NBC New York identified Zead Ramadan only as a “New Yorker” and a “Muslim,” and quoted him distancing Islam from the 9/11 attacks:
“The villains who did this to our country do not represent Islam in any way whatsoever,” said New Yorker Zead Ramadan, who is Muslim.
The New York Post didn’t identify Ramadan in any way, saying only that he “said his wife was a first responder on 9/11”:
Zead Ramadan — who said his wife was a first responder on 9/11 — testified for the mosque.
“We are picking and choosing which houses of worship can open at which streets and we are opening a can of worms,” he said, adding, “It’s called Islamophobia.”
CNN didn’t identify him at all, except by name:
“It’s called Islamaphobia, pure and simple,” said Zead Ramadan while being heckled.
It’s interesting that the mainstream media identified Zead Ramadan so vaguely. Maybe they did that because of who he really is.
Ramadan did indeed rile the crowd with his spurious charges of “Islamophobia” at yesterday’s Landmarks Commission hearing over whether 45 Park Place, the proposed site of the Islamic supremacist Ground Zero mega-mosque, should be designated a New York City landmark. And that wasn’t all he did. At one point he brushed past me and asked, “How’s business?,” and went over to speak with the owner of the 45 Park Place property, Sherif El-Gamal.
I didn’t know what he meant, so I went over to ask him just that — “What do you mean?”
Ramadan rounded on me and said, “You’re in the Islam-hating business, Robert! And you’re making big money!” That was ironic — there he was standing with a guy who is plunking down 100 million dollars to build an Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero, and I have to go begging to raise $8,000 to place some ads on taxicabs and buses, and he says I’ve got big money.
But I let it pass. Instead, I responded: “‘Islam hating’? Yeah, I’m against the 9/11 attacks, and stonings, and amputations…” Ramadan struck an aggrieved tone. “We’re against all that!,” he declared. Skeptical, I replied, “Yeah, sure you are.” This hotly offended Ramadan, but I explained: “If you were really against those things, you’d be standing with me, not defaming me.” He then began to hector me, but then Sherif El-Gamal called to him sternly, “Zead,” and told him to cool it.
Then I tried to take his picture. But when I took out my phone, Ramadan took out his and moved as if to take my picture in turn. Of course I have no objection to having my picture taken by anyone, so I gave him a big smile and kept trying to take his picture, but he kept moving his arm in front of his face so that I couldn’t get a shot. Then he and a couple of hijabbed women began moving up the aisle.
I followed. As they passed a policeman who was standing in the middle of the hall, one of the hijabbed women gestured at me and said to the policeman, “Will you please get him to stop what he is doing?” Since I wasn’t doing anything but walking up the aisle behind them, it was unclear what she wanted the cop to do, but of course what it was really all about was demonizing the kuffar.
And so when we got to the back of the hall I tried again to take Ramadan’s picture, and the policeman ordered me to stop. “What?” I said. “It’s illegal to take someone’s picture now?” He conceded that it wasn’t, and allowed me to get a clear shot of Ramadan as he was being interviewed by one of the members of the fawning mainstream media (that is the picture at the top of this post).
The idea that taking someone’s picture is an act of aggression that warrants asking for help from the police is an example of how Islamic supremacists claim victim status and have banished civility from the public discourse by endlessly trying to smear and demonize their opponents.
Or maybe it’s just that Zead Ramadan has something to hide. NBC New York, the New York Post, and CNN didn’t see fit to mention it, but Zead Ramadan is actually Board President of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Relations. CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department. CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror, and that CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Honest Ibe Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements.
Zead Ramadan’s involvement with CAIR certainly puts his claim to be “against all that” in an intriguing new light. And his apparently close relations with Sherif El-Gamal suggests yet again that the people behind this Ground Zero mega-mosque are not what they claim to be. Contrary to his claims of moderation, the Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, leader of the mega-mosque initiative, is an open advocate for Sharia. He has (like CAIR) refused to denounce Hamas. He has lied about his commitment to religious dialogue. He has lied about whether the Islamic center planned for the Ground Zero site will contain a mosque or not. And he has lied about whether or not the project is getting foreign funding. He helped fund the jihad flotilla against Israel.
But Zead Ramadan self-righteously insists that they’re “against all that.” There’s just one problem for Zead: the truth keeps showing up at the most inconvenient times.