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Tuesday, Reps. Peter King (R-NY) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) called Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf -- best known for his work with multicultural Cordoba Initiative to build a mosque and community center in Lower Manhattan -- a "radical" and criticized the Obama Administration for including him on a Middle East speaking tour. That tour, which includes stops in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, is designed by the public diplomacy office to explain to Muslims abroad what it's like to be a Muslim in America.
Outside of how getting constantly called a radical by American politicians busy flacking the proposed "Ground Zero mosque" for political purposes might affect Rauf's view of what it's like to be a Muslim in America, there's one other big problem with King's and Ros-Lehtinen's accusation: Rauf already represented America in this way, under the Bush Administration.
State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley responded to the accusations Tuesday:
If one were to hearken back to the halcyon days of the Bush Administration, one would remember that, when Bush adviser Karen Hughes was appointed Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, the Bush Administration saw improving America's standing among Muslims abroad as a part of its national security strategy. And, as such, Hughes set up listening tours, attended meetings and worked with interfaith groups that -- shocking, by today's Republican standards -- included actual Muslims.
One of those people was Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.
Contemporary press accounts indicate that Rauf and Hughes were part of the February 2006 U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar. He was part of a delegation that met with her in March 2006 and held a joint press conference. A letter to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in November 2007 indicates that contacts with Hughes and Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns had continued apace.
And, of course, an interview with Foreign Policy in 2007 explored both the depths of his ongoing contact with the Administration and his so-called radical views.
The perception in the Muslim world is that the West wants to impose a secularism upon it, which to them is equivalent to the erasure of religion in society. As an American, I know that is not the intent of the United States at all. But thats the perception. The perception in America is that when people say they want an Islamic state, they want something like the Taliban. And that is not true at all.
Rauf added that, during Ramadan, it was important to remember the love that Jews, Muslims and Christians agree that their gods preach, adding, "It also means do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you." Guess that's one thing Rauf's critics forgot.
[H/T Adam Serwer]
Ugg the Repug
August 12, 2010 9:05 AM
Ugg will check to see how many MSM pick up this good story. Won't take long. Har har har.
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aq
August 12, 2010 9:22 AM in reply to Ugg the Repug
This isn't just a good story, this is a great story.
The big problem is, saying that it's a 'mainstream'(ish) mosque, or a 'liberal' mosque isn't the best way to go about doing it...
as it's been decently searchable knowledge that the Imam is as far from the hard right as possible... but, no one's been willing to package it in a delicious noteworthy story saying 'you guys are fracking nuts, not all muslims 1.9 billion muslims are hatemongers... (but you 55 million southern baptists... well, you generally have problems)'
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biff diggerence
August 12, 2010 9:37 AM in reply to aq
It's not even a mosque.
It takes The Daily Show and Steward/Cynac to point out that there is already a mosque 4 blocks from "Ground Zero".
It's been there only 40 years.
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biff diggerence
August 12, 2010 9:39 AM in reply to biff diggerence
er, Stewart. Sorry.
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