You remember all those Jewish and Catholic terror attacks. “New York imam: Politics behind mosque opposition,” by Brian Murphy for Associated Press, August 29 (thanks to all who sent this in):
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The imam spearheading a proposed Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York believes the fierce opposition is closely linked to the U.S. elections in November, according to comments published Monday.
“There is no doubt that the election season has had a major impact upon the nature of the discourse,” Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was quoted by the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National in an interview as part of his State Department-funded trip in the Gulf….
Some Republicans running for midterm elections around the United States have used the project as a campaign issue after national conservatives Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin announced their opposition. Kevin Calvey, a Republican running for Congress in Oklahoma, said the Muslim leaders associated with the mosque “are clearly terrorist sympathizers.”…
AP doesn’t mention, of course, that Rauf has refused to denounce Hamas.
Rauf compared the current struggles facing American Muslims to past religious-based prejudices and attacks against other groups, including Jews and Roman Catholic immigrants.
“And this is why it is important, the issue of radicalism is a threat to all of us,” he was quoted as saying. “We have radicals in the Muslim world and we have radicals in the other faith traditions as well.”
He said extremists from all faiths “feed off each other and need each other to sustain themselves.”
“So we need right now to combat the radical voices. That’s the only way we can win this struggle, and establish a peaceful world order, which is what everybody wants and everybody needs,” he told the newspaper….