Tuesday, August 10, 2010

American Center for Law and Justice Calls on State Department to Cancel Taxpayer-Funded Middle East Trip by Imam of Ground Zero Mosque



From Weasel Zippers:

(CNSNews.com) The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) on Tuesday called on the U.S. State Department to remove Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf from a taxpayer-funded trip to Muslim countries, citing his controversial views about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. 

While the State Department has not released a statement on the issue, spokesman P.J. Crowley said on Monday, “I think we are in the process of arranging for him [Rauf] to travel as part of this program. And it is to foster a greater understanding and outreach around the world among Muslim majority communities.”

Crowley also said of Imam Rauf, “He is a distinguished Muslim cleric. We do have a program whereby through our Educational and Cultural Affairs Bureau here at the State Department, we send people from Muslim communities here in this country around the world to help people overseas understand our society and the role of religion within our society.”

Imam Rauf  is seeking to build an Islamic community center, the Cordoba House, about two blocks from Ground Zero in Manhattan. Imam Rauf is controversial, in part, because two weeks after the 9/11 attacks, he told CBS’ 60 Minutes, “I wouldn’t say that the United States deserved what happened. But the United States’ policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.”

When then asked by CBS’ Ed Bradley in that Sept. 30, 2001 interview to explain “how” America was an accessory to the 9/11 attacks, Imam Rauf said, “Because we have been an accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.”

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), said of the apparent trip, “This shows a tremendous lack of judgment on behalf of the State Department and for the American taxpayers to be funding this global journey is not only wrong, but deeply offensive."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sekulow was on Hannity's radio show this afternoon, and was joined by the wonderful Wafa Sultan. Wafa addressed the pair with dignity and precision, declaring that in the middle east,as in Syria, there may be Ahmahdi muslims, Sunni muslims, Shia muslims, but there is NO SUCH THINK AS MODERATE ISLAM. There is only Islam. By jove, I think Hannity and Sekulow are finally on the same page and are approaching the reality which Wafa placed front and center. The world is waking up and damn it's delicious irony to witness the likes of Rauf and Daisy's taqiyya revealed as the source of this awakening.

Pastorius said...

Yes, and thanks for saying it.

RRA said the same thing the other day.

Fact is, I hadn't even noticed the change. I've thought the same thing for so long, and have been so frustrated that others were not changing, that I have stopped paying attention.

Add to that the fact that I don't watch TV, and I'm pretty out of it.

But, since you and RRA are saying the same thing, then there really must be something going on.

It's almost as if we are having a second great awakening, like the first one we had after the Cartoon Wars.

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking that US tax $$ are paying for this putz to raise money for his "pi$$ on the US" mosque.