Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the Cordoba House, otherwise known as the Ground Zero Mosque,warned Americans in a thinly veiled threat on Wednesday, that moving the facility could cause a violent backlash from Muslim extremists and endanger national security.

The so-called “Moderate Imam” told CNN that the discussion surrounding the center has become so politicized that moving it could strengthen the ability of extremists abroad to recruit and wage attacks against Americans, including American troops fighting in the Middle East.

Rauf said:

The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack.

In the same breath, he added that he was open to the idea of moving the planned location of the center, currently two blocks north of the World Trade Center site.

He also said:

But if you don’t do this right, anger will explode in the Muslim world.

Rauf predicted that the reaction could be more furious than the eruption of violence following the 2005 publication of Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

72 % of Americans believe that the mosque, which would include a Sept. 11 memorial ( To which side?) and a Muslim prayer space, should be moved farther away from where Islamic extremists destroyed the World Trade Center and killed nearly 2,800 people.   Supporters, including NYC Mayor Bloomberg and a cadre of Liberals and Squishy Republican Moderates, fall back on the false argument of protecting religious freedom.

Rauf, 61, has been MIA since the controversy over the proposed Ground Zero Mosque erupted earlier this year.   He has been traveling abroad, including taking an American taxpayer-funded State Department 15-day trip to the Middle East to promote religious tolerance (and raise funds for the building of the mosque).

In his first interview since returning to the U.S. on Sunday, purposely scheduled with CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, Rauf responded to a number of questions that have been raised about the project.

He claimed that money to develop the center would be raised domestically for the most part.

He also said:

And we’ll be very transparent on how we raise money.

He also added that no funds would be accepted from sources linked to extremists. 

Uh huh.  Tell me another one.

Rauf said that, in retrospect, he might have chosen a different location for what he described as a multifaith community center:

If I knew this would happen, if it would cause this kind of pain, I wouldn’t have done it.

You knew this would happen.  You did not care.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf wrote an op-ed which was published in the New York Times on September 7th, 2010.  Here are some excerpts:

…We have all been awed by how inflamed and emotional the issue of the proposed community center has become. The level of attention reflects the degree to which people care about the very American values under debate: recognition of the rights of others, tolerance and freedom of worship.

Freedom of Worship, huh?  Recently, on May 26, Abdul Rauf was featured on the popular Islamic website Hadiyul-Islam.   At the same time on that website, a fatwa was being issued forbidding a Muslim to sell land to a Christian, because the Christian wanted to build a church on it.

 Throughout my discussions with contemporary Muslim theologians, it is clear an Islamic state can be established in more than just a single form or mold. It can be established through a kingdom or a democracy. The important issue is to establish the general fundamentals of Sharia that are required to govern. It is known that there are sets of standards that are accepted by [Muslim] scholars to organize the relationships between government and the governed. [emphasis added]

Current governments are unjust and do not follow Islamic laws.

New laws were permitted after the death of Muhammad, so long of course that these laws do not contradict the Quran or the Deeds of Muhammad … so they create institutions that assure no conflicts with Sharia. [emphasis in translation]

Back to September 7th’s NY Times:

Many people wondered why I did not speak out more, and sooner, about this project. I felt that it would not be right to comment from abroad. It would be better if I addressed these issues once I returned home to America, and after I could confer with leaders of other faiths who have been deliberating with us over this project. My life’s work has been focused on building bridges between religious groups and never has that been as important as it is now.

From an interview the Sydney Morning Herald, published on their website on March 21, 2004:

The US and the West must acknowledge the harm they have done to Muslims before terrorism can end, says an Islamic cleric invited to Sydney by Premier Bob Carr.

New York-based Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who impressed Mr Carr at an international conference last year, arrives in Sydney today for two weeks of meetings and public talks.

Speaking from his New York mosque, Imam Feisal said the West had to understand the terrorists’ point of view.

In a move likely to cause controversy with church leaders, Imam Feisal said it was Christians who started mass attacks on civilians.

“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.”

