Everything there is to know about Faisal Abdul Rauf, the wolf in sheep’s clothing behind the planned lower Manhattan mega-mosque.
– by Alyssa A. Lappen, Pajamas Media
The prospective developer of a $100 million, 13-story mosque 600 feet from Ground Zero presents himself as a Muslim moderate (1). Yet Kuwait-born Faisal Abdul Rauf also boasts of his issue from an “Egyptian family steeped in religious scholarship” (2). Indeed, Feisal Rauf’s Muslim Brotherhood provenance, radical by definition, is as authentic as it gets.
Rauf’s father, Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rauf (1917-2004) — an Egyptian contemporary of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna — conveyed to Feisal his family’s long tradition of radicalism, which he acquired at Islam’s closest equivalent to the Vatican, Al-Azhar University. The elder Dr. Rauf studied and taught there before fleeing Egypt in 1948. That year, Feisal Abdul Rauf was born in Kuwait.
Feisal Rauf has planned for some time to further develop his father’s U.S. Islamic expansionism. In 1990, Rauf opened the tiny al-Farah Mosque at 245 West Broadway in lower Manhattan. Area residents did not even notice the mosque until 2006, when the New York State Liquor Authority (SLA) refused to license a new bar on the same block and started yanking others’ liquor licenses (3).
Rauf attended grammar school and high school in the UK and Malaysia, according to his biography. He probably first lived in America only in 1965, at age 17, when his father moved from Malaysia to New York to plan and head the Islamic Cultural Center (not built until the mid-1980s) (4). Rauf then obtained a BS in physics at Columbia University (5). In 1971, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where Rauf’s father headed the Islamic Center on Massachusetts Ave (6). His father, buried in Suitland, MD, at the for-profit Washington National Cemetery, also founded three Malaysian Islamic studies programs, including the International Islamic University of Malaysia (7).
Rauf’s early UK education and familiarization with American popular culture and values made him an acutely adept practitioner of Islamic taqiyya — deceptive speech and action to advance the interests and supremacy of Islam (8). To further that Islamic advancement, Rauf in 1997 established the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA). His Kashmir-born wife Daisy Kahn, an interior designer by profession, has run the organization since 2005 (9).
Rauf then began cultivating new spheres of influence. In about summer 2002, Rauf started lecturing on Islam at the 750-acre southwestern New York campus of Chautauqua Institution, a 136-year-old non-profit where religion director Joan Brown Campbell took Rauf under her wing. Under the rubric of the “Abrahamic” faiths, a convenient cover for Rauf’s Islamic activities, Campbell subsequently named him the prospective head of a Muslim house now planned on campus by another Rauf brainchild — the 501(3)c organization Muslim Friends of Chautauqua. Rauf also befriended Karen Armstrong, the former British nun and devotee of Islam.
In summer 2002, as a “theologian in residence,” Armstrong advocated for the Muslim Brotherhood — as if the father of all Islamic terrorist organizations was a progressive charity:
[The MB] set up a wonderful welfare program before it was suppressed. … Factories where Muslims could work, had time for prayers, had vacation time, insurance, [learned] labor laws, [provided] clinics, they taught people how to treat sewage, drainage, and it was always the religions response to try to help modernity to give to the ordinary people the benefits of modernity in an Islamic setting that made sense to them and made things more balanced (10).
In 2003, Rauf befriended leaders of Denver’s Aspen Institute, including former executive director and four-term Aspen mayor John S. Bennet. In 2004, under ASMA auspices, Rauf organized a meeting of 125 young Muslims and formed Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow. With Bennet’s help, he co-founded the Cordoba Initiative in Aspen, purportedly to “improve” Muslim-West relations (11). Rauf gets funding from a variety of other liberal organizations, including, for example, Gloria Steinem’s Ms. Foundation.
However, Rauf directly contradicted his conciliatory behavior with a firebrand interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. Terrorism, he stated, will end only when the West acknowledges the harm it has done to Muslims:
CONTINUE
Unfortunately I was only around 15 yrs old at the time, a few year older there would be 1,001 from the US.
Ayn what is troubling is these students are educated and they don’t see through all this garbage.
I think that Spain being pre-Shoah and pre-WWII, versus Israel’s independence being both post-Shoah and post-WWII, had a natural impact on the number of volunteers for the latter.
Forget about European Jewry. There was none. And in the rest of the world, most of the fighting men had been just that until a short time beforehand.
We will never know what the volunteer count would have been had Israel fought for its independence in the late 1930s.
The largest presence of Machal was felt in the Israeli Air Force (IAF), making up nearly a quarter of its personnel, to the point that English overtook Hebrew as the most common operational IAF service language.
ron pay attention. What seems incredible to you re: the Jews for us is old hat. “nothing new under heaven”
Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
Within the International brigades there was a high proportion of Jews among the volunteers from many countries including Poland, France, Britain, Germany, Canada, and Palestine. Among the medical personnel who went to Spain from many countries, by some estimates 70% were Jews and accordingly the Yiddish language was often used in the operating rooms as a common language to overcome national differences. The largest number of Jews in Spain came from Poland; US Jews were the second largest contingent.
