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After summering in Malaysia and assorted petro-capitals of the Arabian Gulf, the imam behind the Ground Zero mosque project, Feisal Abdul Rauf, is back in America — though not for long. His Cordoba Initiative web site now features a newsletter which mentions that this month Rauf will be off again, this time to Australia … apparently there is now some urgent “bridge-building” to be done in Perth. But while transiting New York, site of his proposed $100 million-plus Cordoba House, Rauf has taken time to publish an op-ed in the New York Times. The op-ed itself, “Building on Faith,” is such a feat of unmitigated...

“Peace” is a word so over-used and abused that by now it’s wise to brace yourself every time some self-declared “peace-maker” pipes up. But even by those standards, the perversion of “peace-making” hit fresh heights Wednesday evening, when CNN’s Larry King Live, guest-hosted by Soledad O’Brien, devoted a full hour to an interview with the imam behind the Ground Zero mosque project, Feisal Abdul Rauf. Asked if it’s really a good idea to go ahead with his plans to build a mosque and Islamic center at an address so close to Ground Zero that it has become a flash point,...

Tonight on "The O'Reilly Factor," I pointed out that the Ground Zero mosque imam, Faisel Rauf, wrote a book a few years ago. In America, it had an innocuous, "bridge-building" title. For the Muslim world, it had quite a different title. Many of you have emailed me asking for more information about the book. Here it is, from the website www.DiscovertheNetworks.com , which had the most succinct description, including a shout-out to my good friend, former prosecutor, and National Review Online contributor, Andrew McCarthy: "Journalist Andrew McCarthy has revealed that "What's Right with Islam" was originally published in 2004 in...

“If we move from that location, the story will be that the radicals have taken over the discourse.” VIDEO

The pastor at the centre of the Koran-burning row has challenged a New York Imam to call off the building of a mosque at Ground Zero.Pastor Terry Jones and his colleague Pastor K A Paul read out their telephone number live on television and said the Imam has just two hours to respond. Sky News' US correspondent Robert Nisbet, who was at the news conference, said: "This is absolutely extraordinary. "It appear that the pastor has reconsidered his earlier deal over the New York mosque." [ snip ] VIDEO of Press conference at link

In an interview last night with CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf stressed that he could not move the Ground Zero mosque because it would threaten “national security.” From the CNN transcript: RAUF: As I just mentioned, our national security now hinges on how we negotiate this, how we speak about it, and what we do. It is important for us now to raise the bar on our conversation– O’BRIEN: What’s the risk? When you say “national security,” what’s the risk? RAUF: As I mentioned, because if we move, that means the radicals ...

This weekend, my home town will be the site of an extraordinary event. Let me beg everyone who is able to make the pilgrimage to Ground Zero on the ninth anniversary of the Islamist mass-murder attack on our country. It is there that thousands of citizens will gather at 3 p.m. at Park Place (between Church and West Broadway) to register their outrage at the attempt by foreign-funded, terrorist-friendly Muslims to build a triumphalist mosque at the site of an Islamist slaughter, replacing a building that was damaged by one of the planes hijacked by 19 orthodox Muslims. (Nineteen...

Just in. I am looking at a picture of the WTC with smoke pouring out of the western tower. Looks like a huge amount of damage. Debris raining down on people in the street.

President Barak Obama today has weigh in on the Muslim Koran burning plans of Pastor Terry Jones of the World Wide Dove Outreach Church set for this coming Saturday. He has stated to consider, the (Pastor Jones) to listen to his “better angels” in prayerful regards. The ironic thing is that at the same time, he does not kindly ask, President Obama, the Iman Rauf to look into “moving” the planned Ground Zero Mosque. How ironic indeed.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has finally bro ken his silence about the $100 million mosque he wants to build in the shadow of Ground Zero. But his op-ed article in The New York Times didn't clear up much. Rauf says that Cordoba House -- as it apparently has now been rebranded from Park51 -- will "clearly identify all of [its] financial backers." But when? The imam pledges to "seek the support of [9/11] families." But what took so long, when it was their opposition that prompted public outrage over the project? And then there are the issues raised in just...

As Scott noted this morning, Feisal Abdul Rauf has taken to the opinion pages of the New York Times to reiterate his intent to build the Ground Zero mosque. Rauf is no stranger to those pages. On February 27, 1979, the Times published Rauf's letter to the editor in which he criticized American for failing to apologize to Iran for past misdeeds. Rauf added that "the revolution in Iran was inspired by the very principles of individual rights and freedom that Americans ardently believe in." When it reported on this letter, the Wall Street Journal, trying to be fair to...