Imam Feisal said the bombing in Madrid had made his message more urgent. He said there was an endless supply of angry young Muslim rebels prepared to die for their cause and there was no sign of the attacks ending unless there was a fundamental change in the world.

Imam Feisal, who argues for a Western style of Islam that promotes democracy and tolerance, said there could be little progress until the US acknowledged backing dictators and the US President gave an “America Culpa” speech to the Muslim world.

This is “Bridge Building”?

Back to the Times:

We are proceeding with the community center, Cordoba House. More important, we are doing so with the support of the downtown community, government at all levels and leaders from across the religious spectrum, who will be our partners. I am convinced that it is the right thing to do for many reasons.

Above all, the project will amplify the multifaith approach that the Cordoba Initiative has deployed in concrete ways for years. Our name, Cordoba, was inspired by the city in Spain where Muslims, Christians and Jews co-existed in the Middle Ages during a period of great cultural enrichment created by Muslims. Our initiative is intended to cultivate understanding among all religions and cultures.

Un momento, por favor, Imam. 

 The historic city of Cordoba, Spain was originally Christian, but was overtaken by Islamic marauders and turned into an Islamic stronghold in the 8th century CE. The Islamic seizure of Cordoba began in the year 711 CE by Berber tribesmen who had recently converted to Islam. They crossed the 14 mile stretch of ocean between North Africa and Europe into what was then called Al-Andalus, which is now modern-day Spain.

Please continue, Imam Rauf:

…I am very sensitive to the feelings of the families of victims of 9/11, as are my fellow leaders of many faiths. We will accordingly seek the support of those families, and the support of our vibrant neighborhood, as we consider the ultimate plans for the community center. Our objective has always been to make this a center for unification and healing.

Putting a victory mosque at the site where a group of Islamic Terrorists killed 3,000 people is “sensitive”?  I do not think that you know what that word means.

…President Obama and Mayor Michael Bloomberg both spoke out in support of our project. As I traveled overseas, I saw firsthand how their words and actions made a tremendous impact on the Muslim street and on Muslim leaders. It was striking: a Christian president and a Jewish mayor of New York supporting the rights of Muslims. Their statements sent a powerful message about what America stands for, and will be remembered as a milestone in improving American-Muslim relations.

The wonderful outpouring of support for our right to build this community center from across the social, religious and political spectrum seriously undermines the ability of anti-American radicals to recruit young, impressionable Muslims by falsely claiming that America persecutes Muslims for their faith. These efforts by radicals at distortion endanger our national security and the personal security of Americans worldwide. This is why Americans must not back away from completion of this project. If we do, we cede the discourse and, essentially, our future to radicals on both sides. The paradigm of a clash between the West and the Muslim world will continue, as it has in recent decades at terrible cost. It is a paradigm we must shift.

I know which direction you seek to shift the paradigm, Imam:

In a 2001 interview with Beliefnet on Islam and America, he was asked, “Some Islamic charities are being investigated for terrorist ties. Have you seen what you consider to be reputable Islamic charities being financially damaged?”

He responded:

We believe that a certain portion of every charity has been legitimate.  To say that you have connections with terrorism is a very gray area. It’s like the accusation that Saddam Hussein had links to Osama bin Laden. Well, America had links to Osama bin Laden – does that mean that America is a terrorist country or has ties to terrorism?

Rauf concludes his Sept. 7th, 2010 thusly:

How better to commemorate 9/11 than to urge our fellow Muslims, fellow Christians and fellow Jews to follow the fundamental common impulse of our great faith traditions?

Imam Rauf, I don’t care if you build a mosque in the middle of Yazoo City, Mississippi.  However, your attempt to build a mosque at the site of the worst Terrorist attack ever on America soil is nothing but an arrogant, insensitive attempt at poltical/religious propaganda.  I pray that you fail.

Common Impulses?  Funny, I’ve never had an impulse to fly a plane into a building and kill thousands of people or behead somebody who will not swear allegiance to Christ.  But, I guess that’s just me.