Friday, August 20, 2010

Who is Faisal Abdul Rauf?

The man who leads the intention to build a mosque at Ground Zero. From Wikipedia:

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (born in 1948, in Kuwait) is an Arab-American Sufi imam, author, and activist whose stated goal is to improve relations between the Muslim World and the West. He has been Imam of Masjid al-Farah, a New York City mosque, since 1983.

He has written three books on Islam and its place in contemporary Western society, including What's Right with Islam is What's Right with America, and founded two non-profit organizations whose stated missions are to enhance the discourse on Islam in society. He has condemned the 9/11 attacks as un-Islamic and called on the U.S. government to reduce the threat of terrorism by altering its Middle Eastern foreign policy. Author Karen Armstrong, among others, has praised him for his attempts to build bridges between the West and the Muslim world.

In 2010, Abdul Rauf received national attention for his plans to build Cordoba House, an Islamic community center, two blocks away from Ground Zero in Manhattan. Amid an ensuing national debate, critics such as former politicians Rudy Giuliani, Rick Lazio, and Sarah Palin questioned his leadership of the initiative, criticizing remarks he previously made about 9/11 and Hamas. His comments about Sharia law and the Fort Hood attack have also raised controversy amongst pundits.

Career
Abdul Rauf has been Imam of Masjid al-Farah at at 245 West Broadway in New York City's Tribeca district since 1983.

Abdul Rauf worked to build bridges between American society, the American Muslim community and the wider Muslim world. In 1997, he founded the American Society for Muslim Advancement (originally named the American Sufi Muslim Association), a civil society organization aimed at promoting positive engagement between American society and American Muslims. The organization is now headed by his wife, Daisy Khan, an interior designer by profession.

In 2003, Abdul Rauf founded the Cordoba Initiative, another registered nonprofit organization with offices in both New York and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As CEO of Cordoba Initiative, Abdul Rauf coordinates projects that emphasize the bonds that connect the Muslim world and the West.

Support
Fareed ZakariaBritish author Karen Armstrong supported him in the Introduction to Abdul Rauf's book:

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf ... is a bridge figure because he has deep roots in both worlds. He was educated in Egypt, England, Malaysia and the United States, and his mosque in New York City is only a few blocks away from the World Trade Center. After September 11, people often asked me, "Where are the moderate Muslims? why are they not speaking out?" In Imam Rauf, we have a Muslim who can speak to Western people in a way they can understand."

Fareed Zakaria praised Feisal for speaking of "the need for Muslims to live peacefully with all other religions," for emphasizing the commonalities among all faiths, for advocating equal rights for women and opposing laws that in any way punish non-Muslims.

Walter Isaacson, head of The Aspen Institute, says Feisal "has participated at the Aspen Institute in Muslim-Christian-Jewish working groups looking at ways to promote greater religious tolerance. He has consistently denounced radical Islam and terrorism, and promoted a moderate and tolerant Islam."

Criticism
Some U.S. politicians have voiced concerns about his views.

In 2004, he said the U.S. and the West must acknowledge the harm they have done to Muslims before terrorism can end. Speaking at his New York mosque, Abdul Rauf said:

"The Islamic method of waging war is not to kill innocent civilians. But it was Christians in World War II who bombed civilians in Dresden and Hiroshima, neither of which were military targets."

He also said that there could be little progress in Western-Islamic relations until the U.S. acknowledged backing Middle East dictators, and the U.S. President gave an "American Culpa" speech to the Muslim world, because there are "an endless supply of angry young Muslim rebels prepared to die for their cause and there [is] no sign of the attacks ending unless there [is] a fundamental change in the world".

Columnist Jonathan Rauch wrote that Abdul Rauf gave a "mixed, muddled, muttered" message after 9/11. Nineteen days after the attacks, he told CBS’s 60 Minutes that fanaticism and terrorism have no place in Islam. Rauch said that the message was mixed, however, because when then asked if the U.S. deserved the attacks, Rauf answered: "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 the interviewer asked Rauf how he considered the U.S. an accessory, he replied, "Because we have been 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." Peter T. King, Rick Lazio, and Sarah Palin expressed concern about his remarks, when discussing Abdul Rauf as the driving force behind the Cordoba mosque.