Of the approximately 3,000 volunteers from the United States who formed the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, some estimates suggest that one-third were Jewish. Many were children of European immigrants, who had arrived in the U.S. during the early years of the century. They had received an “Americanized” education in school, but still felt family ties to Europe. Most volunteers came from large cities, where immigrants had settled. In addition, two-thirds of the volunteers were Communists. But many Jews were not Communists and went to Spain to fight back against Nazis and fascists. “I am as good [an] antifascist as any Communist,” wrote one volunteer to his commissar. “I have reason to be. I am a Jew and that is the reason I came to Spain. I know what it means to my people if fascism should win. (And I know they won’t.)
Now with the above in mind how many American Jews volunteered to fight for the independence of Israel in 1948?
It should be known and remembered that between 1947 and 1948 about 3,500 Machalniks – Mitnadvei Chutz L’Aretz – to use the Hebrew term and Volunteers from Outside Israel – to use the English translation – poured into Israel and fought alongside Israel’s finest, first in the Palmach and Haganah and after the State was declared – in the IDF.
The exact number of volunteers per country is still in some dispute, but the best estimate is that about 1,000 came from the United States with another 250 from Canada. Another 700 volunteered from South Africa, 600 from Great Britain, 250 from North Africa, 250 from Latin America, and still others from France and Belgium. There were also small contingents from Australia, the Belgium Congo, Rhodesia, Finland, and Russia. All told, Volunteers, both Jews and non-Jews and men and women, came from some 37 different countries to support the new Jewish State in her hour of greatest need.
At half of the above volunters comong here in 1948 were not Jewish but Gentiles/
Jews fought the fascists in Spain ( Many if not most were communists) but for Jews? Only a fraction of the number only a decade before.
Good luck with that, ron.
You are preaching to a choir that is several kishkes short of a snack.
Poor Glenn Close.
You know that your career is in the toilet when you make a public appearance and cannot even borrow a pair of shoes.
If she needed something elegant, I would have lent her mine.
From Caroline Glicks column – Making Israels case
Ayn, Uncle Nahum (Yamit) for the love of me I don’t get it. Why. Is this the result of liberal academia brainwashing.
I call on all young Jewish students and parents alike
If you are Jewish you should make a point to know Israel. The Holy Land G-d provided the Jews.
Renegade Arabs disguised as Palestinians being used by Arab world as a anti-Semitic tool to harass, intimidate and kill Jews and change the landscape of the Holy Land.
If these young people would do a little research they would understand these co called Palestinians are not seeking peace, it’s not their ajenda. Peace would not allowed them to achieve their goal. Kill Jews and destroy Israel.
Young Jewish Americans wake up, don’t let these bastards convenience you otherwise.
Wake up stand tall, don’t be ashamed to be Jewish, stand by Israel.
If you can, visit Israel, go there see first hand what your people have done the last 60 years all in the name of love not hate.
See for yourself.
Hey editor is back but what happened to the nesting and the comments and quotes?
ayn reagan says:
May 16, 2010 at 4:04 pm
The Star of Dave.
Lets call it ayn’s star, like on Hollywood boulevard.
Fine.
Not the Star of David.
The Star of Dave.
@ yamit82:
I need a preview editor my dyslexia is harder to compensate for without one.
@ ayn reagan:
ayn reagan Said:
Not bad sort of Audrey Hepburnish She must have European roots maybe Coptic. No a true Arabs abd certainly no Muslim.
The star is 5 pointed. No smoothie for that miss.
Here is Miss Egypt.
She has even placed a Star of David in her nostril to provide that extra allure.
@ ayn reagan:
ayn reagan Said:
I said Arab women not Pakistani women who like Indian women do produce some real beauties.
Pakistan’s Miss Bikini
She would have yamit at her mercy.
Alaska’s Miss Palin
@ Laura:
Laura Said:
This is not such a bad idea, not when you see such a collection of some of the ugliest females this side of Pluto, and Pluto isn’t even a planet anymore Just Gas. Keeping them covered up allows their husbands to brag (lie) about their wives beauty. Who can say differently when they are all covered up. LOL
Steinem is a leftist ideologue.
Feminism is her shtick, but she has never cared about women.
As with “civil rights activists”, “human rights activists”, “gay rights activists”, “environmentalists”, et al, the goal is to advance the Marxist ideology.
Leftists currently perceive Islamism is their best bet to achieve what the Soviets failed to do: destroy Western Civilization.
Hence, “Queers Against Israeli Apartheid”.
Gays passionately supporting homicidal homophobes!
Being a liberal means never having to say that you’re sane.
