knew about this
Jewish culpability, “they would have done to Jews what Hitler did”; and
that Jews “disseminate corruption in the land” and spread “heresy,
homosexuality, alcoholism, and drugs.” Gemeaha’s successor at the ICC, Omar
Saleem Abu-Namous, said there was no “conclusive evidence” proving that Muslims were
responsible for 9/11.

In a 60 Minutes interview that aired on September 30, 2001, Rauf said that the 9/11
attacks were part of a larger Islamic “reaction against the U.S. government
politically, where we [the U.S.] espouse principles of democracy and human
rights, and [yet] where we ally ourselves with oppressive regimes in many of
these countries.” "I wouldn't say that the United States deserved what
happened," Rauf elaborated, "but United States policies were an accessory to the
crime that happened." Rauf further stated that “because we [Americans] have been
accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world,” it could be said that
“[i]n fact, in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.”

On another
occasion, Rauf took up this theme again: "We tend to forget, in the
West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al Qaida has on its hands of innocent non-Muslims. You
may remember that the U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq led to the death of over
half a million Iraqi children."

Rauf has clearly suggested that terrorism is an understandable, even if
unjustified, response to American actions in Iraq, Israel, and elsewhere in the
Middle East:

"How do you tell people whose homes have been destroyed, whose lives have
been destroyed, that this does not justify your actions of terrorism. It's hard.
Yes, it is true that it does not justify the acts of bombing innocent civilians,
that does not solve the problem, but after 50 years of, in many cases,
oppression, of U.S. support of authoritarian regimes that have violated human
rights in the most heinous of ways, how else do people get attention?"

Rauf has praised Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, a Muslim scholar (associated with
the Muslim Brotherhood) who supports Palestinian suicide
bombings, as "a very, very well known Islamic jurist, highly regarded all over
the Muslim world." He has also expressed respect for the late Egyptian cleric Muhammad
Tantawi (who likewise endorsed suicide bombings) and Egypt's Chief Mufti, Sheikh Ali Gomaa (who has
endorsed Hezbollah and defended Islam's use of the death penalty
for apostasy).

Rauf, who has been entrusted with the task of conducting
post-9/11 sensitivity training for the FBI, contends that Muslims
have been unfairly targeted by law-enforcement authorities in recent years.
"There's no doubt we've been profiled since 9/11," he said in 2005. "The Patriot Act has kind of made Muslims
-- there's a sense of 'guilty till proven innocent' rather than the other way
around."

In the summer of 2002, Rauf began lecturing on
Islam at the 750-acre campus of Chautauqua Institution, located in western New York
State. Around that time, he also befriended Karen Armstrong, who later wrote the foreword for Rauf's 2008 book, What's
Right with Islam Is What's Right with America.

Journalist Andrew McCarthy has revealed that What's Right with Islam was
originally published in 2004 in Malaysia, under a different title: A Call to
Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America
Post-9/11. What's Right with Islam was a “special, non-commercial
edition” of the book and was produced after the original, with Feisal’s
cooperation, by the Islamic Society of North America and the International
Institute of Islamic Thought. Both of those organizations are
American tentacles of the Muslim Brotherhood. McCarthy explains the meaning of
the term Dawa, from the book's title:

"Dawa, whether done from the rubble of the World Trade Center or
elsewhere, is the missionary work by which Islam is spread.... [D]awa
is proselytism... "The purpose of dawa, like the purpose
of jihad, is to implement, spread, and defend sharia. Scholar Robert
Spencer incisively refers to dawa practices as 'stealth jihad,' the advancement of the sharia agenda
through means other than violence and agents other than terrorists. These
include extortion, cultivation of sympathizers in the media and the
universities, exploitation of our legal system and tradition of religious
liberty, infiltration of our political system, and fundraising. This is why
Yusuf Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and the world’s
most influential Islamic cleric, boldly promises that Islam will 'conquer
America' and 'conquer Europe' through dawa."

Rauf's book suggests that the “American Constitution and system of
governance uphold the core principles of Islamic law” (i.e., sharia). The author concludes, therefore, that the
“American political structure is sharia-compliant.” In December 2007 Rauf promoted the book at a Malaysia gathering
of Hizb ut Tahrir, an organization that seeks to impose
sharia on the United States and other countries worldwide.