The imam behind the planned mosque near Ground Zero said Wednesday if he knew how controversial the Islamic center project would be, he "never would have done this." Speaking in his first U.S. television interview, on CNN's "Larry King Live," Iman Feisal Abdul Rauf also said the issue had been politicized, adding, "some politicians have decided to use this for political purposes." "It goes against the fundamental American principle of separation of church and state," he said. "When we politicize religion it is dangerous." Speaking to reporter Soledad O'Brien, Rauf said he decided to do the interview because he wanted...

(CNN) -- Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the religious leader behind plans to erect an Islamic center and mosque a few blocks from New York's ground zero, said Wednesday night that moving it to another location would embolden Islamic radicals and help them incite violence against Americans. "If we move from that location, the story will be the radicals have taken over the discourse," Rauf told CNN's Soledad O'Brien on "Larry King Live." Rauf said he was speaking about "radicals" on both sides of the debate on the Islamic center. "Our national security now hinges on how we negotiate this, how...

So now it transpires that a key money- man behind the proposed Ground Zero mosque is a one-time supporter of a group shut down by the feds because it was a front for Hamas. No wonder the mosque's principal imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, refuses to discuss the project's finances. Or, for that matter, refuses to speak harshly of Hamas -- an Iranian cat's-paw that's long been one of the deadliest Islamist terrorist organizations operating in the Mideast. It was reported last night that Hisham Elzanaty -- an Egyptian-born businessman from Long Island -- provided a big chunk of the $4.8...

The leader of the Ground Zero mosque got hugely valuable tax-exempt status for a Muslim organization he founded after claiming as many as 500 of its members prayed daily in a small, one-bedroom Upper West Side apartment also listed as his wife's residence, The Post has learned. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf sought "church status" -- an official IRS term for a house of worship of any religion -- for the American Sufi Muslim Association, or ASMA, in 1998. The feds granted the request. "Church status" is more than just an exemption -- it means never having to pay taxes, file...

The Park51 mosque and community center near Ground Zero is not Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s first venture into real estate development. As The Record reports, beginning in the late 1970s, Rauf acquired five apartment buildings in Union City, North Bergen, and Palisades Park, all urban areas along the New Jersey bank of the Hudson River. He developed the properties with the help a series of government grants and loans totaling in the millions — including $384,000 in 1989 endorsed by Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.), then mayor of Union City, and $1,295,000 underwritten by then Hudson County executive Robert C....

As the imam behind the Ground Zero mosque project, Feisal Abdul Rauf, continues his State Department-hosted “public diplomacy” visit to the United Arab Emirates, the glimpses of his activities over there get ever more interesting. Back home, Americans are now reading the Bergen Record’s dispatches on Rauf’s history as a New Jersey landlord with a tangled financial trail and angry tenants registering recurring complaints about his premises, listing such items as infestations of cockroaches and rats, piles of unremoved trash and “filthy halls.”  Meanwhile, in the UAE, U.S. State Department officials have been squiring Rauf around on the final leg of his taxpayer-funded $16,000 swing...

Imam Behind Park51 Ignores Low-Income Tenants Pleas, They SayThe Muslim imam who plans to build a controversial Islamic center near Ground Zero should first take on a smaller project, like ridding his New Jersey apartment buildings of rats and bedbugs, angry tenants told ABCNews.com. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf owns buildings across the Hudson River in several New Jersey cities, including Union City, North Bergen and Palisades Park, which he reportedly renovated with tax dollars. Residents, many of whom are immigrants and most of whom are working-class Hispanic Catholics, say they have complained about unsanitary conditions for years. The imam, however,...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The imam spearheading a proposed Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York believes the fierce opposition is closely linked to the U.S. elections in November, according to comments published Monday. "There is no doubt that the election season has had a major impact upon the nature of the discourse," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was quoted by the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National in an interview as part of his State Department-funded trip in the Gulf. Rauf did not cite any particular political race possibly tied to the protests, but...

No wonder the guys who want to build that Islamic center near Ground Zero are quiet as mosque mice about financing: Turns out, as The Post first reported, their own financial records are, well, a bit short of blue chip. Indeed, Sharif El-Gamal, who owns the site -- as The Post's Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein reported Sunday -- owes nearly a quarter of a million dollars to the city in back payments. His firm, 45 Park Place Partners, simply skipped its property-tax bills in January and July, according to the Finance Department. Gamal's folks say he delayed payments while...