Imam Fiesal Abdul Rauf, We Have NOT Forgotten!

Can anybody believe this guy? This is the imam pushing the Cordoba initiative which is behind plans for a $100 million Islamic center about two blocks from Ground Zero in New York.

"We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than Al Qaeda has on its hands of innocent non-Muslims," said Imam Fiesal Abdul Rauf, speaking at the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Center during a question and answer session dedicated to what sponsors say was a dialogue to improve relations between America and the Muslim world.

"You may remember that the U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq led to the death of over half a million Iraqi children. This has been documented by the United Nations," said Rauf, who called himself a spokesman for Islam.

But diplomats and others, including former President Bill Clinton, have said that sentiment is wrong. Saddam Hussein's regime corrupted then-U.N. sanctions and denied humanitarian aid to his own people.

Now the State Department is claiming they are aware of Imam Fiesal Abdul Rauf's controversial remarks. The remarks were made in 2005.

Wait a minute here, I think I've heard this rhetoric before... That's right these are the same views as Osama Bin Laden!

What is bin Laden's ideology?

Bin Laden and other militant Islamist leaders issued a 1998 manifesto denouncing the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia, U.S. support of Israel, and the economic sanctions imposed after the 1991 Gulf War against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. "To kill Americans and their allies, both civil and military, is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able, in any country," the manifesto reads, "until their armies, shattered and broken-winged, depart from all the lands of Islam." Bin Laden regards Western institutions—coed schools, MTV, Rotary clubs, democracy itself—as depraved.

So why do we have an imam going over seas, spouting the same rhetoric we have heard from our enemies? How is this going to help to ease tensions between the Western and Muslim worlds? This imam has disgraced our nation by attempting to create a moral equivalency between the 9/11 attacks and U.S. foreign policy.

HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT --UNASKED QUESTION:

Nobody has asked this question, and it should be considered --by every American.

If the U.S. is indeed guilty of all the "crimes" listed by Imam Fiesal Abdul Rauf and Osama Bin Laden; short of becoming an Islamic state, what could the U.S. do to right its wrongs?

Therein lies the true center of this debate. What do these Muslim leaders expect the U.S. response to be? At what point would our "offenses" be forgiven? Do Americans think that U.S. submission is the answer?... I guarantee that is what Muslim leaders want.

Later in Chapter 3: What’s Right with America Imam Rauf takes it upon himself to blame the United States for any tension that remains between them and Muslims. He states, "If there is any quarrel Muslims have with America, it is that the United States does not always live up to its own ideal of ethics and values" (79). In sub-chapter America: A Sharia-Compliant State, Rauf states "(w)hat I am demonstrating is that the American political structure is Shariah compliant, for a 'state inhabited predominantly by Muslims neither defines nor makes it synonymous with an Islamic state. It can become truly Islamic only by virtues of a conscious application of the sociopolitical tenets of Islam to the life of the national, and by an incorporation of those tenets in the basic constitution of the country.' By the same token, a state that does incorporate such sociopolitical tenets has become a de facto Islamic state even if there are no Muslims in name living there, for it expresses the ideals of the good society according to Islamic principles. For America to score even higher on the 'Islamic' or 'Shariah Compliance' scale, America would need to do two things: invite the voices of all religions to join the dialogue in shaping the nation's practical life, and allow religious communities more leeway to judge among themselves according to their own laws" (86).

I say Hell No!

These Muslim leaders despise the U.S. because of the principles by which it was founded, it won't matter what the U.S. does to appease them.

The Middle East is like America's Gaza Strip. Any U.S. involvement in Muslim political affairs will be used as an excuse for future attacks. These are the views of our enemies. But don't take my word for it, just ask Imam Fiesal Abdul Rauf.

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