The New York Post, in an unsigned editorial, points out the dishonesty and shady connections of the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. “Money behind the mosque,” from the New York Post, August 4:
[…] CAIR had denounced opponents of the projects as “bigots and extremists.”
That’s pretty rich, coming from an organization that in 2007 was named an unindicted co-conspirator in connection with a plot to support the terrorists of Hamas — and that has seen several of its former officials and staffers convicted on terror-related charges. […]
Moreover, as Dan Senor of the Council on Foreign Relations wrote in The Wall Street Journal, whatever the project’s stated goals, “in the minds of many who are swayed by the most radical interpretations of Islam . . . it will be celebrated as a Muslim monument erected on the site of a great Muslim ‘military’ victory.”
And that’s why the question of who precisely will pay to build the $100 million project is so compelling.
At first, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf insisted the funds would be raised entirely from the Muslim-American community.
But then he told an Arabic-language newspaper in Britain that funding would also come from Arab countries.
And it should be noted that Rauf’s father was the long-time director of the Islamic Center of New York, which built the mosque on Third Avenue and 96th Street — a project funded primarily by the governments of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations.
Now, the Saudis openly fund mosques abroad, spreading the radical Wahhabi strain of Islam, as a means of pacifying their own home-grown radicals.
So it would be particularly troubling if Rauf’s funding comes from abroad — particularly from Riyadh.
Especially given his own disturbing ties to figures like Hossein Mahallati, Iran’s former UN ambassador and an unabashed supporter of Hamas.
Not to mention Rauf’s own pointed refusal to label Hamas a terrorist organization — and his statement, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, that “United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.”
Which is why he and those behind the mosque project owe it to all New Yorkers to make their plans and — especially — their finances fully transparent, now that they’ve effectively been given a green light to build.
If, as he says, he means to be a force for reconciliation, Rauf must begin by demonstrating to New Yorkers that he has no ties to those who support global terrorism — either ideologically or financially.