At National Review, Dan Foster wrote:

When you say that the United States was “an accessory to the crime” of 9/11, as he did, it tends to blunt my ability to pick up the subtleties of what comes after. That interview was equivocal at every turn, and when moral equivalences are trotted out re: 9/11, the tie goes to “you're either with us, or with the terrorists.” In other words, we are perfectly entitled to suspect that the “accessories to the crime” bit represents the investment, while the “condemning terrorism” bit is merely the hedge.

The editors of the magazine wrote "While he cannot quite bring himself to blame the terrorists for being terrorists, he finds it easy to blame the United States for being a victim of terrorism."

During an interview on New York WABC radio in June 2010, Abdul Rauf declined to say whether he agreed with the U.S. State Department's designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization. Responding to the question, Rauf said, "I'm not a politician. I try to avoid the issues. The issue of terrorism is a very complex question... I am a peace builder. I will not allow anybody to put me in a position where I am seen by any party in the world as an adversary or as an enemy."

Sarah Palin and Lazio criticized his refusal to agree with the assessment of the United States that Hamas is a terrorist organization, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Abdul Rauf had supported radical causes that sympathized with Islamic terrorism.

Lazio also alleged that Abdul Rauf may have connections with Islamist extremists, which Abdul Rauf strongly denied. Abdul Rauf also disputed a rumor that he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

New York's Mayor Bloomberg was asked to comment on whether Abdul Rauf is a man of peace, given his background "where he's supposedly supported Hamas, [and] blamed the U.S. for 9/11 attacks". Bloomberg responded:

My job is not to vet clergy in this city.... Everybody has a right to their opinions. You don't have to worship there.... this country is not built around ... only those ... clergy people that we agree with. It's built around freedom. That's the wonderful thing about the First Amendment—you can say anything you want.

Cordoba House
In December 2009, Feisal announced plans to build Cordoba House, a 13-story community center, including a mosque that would accommodate 1,000–2,000 Muslims in prayer, two blocks from Ground Zero. He won non-binding support from the local Community Board. He also received both support and opposition from some 9/11 families, politicians, organizations, academics, and others.

The building of the mosque and community center, as well as the initiative itself, was supported by some Muslim American leaders and organizations, including CAIR, and criticized by some Muslims such as Sufi mystic Suleiman Schwartz, who said that a building built by Rauf barely two blocks from ground zero, is inconsistent with Sufi philosophy of simplicity of faith and sensitivity towards others. Supporters for Cordoba House point out that two Mosques in Lower Manhattan have firm roots, and one of them was founded in 1970, pre-dating the World Trade Center.

Selected works
Books:

What's Right with Islam: a New Vision for Muslims and the West (HarperCollins, 2004) ISBN 978-0060582722
Islam: A Sacred Law (Threshold books, 2000) ISBN 978-0939660704
Islam: A Search for Meaning (Mazda, 1996) ISBN 978-1568590370
Quran for Children (Kazi, 1985) ISBN 978-0935782080

Chapters and other pieces in publications:
“Preventing Chaos.” The Star (Malaysia). 9 Mar. 2008.
“Asceticism in Islam.” Cross Currents. Winter, 2008, (vol. 57 No. 4) ed. by Pederson, Kusumita.
“The Ideals We Share.” Newsweek. 31 July 2007. with Khan, Daisy.
“The End of Barbarism: The Phenomenon of Torture and the Search for Common Good.” Pursuing the Global Common Good: Principle and Practice in US Foreign Policy. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress, 2007. with William F. Schulz, ed. by Steenland, Sally et al.
"What is Sunni Islam?" in Voices of Islam: Voices of Tradition, vol. 1 of 3, ed. Vincent J. Cornell. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2007.
“Al-Qaeda’s Greatest Fear may be US Leaving Iraq.” Aspen Times. 11 Oct. 2006. with Bennett, John.
Arab Reform Final Report. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 2005. with Albright, Madeleine, et al.
“Bringing Muslim Nations into the Global Century.” Fortune Magazine. 18 Oct. 2004.

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