The outrages just keep coming. If any other group did this, they would be charged with violating civil rights laws.
Outrageous. The bar owners should never have stood for this.
Even more outrageous that a muslim would be buried at such a place.
Self-proclaimed “feminists” funding a representative of a brutally misogyistic “religion” which sanctions “honor” murders, female genital mutilation, the death penalty for adultery, forcing women to completely cover their bodies, heads and in many instances their faces as well. And stonings and floggins of women who defy these sharia rules. Good going Gloria Steinem. And they fund this while at the same time whining about how America is a patriarchal society and that and our Judeo-Christian values are far too oppressive to women. You can’t make this stuff up.
@ SarahSue:
SarahSue Said:
We seem to be on the same page and reading from the same script but I must point out and remind you that a lot of Muslims in America are naturally born Americans and the numbers I hear are growing.
@ Bill Narvey:
Except for the families and close friends of the victims I don’t think too many Americans really care what they put up on ground zero.
The American euphemism of “money talks shit walks” seems to be the order of the day.
Lappen misses the bigger story. Regardless of Faisal Abdul Rauf’s background and motives that Lappen raises grave concerns about, the more troubling story is about why the local community committee approved plans for the mosque to be built.
The local community committee met May 10th, 2010 to consider the application to approve plans for the mosque. No one attended to protest. A few, whose family members of those lost in 9/11, raised concerns with the project, but it does not appear they actually attended, since reports are that no one protested at the community committee hearing. One might surmise that they raised their objections only after hearing that the community committee unanimously endorsed the plans.
See: Plan for mosque near World Trade Center site moves ahead http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/05/06/2010-05-06_plan_for_mosque_near_world_trade_center_site_moves_ahead.html
The site of 9/11 has been labelled ground zero or sacred ground. There has been much talk of memorializing the site to the fallen, be it leaving ground zero as it is, to build a memorial there or to re-build the twin towers.
Until now we have assumed that the American psyche had been so painfully scarred by 9/11, that no American would take kindly to any attempt by anyone to take away from the significance of 9/11’s sacred ground zero.
Somehow, the symbolism of a huge and tall mosque looming over 9/11’s sacred ground zero has been lost on Americans. Why that is so, is the big story Lappen missed.
One can assume that there are a number of levels of approval that the mosque promoters must get through, before they will get a building permit to put their 1st shovels in the ground.
Perhaps objections will mount and ultimately quash any plan for the mosque. The fact however, that those objections were not immediate and damning at that May 10th, 2010 community committee meeting is startling.
@ yamit82:
yamit82 Said:
He received a gift of a replica of an ancient Jewish manuscript insterad of demanding it’s return to the Jewish People. Gues you shouldn’t expect more from a liberal Galut Jew.
Arthur Schneier is the Kapo rabbi who allowed the Pope into his schul?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Schneier
Well done Alyssa Lappen!!
This is what I expected from P. Geller. Not “I love Muslims”. Then, maybe she does love Muslims?
I would check NYC records to see what was approved, who approved building such a Mosque in such a place, for what purpose is building permit
for? etc. That might even prove to be explosive.
If Rauf can be shown to be a front for the M. Brotherhood all his assets can be attached by the many civil lawsuits against Hamas etc.by
families of the victims, not only those of 9/11 but victim in Israel and other places around the World. At the very least it could tie the
project up for many years. Where is P Geller?
US Preparing to Join The Alliance Of Civilizations
Associated Press is reporting that the Obama administration is preparing to join the Alliance of Civilizations (AOC), a group which is represented in the US and Europe by individuals sympathetic to the global Muslim Brotherhood. According to the AP report:
In April, U.S. President Barack Obama attended an annual forum of the AOC in Istanbul.
According to the AOC website, the AOC “High Level Group Members” in the U.S. and Western Europe are:
* Prof. John Esposito (United States)
* Rabbi Arthur Schneier (United States)
* Hubert Védrine (France)
* Karen Armstrong (United Kingdom)
Read the whole article Here:
Where to begin…
Rauf may present himself as a moderate, but we all know that is muslim speak for, ‘My Western audience is so stupid that they think there really are moderates in the muslim cult. But we muslims know differently don’t we (wink, wink)’
It is up to the same people that stopped Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from visiting Ground Zero to stop this abomination from sullying what has sadly become Holy Ground for Americans.
Rauf is counting on the fact that Americans are a very broadminded and accepting people showing recognition and open-mindedness for all religions and cults. However, there is a line that cannot be crossed and this person it trying step over it. This cannot be tolerated.
I hope New Yorkers stand together and run this jackass out of town.
No, terrorism will stop only when we harm them more that they harm us.
Terrorism will only stop when we recognize that islam is not the ‘religion of peace’ that our politicians, liberals, the media and muslims keep telling us it is.
Terrorism will only stop when we send these warmongers back to their own countries and let them kill each other.