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The organization planning to build an Islamic community center near the World Trade Center said the imam who has been the public face of the project, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, will be playing a reduced role in the facility. The nonprofit group Park51 announced Friday that it had named a new imam to help lead religious programing so that Rauf could focus on other initiatives. (snip) The group named another New York City imam, Abdullah Adhami, as its senior adviser. Adhami was born in Washington, D.C., and earned an architecture degree from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He has already...

The imam behind the proposed Islamic cultural center near ground zero in New York says the Islamophobic backlash over the project rivaled, if not exceeded, the anger felt toward the Muslim community after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 - and that if given the choice to do it over again, he would have never proposed building it near ground zero. In an interview with Christiane Amanpour aired Sunday on ABC’s "This Week," Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf said t

Hypocrisy: When the U.S. Army burned Bibles in Afghanistan, no one said a word. When churches burn around the world, crickets chirp. Burning Qurans in Florida is stupid and offensive, but so is the double standard. When President Obama gave a speech at Georgetown University, a Catholic institution, he asked that all images and symbols representing Jesus Christ be covered so as not to be in the frame of any videos or photos of the event. There were no reports of rioting. Nor did Christians riot when Christian U.S. Army soldiers attempted to hand out Bibles to Afghans in their...

An imaginary conversation between the radical "moderate" Ground Zero Mosque imam and the Islamic Saudi tyrants Ground Zero Mosque Imam Returns From Gulf Trip http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/06/imam-plans-islamic-community-center-near-ground-zero-gulf-trip/ Imam: You guys think you can give us more koney? Kings: We are really taking it seriously, Spokesman: I mean the way you handle those non-Muslim naive infidels Americans, its astonishing. Imam: Trust me, I know the American (British, or Israeli) mentality, once you speak softly, all my radical visions can be possible, let's all look forward for an Islamized America. Allah Akbar! Al Jihad! In English: We are about peace and harmony. --- Related:...

A New York City community leader has an interesting (albeit naïve) idea that’s never going to happen, but it could spark some illuminating dialogue in the Ground Zero Mosque controversy. Julie, Menin, chair of the city’s community board has suggested that the embattled $100 million, 13-story Islamic “cultural center” be “transformed into an inter-faith center for reconciliation… to be shared by Muslims, Christians and Jews.” That should go over just fine with the Ground Zero Mosque Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, since he has already announced to the world that he considers himself “a Jew.” A declaration that liberal journalists like...

The developers behind the Islamic center planned for a site near Ground Zero won't rule out accepting financing from the Mideast -- including from Saudi Arabia and Iran -- as they begin searching for $100 million needed to build the project. When asked if they would then turn to foreign donors, Sultan replied, "I can't comment on that." Pressed on whether the developers were willilng rule out accepting donations from the governments of Saudi Arabia or Iran, he repeated, "I can't comment on that." Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, the cultural organization behind the mosque is...

After weeks of heated debate over plans for an Islamic community center near Ground Zero - the site of the 9/11 attacks on New York - it seems Muslim leaders will soon back down, agreeing to move to a new site. ...

Video posted tonight from NBC news, Obama says "Muslims have the right to practice their religion like everyone else".....Then comments about the mosque, pay close attention to the matter of fact tone Obama uses when talking about the mosque

Go ahead: write tomorrow’s headlines tonight: (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Friday backed construction of a proposed mosque and Muslim cultural center near the site of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York — a project opposed by U.S. conservatives and many New Yorkers. “As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country,” Obama said to applause at an event attended by diplomats from Islamic countries and members of the U.S. Muslim community.

August 14, 2010 Shariah law in the U.S.: Gov. Paterson offers to make Islam the state-sponsored religion of New York By Bryan Fischer When Gov. David Paterson of New York stepped into the breach to offer a resolution to the exploding controversy over building the Ground Zero mosque, he quite deliberately offered to grant Islam a favored status under New York public policy that is denied to Christian churches. Here's what the governor said (emphasis mine): "If the sponsors were looking for property anywhere at a distance that would be such that it would accommodate a better feeling among the...

WASHINGTON — President Obama delivered a strong defense on Friday night of a proposed Muslim community center and mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, using a White House dinner celebrating Ramadan to proclaim that “as a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Friday backed construction of a proposed mosque and Muslim cultural center near the site of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York -- a project opposed by U.S. conservatives and many New Yorkers. "As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country," Obama said to applause at an event attended by diplomats from Islamic countries and members of the U.S. Muslim community. "That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on...

President Obama on Friday took a strong stand in favor of building a mosque near the site where Muslim terrorists flew airplanes into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, breaking his silence on a political tempest that has left the country divided. In prepared remarks for a White House dinner celebrating Ramadan, Obama framed the issue as one of religious freedom. Muslims, like anyone else, "have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country," Obama said. "That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property...

Fort Cordoba, ground zero NYC Mosque, will be the main Taqiyya Center and outpost in the USA and along with the new London England mega Mosque, at the Olympic site, will be the guiding lights for Dah’wa and “Aslim Tuslam”….. Watch this PJTV Interview by Roger Simon with Walid Shoebat on “NYC Ground Zero Mosque Founder Exposed…?” (Go to FR link) by Walid Shoebat, May 26, 2010 Little is known regarding the founder of the Ground Zero Mosque Faisal Abdul Rauf or his views on Islam. Many view him moderate and others connect him to his father’s affiliation to the...

May 14, 2010 - by Alyssa A. Lappen Share | 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...