Rauf depicts jihad as the Islamic world's defensive reaction to Western
provocations, rather than as a seminal Islamic tradition of aggression that long
predated any Muslim interactions with the West. In March 2004 the Sydney
Morning Herald quoted Rauf as saying: “The Islamic method of waging war is not to
kill innocent civilians. But it was Christians in World War II who bombed
civilians in Dresden and Hiroshima, neither of which were military targets.” In
one particularly significant passage, the Herald article stated: “Imam Feisal ... said there could be little
progress [in American-Islamic relations] until the U.S. acknowledged backing
dictators and the U.S. President gave an 'America Culpa' speech to the Muslim
world.”

In a June 2005 interview, Rauf was asked whether non-Muslims should be
troubled by the Qur'an's assertion that people from other religious
traditions should be mistreated, subjugated, or killed. Rauf replied that “many
of these verses were revealed in certain contexts where the Prophet [Muhammad]
and his followers were not allowed to practice their religion,” and thus
“permission was granted to the Muslims to fight those who fought them for that
reason.” “The vast history of Islam through the 14 centuries of history,” Rauf
added, “has proven that except for certain moments in history, the predominant
attitude of Muslims toward non-Muslims, especially to Jews and Christians, was
one of friendship, was one of engagement.” In 2009, Rauf took up this theme
again, writing: “Religious freedom is at the core of
Islam.”

Rauf believes that Muslim charities have been subject to
undue scrutiny since 9/11. In 2005 an interviewer asked him to comment on the
fact that “some Islamic charities are being investigated for terrorist ties.”
Rauf replied: “We believe that a certain portion of every
[Islamic] charity has been legitimate. To say that you have connections with
terrorism is a very gray area. It's like the accusation that Saddam Hussein had links to Osama bin Laden. Well, America had links to Osama bin
Laden – does that mean that America is a terrorist country or has ties to
terrorism? It's that type of logic.”

In 2008 Rauf revisited the question
of whether sharia could be effectively incorporated into Western
legal and political systems. He hailed Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams for the “forward thinking” that had led Williams to advocate on behalf of “plural
jurisdiction,” which would permit Muslim enclaves in Britain to be governed by a
separate set of laws consistent with sharia. In March 2009, Rauf said that “Islamic law and American democratic
principles have many things in common,” and he claimed that sharia's endorsement
of “political justice” and “economic justice … for the weak and impoverished” is
a creed that “sounds suspiciously like the Declaration of
Independence.”

Rauf's "Shariah Index Project" -- whose stated goal was
to "define, interpret and implement the concept of the Islamic State in modern
times" -- drew
heavily on the work of Dalia Mogahed and John Esposito.

Together
with such luminaries as Dalia Mogahed, Ingrid Mattson, Ziad Asali, former Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright, and diplomat Dennis Ross, Rauf was a
leading voice in the Leadership Group on U.S.-Muslim Engagement, which in
September 2008 issued a 154-page recommendation paper -- a number of whose suggestions
(on how to improve America's relationship with Muslims globally) were eventually
adopted by President Barack Obama's administration. The paper specifically
called on the U.S. to engage opposition parties
(including the Muslim Brotherhood) in Egypt, and to use intermediaries
to immediately engage Hamas -- in hopes of moderating the terror
group.

Rauf contends that authentic Islam is highly respectful of women's
rights and freedoms. In a 2009 piece he penned for the Huffington Post, Rauf stated: “The Prophet Muhammad has been known as the
first feminist. … Gender equality is an intrinsic part of Islamic belief.” In
response to suggestions that Islam could benefit from a movement to purge the
faith of unsavory elements such as its treatment of women, Rauf has said flatly:
"Islam does not need a reformation."

In a 2009 interview, Rauf endorsed the 1979 Iranian revolution which established
a theocratic Islamic state.

In a May 7, 2010 sermon he delivered in New
York City, Rauf seemed to suggest that the perpetrators of 9/11 may not actually
have been Muslims. “Some people say it was Muslims who attacked [the U.S.] on
9/11,” he said, before drifting into another topic.

In a
June 2010 interview with newsman Aaron Klein on New York's WABC
Radio, Rauf was asked whether he agreed with the State Department's designation
of Hamas as a terrorist organization. Rauf replied:

"I'm not a politician. I try to avoid the issues. The issue of
terrorism is a very complex question.... I'm a bridge builder. I define my work
as a bridge builder. I do not want to be placed, nor do I accept to be placed in
a position of being put in a position where I am the target of one side or
another."

