Ground Zero mosque Imam blames Sarah Palin for 'growing Islamophobia'

[Voegelin]

Ground Zero mosque Imam blames Sarah Palin for 'growing Islamophobia' - Telegraph

 

[nolongerhome]

"What has happened is that..certain politicians decided that this project would be very useful for their political ambitions," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said, adding that this had prompted a "growing Islamophobia" in the US.


...

Imam Rauf said that he would not have proposed his Islamic Centre had he anticipated the furore that has resulted. "I would never have done it."
But he was reluctant to consider a different site because of how this would be interpreted by Islamic extremists. "My major concern with moving it is that the headline in the Muslim world will be Islam is under attack in America.
This will strengthen the radicals in the Muslim world, help their recruitment, this will put our people -- our soldiers, our troops, our embassies, our citizens -- under attack in the Muslim world and we have expanded and given and fuelled terrorism."

All seems fairly reasonable to me.

It is clear that this "controversy" has been blown out of proportion to a ridiculous extent, and that a number of people fueling the flames had political interests in doing so.

It is also clear that Imam is stuck in a fairly tough position in which there is no easy way out - whatever he does he is going to be antagonising someone, and it isn't his fault he is in this position - it is the fault of radicals on both sides, radicals who for the most part will have nothing to do with this specific building at all and who have only become "involved" in this situation because of the way it has been escalated.

There is no reason why this guy should be under pressure from Sarah Palin or from radical Muslims on the other side of the world. This entirely local issue has been turned into a symbolic point of conflict which has gone far beyond whether or not this one community centre should go ahead. It doesn't reflect well on those on either side who have caused this to happen.

 

[variant]

Ground Zero mosque Imam blames Sarah Palin for 'growing Islamophobia' - Telegraph

It's not just Sarah Palin that has attempted to make political hay over stoking simmering religious tensions.

 

[JustMeSee]

I don't follow what Sarah Palin says or writes. I don't know if she has fed into an exaggerated fear, mistrust, or anger towards Muslims.

I believe politicians on both sides of the aisle have used the New York construction to garner brownie points. This has likely prompted people to dig in their feet and deepen their convictions.

There are some very strong views of Islam on CF. I don't know how much the media and politicians have to do with this.

 

[nolongerhome]

I don't follow what Sarah Palin says or writes. I don't know if she has fed into an exaggerated fear, mistrust, or anger towards Muslims.

I believe politicians on both sides of the aisle have used the New York construction to garner brownie points.

Indeed, this isn't just about Sarah Palin, and if people read the article that Imam does not believe it is just about Sara Palin either.

The fact of the matter is that in the current climate of anti-Muslim sentiment, there are votes to be had from tapping into discontent. There are also votes to be had from standing in opposition to those who would tap into discontent.

What should have been simply a matter of local planning regulation has been turned into a political football on an international scale because there were people in whose interest it was to do so. The claims that this is just about what happened on September 11 is, as the Imam say, disingenuous.

 

[Ringo84]

All the blame probably doesn't fall on Palin's shoulders, but I do believe that she's partially to blame for this community center being blown out of proportion.
Ringo

 

[kiwimac]

Politicians playing on people's fears are largely responsible for this brouhaha.

 

[EdwinWillers]

I think it's about time these "phobes" actually became the phobes those with the phobias for the phobes they accuse of being phobes could feel justified their fearfully phobic fears for phobes weren't phobic folly in the first place.

 

[Voegelin]

Imam Rauf is behind the curve. John Boehner is the villain of the week, not Sarah Palin.

 

[nolongerhome]

I think it's about time these "phobes" actually became the phobes those with the phobias for the phobes they accuse of being phobes could feel justified their fearfully phobic fears for phobes weren't phobic folly in the first place.

Good effort, but unfortunately ungrammatical and therefore non-sensical

 

[DaisyDay]

Imam Rauf is behind the curve. John Boehner is the villain of the week, not Sarah Palin.

How silly of him to point at someone who actually was one of the first to rouse the rabble instead of the villain of the day.

 

[Wolseley]

I think it's about time these "phobes" actually became the phobes those with the phobias for the phobes they accuse of being phobes could feel justified their fearfully phobic fears for phobes weren't phobic folly in the first place.

You know, with a little more of that, you could run for office!

 

[childofGod1]

Either Rauf is one slow witted imam or he came up with this mosque to poke America in the eye. If he didn't know that it would become this controversial, he must be living in a cave. He can't legitimately claim to be a victim, he placed himself squarely in the middle. His feigned innocence is intellectually dishonest, and frankly laughable.

 

[kiwimac]

Oh please! What a crock of foetid dingos kidneys!

 

[SOAD]

Either Rauf is one slow witted imam or he came up with this mosque to poke America in the eye. If he didn't know that it would become this controversial, he must be living in a cave. He can't legitimately claim to be a victim, he placed himself squarely in the middle. His feigned innocence is intellectually dishonest, and frankly laughable.

Your false dilemma has been noted. This community center has been in the works for quite a while, and it has only become a political issue prior to elections. You and others who think like you have been hoodwinked into believing the fear and hatred spewed by bigots.

 

[nolongerhome]

Either Rauf is one slow witted imam or he came up with this mosque to poke America in the eye. If he didn't know that it would become this controversial, he must be living in a cave. He can't legitimately claim to be a victim, he placed himself squarely in the middle. His feigned innocence is intellectually dishonest, and frankly laughable.

Really?

This project has been in the works for over a year, the building has been used by Muslims as a place for prayer for a year prior to the proposed development, there are existing Muslim places of worship in the general area, a couple of blocks away, the building has already gone through a number of relevant local government planning processes, and it has only been the last month or so that when a number of right wing commentators started agitating about the site that it became anything more than a fairly routine matter of local planning.

Considering that, why would there have been any reason for the Imam to believe he was about to be pushed into the middle of an international controversy?

 

[RealDealNeverstop]

Ground Zero mosque Imam blames Sarah Palin for 'growing Islamophobia' - Telegraph

Are you going to link the proof he blamed Palin or is this one of those pre-Easter google egg hunts?

 

[DaisyDay]

Either Rauf is one slow witted imam or he came up with this mosque to poke America in the eye. If he didn't know that it would become this controversial, he must be living in a cave. He can't legitimately claim to be a victim, he placed himself squarely in the middle. His feigned innocence is intellectually dishonest, and frankly laughable.

I doubt his innocence is feigned nor is he slow witted. He modeled this community center on the upper eastside Young Mens Hebrew Assocication (YMHA). He consulted with other religious leaders, Christian and Jewish, who are on the board of this project.

The "mosque" is an area set aside to worship and takes up a small percentage of the total proposed building - which also includes a basketball court, a swimming pool, a culinary school, an auditorium, an art studio, a childcare facility and a bookstore.

The hate-mongers Pamela Geller and Robert Spenser are the primary sponsors of the ignorant antimosque movement. They are out to stop the "Islamization" of America - as though 0.6% of the population is going to overwhelm the other 99.4%.

 

[Axioma]

"Ground Zero Mosque." Sigh.

 

[SOAD]

"Ground Zero Mosque." Sigh.

Interesting choice of words to spread the anger and fear considering there was a mosque at ground zero and it was destroyed along with the towers.