Faith in our Fear
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/09/10/faith-in-our-fear/
The man behind the proposed Ground Zero mosque, Feisal Abdul Rauf, fired back at his critics in an Op-Ed published in the New York Times. It was a carefully crafted piece, one that employed all the right platitudes that appeal to the forgiving and tolerant aspects of the American character. Unfortunately for Rauf, he revealed much more about himself, his attitudes and his tactics than he intended. If the nation overwhelmingly opposed the Cordoba House before Rauf shared his thoughts – and it did – that opposition ought to be stronger than ever once Americans digest just how this man thinks, even when he’s trying to be conciliatory. God only knows what Rauf says in private, or what he has said to Muslim leaders overseas during his recent, State Department-sponsored tour of the Middle East.
Indulge me a personal aside before we get to the meat of Rauf’s message. Like many Americans, the more I learned about Feisal Abdul Rauf once the Ground Zero mosque roared into public consciousness, the more I was troubled by the man and what he appears to stand for. But, like most people raised in the western, Judeo-Christian tradition, I strive to believe the best of a man until they definitively prove otherwise. It has always been clear that Rauf is not that rarest of species, the moderate Muslim leader, but one could hope that he was simply a misguided semi-westernized Muslim who would come to his senses once he understood just how offensive his project was to so many people. But, after reading Rauf’s own words, there’s not a chance – in this writer’s humble opinion – that Feisal Abdul Rauf doesn’t understand precisely how divisive this project is or that he is determined to force it down America’s throats.
The core of Rauf’s argument in favor of the mosque was a thinly-veiled threat that appears near the end of his piece (emphasis added):
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.”
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