Since 2004, Rauf and ASMA have pursued a project known
as the Cordoba Initiative, whose mission is to recapture an “atmosphere of interfaith
tolerance and respect” in “Muslim-West relations.” Funded by numerous countries that are members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, this Initiative
aims to build a 13-story, $100 million mosque/Islamic Center just 600 feet from
Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. The proposed name of the structure -- "Cordoba
House" (or, alternately, "Park 51") -- implies conquest. Indeed, the first Cordoba mosque was
built upon the ruins of a Christian church in the Spanish city of Cordoba after
the Muslim conquest of Christian Spain in the 8th century AD. (For a detailed
discussion of the significance of Cordoba in Islamic history, click here.)

In August 2010, the State Department announced that it would be sending Rauf on a
taxpayer-funded trip (costing $16,000) through the Middle East to foster
"greater understanding" about Islam and Muslim life in the United States. This
was Rauf's fourth U.S.-sponsored trip to the region. The first two
took place in 2007 (during the Bush administration), and the third was in early
2010. State Department spokesman Darby Holladay stated that while Rauf "has been advised not to engage
in fund-raising activity" during his August 2010 trip, the Department had "no
information" regarding the specifics of Rauf's activities while
traveling.

Rauf had previously said that he would seek funds from
overseas to finance the $100 million mosque project but offered no specifics. A
spokesman for the project refused to say whether Rauf would accept money from
Iran.

It is known that Rauf has received some funding from the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

In September 2010, it was learned that Faiz Khan, a
founding member and former director of ASMA, had asserted that the 9/11 attacks
were an "inside job" for which Muslims had unfairly been made scapegoats. Khan
also serves on the advisory board of Muslims for 9/11 Truth and is a founder of
the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth, known as MUJCA. On MUJCA's
Web site, Khan wrote:

"The prime factor for the success of the criminal mission known as
9/11 did not come from the quarter known as 'militant Islam,' although the
phenomenon known as 'militant Islamic networks' may have played a partial role,
or even a less than partial role -- perhaps the role of patsy and scapegoat."

"I am certain of a few things," added Khan. "... The towers and WTC 7 could not have
collapsed without controlled demolition place from the 'inside.'" In 2006, Khan
told a gathering of 9/11 deniers in Chicago that "the
most logical explanation" for 9/11 is that the hijackers were working for
corporate America and that the heroin trade creates "billions of dollars" that
are laundered by "Citicorp and Procter & Gamble."

On September 13,
2010, Rauf said that critics of his Cordoba Initiative were being
"absolutely disingenuous" in characterizing the proposed mosque site as
"hallowed ground," given the fact that it was a location "with a strip joint
around the corner, with betting parlors ..."

Also in September 2010, Rauf
was asked whether it might be wise to move the proposed mosque site to another
location farther from Ground Zero. He said:

"If we move from that location, the story will be that the radicals
have taken over the discourse. The headlines in the Muslim world will be that
Islam is under attack. And I'm less concerned by the radicals in America than
I'm concerned by the radicals in the Muslim world.... The danger from the
radicals in the Muslim world to our national security ... The concern for [i.e.,
safety of] American citizens who live and work and travel overseas will
increasingly be compromised. If the radicals are strengthened, and if we do move
[the mosque] it will strengthen the argument of the radicals to recruit, their
ability to recruit, and their increasing aggression, violence against our
country."

In November 2010, it was reported that Rauf and his fellow Cordoba House
developers were trying to secure a $5 million “community and cultural
enhancement” grant from the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation, which was
authorized to oversee $20 billion in federal aid that had been allocated to help
rebuild the area destroyed by the 9/11 attacks.

In mid-January 2011, Rauf announced that he would no
longer be the chief religious figure in the Cordoba House / Park 51 project, but
would thenceforth play a lesser, behind-the-scenes, role supporting the
endeavor. This change may have been caused by a souring of relations between Rauf and Sharif El-Gamal,
the president and chief developer of Park 51. Rauf's replacement was Imam
Abdallah Adhami, who has ties to Imam Siraj Wahhaj, whom prosecutors named as an unindicted
co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Holding a degree in
architecture, Adhami had designed Wahhaj's Brooklyn mosque, Masjid al Taqwa.
Moreover, on his Sakeenah.org website, Adhami had prominently highlighted Wahhaj.

In addition to his work
with ASMA, the New York-based Rauf taught Islam and Sufism at the now-defunct
Center for Religious Inquiry at St. Bartholomew's Church. Today he is a
member of the World Economic Forum Council of 100 Leaders (Islamic
West dialogue); sits on the board of trustees of the Islamic Center of New York;
and serves as an adviser to the Interfaith Center of New York.

In
addition, Rauf is a key member in the Malaysian-based Perdana Global Peace
Organization, the single biggest donor ($366,000 as of June 2010) to the Free Gaza Movement.