THE MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO: WHO IS BEHIND IT?SALAH UDDIN CHOUDHURY
The Mosque at Ground Zero: Who Is Behind It?
by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
July 30, 2010 at 5:30 am
http://www.hudson-ny.org/1447/ground-zero-mosque-who-is-behind-it
The Imam behind the controversial mosque at Ground Zero dreams of Islamizing United States, as exposed in his book, which has two titles: one in English, and one in Arabic
In the U.S., his book is called, “What’s Right with America Is What’s right with Islam.”
The same book, published in Arabic, bears the title, “The Call from the WTC Rubble: Islamic Da’wah {Proseletism}from the Heart of America Post-9/11.”
Here we get exactly the Imam, who is assigned to “spread Islam right from the WTC rubble.”
Now, let us have some glimpse over the funders and backers of this mosque project. According to information, a scholar and charity head appointed to President Obama’s White House Fellowships Commission is closely tied to the Muslim leaders behind this proposed controversial Islamic cultural center to be built near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks. The White House fellow, Vartan Gregorian, is president of Carnegie Corp. of New York.
Gregorian also serves on the board of the Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum. The museum is reportedly working with the American Society for Muslim Advancement, whose leaders are behind the mosque, to ensure the future museum will represent the voices of American Muslims.
“[The Sept. 11 museum will represent the] voices of American Muslims in particular, and it will honor members of other communities who came together in support and collaboration with the Muslim community on September 11 and its aftermath,” stated Daisy Khan, wife of the founder of the society and chairman of the of the Cordoba Initiative, Imam Faidal AbdulRauf Khan, and executive director of the society.
The future Sept. 11 museum’s oral historian, Jenny Pachucki, is collaborating with the society to ensure the perspective of American Muslims is woven into the overall experience of the museum, according to the museum’s blog.
Daisy Khan’s husband, Feisal Abdul Rauf, is the founder of the society as well as chairman of Cordoba Initiative.
With Gregorian at its helm, Carnegie Corp. is at the top of the list of society supporters on the Islamic group’s website. Carnegie is also listed as a funder of both of the society’s partner organizations, Search for Common Ground and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. Gregorian was a participant in the U.N. body’s first forum, as was Rauf.
Rauf is vice chairman on the board of the Interfaith Center of New York, which honored Gregorian at an awards dinner in 2008.
Gregorian, born in Tabriz, Iran, served for eight years as a president of the New York Public Library and was also president of Brown University. He is the author of “Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith.”
According to a book review by the Middle East Forum, Gregorian’s book “establishes the Islamist goal of world domination.”
A chapter of the book, “Islamism: Liberation Politics,” quotes Ayatollah Khomeini: “Islam does not conquer. Islam wants all countries to become Muslim, of themselves.”
Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, is quoted stating it “is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its laws on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.”
Gregorian himself recommends for Muslims a system he calls “theo-democracy,” which he defines as “a divine democratic government” that, according to the book review, “would have a limited popular sovereignty under the suzerainty of Allah.”
Recently, World Net Daily reported that Rauf refused during a live radio interview to condemn violent jihad groups as terrorists. Rauf also repeatedly refused on-air to affirm the U.S. designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization or call the Muslim Brotherhood extremists.
The Brotherhood openly seeks to spread Islam around the world, while Hamas is committed to Israel’s destruction and is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks aimed at Jewish civilian population centers.
During that interview, Rauf was also asked who he believes was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.
“There’s no doubt,” stated Rauf. “The general perception all over the world was it was created by people who were sympathetic to Osama bin Laden. Whether they were part of the killer group or not, these are details that need to be left to the law-enforcement experts.”
Rauf has been on record several times as blaming U.S. policies for the Sept. 11 attacks. He has been quoted refusing to admit Muslims carried out the attacks.
Referring to the Sept. 11 attacks, Rauf told CNN, “U.S. policies were an accessory to the crime that happened. We [the U.S.] have been an accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. Osama bin Laden was made in the USA.”
Madeline Brooks, a regular contributor of Weekly Blitz and anti-Jihadist columnist, who attended a sermon this year by Rauf, quoted the Islamic leader as stating “some people say it was Muslims who attacked on 9/11.”
An unidentified group with unknown sponsors has purchased building with US$ 4.85 million cash steps away from where the World Trade Center once stood — to turn it into potentially one of the largest New York City mosques or Islamic Mecca right inside USA.
The Imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, told the New York Times — which put the story on its front page — that he has assembled several million dollars to turn it into “an Islamic center near the city’s most hallowed piece of land that would stand as one of ground zero’s more unexpected and striking neighbors.”
The 61-year-old Imam said he paid $4.85 million for it — in cash, records show. With 50,000 square feet of air rights and enough financing, he plans an ambitious project of $150 million, he said.
Most US mosques, including many in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx are funded directly or indirectly by Saudi Arabia the country to which 15 of the 19 hijackers who bombed the World Trade Center belonged. The UAE, Qatar and Iran are other major sponsors across the USA.
The source of money matters: a significant part of the hundreds of mosques being built and already erected in this country double up as cultural Islamic centers for distributing literature– Islamist propaganda in fact—from Bay Ridge Brooklyn to Detroit, and for schooling growing Muslim minorities. They house Imams of unknown origin and education, many of whom do not speak a word in English but preach in Arabic and Urdu — radical messages, it often turns out.
While Imam Faisal is gradually moving ahead with his master plan of constructing the Mecca of Islam in NYC, unknown patrons are continuing to put huge amount of cash in gradually having a strong Islamist grip over world media.
In United Kingdom, newspapers like Islamic Times, The Muslim News, The Muslim Weekly, or radio stations like Radio Apni Awaz, Radio Dawn or TV channels like Islam Channel, Muslim TV are only few examples. According to information, Muslim “‘entrepreneurs” are gradually buying shares in several news outlets in UK with money received from unknown sources. Hundreds of millions of dollars are flowing into such projects, with the ultimate goal of virtually waging Islamic Jihad over global media.
There are a few dozens Islamic TV channels already on air. Peace TV [run by notorious Zakir Naik], ARY TV, Q-TV, Islamic TV, Muslim TV; and Islam Channel – UK:
Commenting on Britain’s most popular Islam Channel, Britain’s Office of Communications, OFCOM, in a report found that a number of presenters with extremis tendencies were regularly given the opportunity to air their opinions on the network.
The report also condemned a channel headquartered in London for being demeaning to women, saying that programs instructed women that they could not refuse to have sexual relations with their husbands. Under British law — and recently in the US in a case which was later overturned — a husband who forces his wife to have sex with him can be charged with rape.
The report added that on one program, women were told that they should not leave their homes without their husband’s consent, and should always have a male escort. Another suggested that women who used perfume were prostitutes. Concerns were also raised in the report over a religious advice program in which viewers were told that “the majority of people in hell will be women” because they are the cause of “calamities, hardship and suffering” in Western society.
The channel was accused of promoting the speeches of Anwar al Awlaki, an extremist preacher who has been linked to al Qaeda, and the views of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a fundamentalist organization which the former Prime Minister Tony Blair had tried to ban.
The Islam Channel is watched by an estimated 59 per cent of the UK’s two million Muslims. It is also available as a satellite channel across Europe and Africa.
New Islam TV – Africa:
In Africa, a company named Multichoice has launched a channel named New Islam TV, which is added in DStv bouquets, reaching millions of people. The channel offers choice news and current affairs, children and women’s programs, as well as Quran recitals in Arabic with English subtitles, Islamic values and doctrine.
Azhari TV – Egypt
Egyptian Al Azhar University is set to launch a satellite based television channel in months targeting “1.5 million Muslims and non-Muslims alike in the world.”
Head of Al Azhar, Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, commenting on this channel, which is funded by a Libyan businessman named Hassan Tatanaki said, “in the Age of Obama we realized it was time to look at new ways to deliver our message.”
Hassan Tatanaki placed an initial investment of US$ 2.7 million in this project. Several news sources claim that the real amount of investment in the channel is much higher than shown in the document. The channel will feature a daily sermon from Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, documentaries relating to al-Azhar, talk shows and an animated series on the Koran. The channel will broadcast 75 percent of its output in Arabic, with the rest initially in English and French. Other languages will be added in 2011.
Another Islamic TV channel named Al Sufiya Wa Atasawaf will also be launched from Egypt in several months.
Al Falah TV – Malaysia
An Islamic television channel named Al Falah TV has been launched by a Malaysian company, World Islamic Television Network. Its chairman, Khairuddin Abu Hassan. said, “This channel will act as a hub for the collection of television programs from Islamic nations and export the same to Europe, the United States and East Asia.”
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