Imam Rauf’s Da’wa Spin on 9/11

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) chose to publish an op-ed by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative entitled "A Call to All Religious Moderates."  The sub-heading for his WSJ op ed was “building a global coalition will not be easy. Moderation is a dangerous place to be.”  We have drawn attention to Imam Rauf’s project to build an imposing 13 story mosque, posing as an interfaith cultural center at 51 Park Place, near the hallowed Ground Zero of the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attack.

You may recall what Imam Rauf said in a CBS 60 minutes interview shortly after 9/11, on September 30, 2001

The attacks were “a reaction against the U.S. government politically, where we espouse principles of democracy and human rights, [yet] … ally ourselves with oppressive regimes in many of these countries. … [U.S.] policies were an accessory to the crime that happened."

As noted by Alyssa Lappen in her Pajamas Media dossier on Rauf:

Not the crimes Muslims committed: “the crime that happened.” He continued:

In … the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden was made in the USA (28).

David Beamer, father of Flight 93 hero, David, took the prospect of Imam Rauf’s Ground Zero Mosque project to task in our interview with him published in the September NER.  Note Beamer’s response:

Gordon: Why have you opposed the construction of the 51 Park Place Ground Zero Mosque in lower Manhattan?

Beamer: The notion that we should somehow welcome with open cooperative arms our enemy and allow them to construct a victory symbol, which they see as an absolute victory, namely the destruction of thousands of Americans in the middle of one of our great cities, is to me unconscionable. The notion that it’s a center for interfaith outreach and communication is just another Islamic lie. It clearly is indicative of our Islamic enemy to foster deceit, to lie and to play to our general feelings of liberty and tolerance. Interfaith outreach is an oxymoron when it comes to the goals and objective of Islam. There is no such thing. The bumper stickers that I see some naive Americans sporting on their cars, “coexist with every religious symbol known to man,” do not understand something. Coexistence is an anathema to the ultimate goals of Islam which is to dominate planet earth.

Now let’s look at a key excerpt from Imam Rauf’s WSJ Op ed to see how he responds to Beamer’s criticism:

But the fact of true adherence to Islam at its essence is as peaceful as true adherence to Christianity. The Holy Quran says that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind. True adherence to Islam would end terrorist attacks not just against civilians in the West but also among Muslim groups that still are blowing each other up in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At some point, we must recognize that the real battlefield in the world is not between Muslims and non-Muslims but between extremists of any stripe and the anti-extremists of all faiths.

We hear very little about the underlying fundamentals of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These are three faiths based on the Abrahamic principle that the purpose of humankind is to praise God and to help each other. The tenets of each religion provide common ground to work out the underlying issues of power and control that actually are at the root of conflict.

Moderate people in the west and the Muslim world understand this. But too often, especially in this time of indiscriminate communication, the moderates have let themselves be hijacked by extremists.

Now, read what Harold B. Reisman, a PhD in bio-chemistry and a fellow Columbia University alumnus, as is, ironically, Imam Rauf wrote in a letter to the WSJ:

Imam Rauf performs the usual editing of Sura 5:32 when he writes that the Qu'ran "says that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he killed all mankind." (Sept 9). It is always best to go to the foundational text. The Sura reads: " For that cause WE decreed for the children of Israel that whoever killeth a human bring for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and who saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and who saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he has saved the life of all mankind." (Italics added) What is "corruption in the earth"? It refers to those who do not follow the eternal, perfect and unalterable words of Allah through the final prophet Muhammad. The dar al-harb (the world of war) is the realm of non-believers or corrupters. The editorial deletion by Imam Rauf is purposeful, as he knows, is impermissible except when spreading da'wa (or peaceful spread of Islam followed by Jihad should that be insufficient)."

What Beamer and Reisman have done is expose the reality behind the Da’wa spin of Imam Rauf and others, Muslim and not, who cultivate the objective of peaceful co-existence among the world’s major faiths. This is a valued service on the occasion of this tenth anniversary of 9/11. Let’s see if the WSJ publishes Reisman’s cogent comment to Rauf’s op-ed.  If it does, then perhaps Beamer would be among the first to commend them for doing so. Let us see if that eventuates.