A couple of days ago, Claudia Rosett wondered on these very digital pages “Seriously, Where is Imam Feisal…?” It seems the would-be Ground Zero mosque entrepreneur has mysteriously vanished into the Middle East (or somewhere), on a stipend from the good folks at our generous State Department, to drum up what one assumes to be mountains of cash to build his great monument to religious comity — or is it the spread of sharia — in the flight line of 9/11.
The last thing anybody wants in this instance is questions. These days even someone from the MSM might — Heaven forfend! — ask him something embarrassing. (Well, maybe not, but at least some loose cannon from those nasties at Fox News.) So no surprise that Feisal Rauf, much like Sharif Ali in Lawrence, has vanished into the desert in a cloud of dust, for now anyway, although no one could mistake the Ground Zero imam for Omar Sharif, even on Rauf’s best hair day ever.
Meanwhile, questions do abound. Just what is Rauf’s intention in building the mega-mosque within yards of Ground Zero when there is plenty of other real estate in the five boroughs for such an enterprise? What is he trying to tell us and the Islamic world? (Same thing?) And what about all those rumors that he supports Hamas or that the mosque is really a stalking horse for the infiltration of sharia, with all its misogynist and homophobic decrees, into America? (Listen up, Gloria Steinem!)
And now, suddenly, Haaretz is reporting that the Muslim community has seen the error of its ways and is looking for another venue. And then we hear that is not true and Haaretz was engaged in some form of wishful thinking.
Confusing, isn’t it? And all that without even getting into the views of our president and the execrable mayor of New York, who apparently knows less about sharia law than my dead grandmother knows about Lady Gaga.
But never fear, Pajamas Media and PJTV have decided to do something truly reckless. Ask someone who speaks Arabic.
Better yet, we have asked a former terrorist — our good buddy Walid Shoebat.
Walid has been scouring the Arabic-speaking Internet for the words of Imam Rauf. Does Rauf say the same things in Arabic as he does in English? Yes, we know that almost every politician, like, say, to pick a completely random example, Michael Bloomberg, will say one thing to a certain group and a contradictory thing to another. But usually this is just so much blather, that can do no more than, say, bankrupt us. What Rauf talks about would destroy our civilization, as you will see below. Sure, he has the right to say these things, under our Constitution. But are we imbeciles to give him a royal platform on which to proclaim them?
I digress. Back to Walid Shoebat. Here is a taste of some quotes from the mouth of Rauf as translated from the Arabic by Walid. More will come when I interview him for PJTV tomorrow.
“People asked me right after the 9/11 attack as to why do movements with political agendas carry [Islamic] religious names? Why call it ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ or ‘Hezbollah (Party of Allah)’ or ‘Hamas’ or ‘Islamic Resistance Movement’? I answer them this—that the trend towards Islamic law and justice begins in religious movements, because secularism had failed to deliver what the Muslim wants, which is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
“The only law that the Muslim needs exists already in the Koran and the Hadith.”
Say good-bye to that fuddy-concept, the separation of church and state. But wait, there’s more….
“I do not believe in religious dialogue … this phrase is inaccurate. Religious dialogue as is customarily understood is a set of events with discussions in large hotels that result in nothing. Religions do not dialogue and dialogue is not present in the attitudes of the followers regardless of being Muslim or Christian.”
If religious dialogue results in nothing, as Rauf says — an arguable premise, I suppose — then why build a mosque by Ground Zero to promote such dialogue? Or does Imam Rauf have something else in mind? Frankly, I don’t know. But neither, I can assure you, does Michael Bloomberg. As for Barack Obama, well … I leave that one to the readers.
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