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The founder of the controversial Ground Zero Mosque allegedly spent more than $3 million that had been donated to charity to fund a first-class lifestyle that involved 'lavish trips, luxury sports cars and personal real estate.' Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was slapped with a $20 million lawsuit by, Robert Leslie Deak, a major backer to his nonprofit who alleges the wild spending in the papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court. Rauf's charity, the Cordoba Initiative, received $3 million from the Malaysian as well as another $167,000 from private donors. That money was meant to counter anti-Islamic sentiment but instead went...

Imam Feisal Rauf, fresh from his Middle East “Good Will Tour,” where he went to spread the message of inter-faith love, unicorns and candy canes (and not to raise money to build an insulting victory mosque at Ground Zero to speed U.S. domination) appeared on Larry King Live last Wednesday night and said something that seemed sorta … kinda … well, threatening—which was peculiar given his “world healer” status, his Mr. Rogers persona, his affinity for Justin Bieber, his Benny Hinn wardrobe and his religion’s peaceful, easy feelin’. For those who missed it, Feisal Rauf, whose name according to CAIR...

In the rain of Sunday morning they took to the streets of lower Manhattan, both sides of a mosque debate that will begin to slow down soon like a car running out of gas. There were a thousand or so people there, some supporting the building of a mosque at Park Place and more opposing it, carrying signs about freedom and religion, speaking for God and about America at a place where just about every religion in the world lost someone on Sept. 11, 2001. Somehow, even as this played out, the shouting back and forth near what they all...

Feisal Abdul Rauf, born in Kuwait in 1948, boasts of his issue from an “Egyptian family steeped in religious scholarship.” 1 He presents himself as a Muslim moderate.2 Yet Feisal Rauf's Muslim Brotherhood provenance, radical by definition, is as authentic as it gets. Evidence of family, and direct Rauf Muslim Brotherhood connections * Rauf's father Dr. Muhammad Abdul Rauf (1917-2004), was an Egyptian contemporary of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) founder Hassan al-Banna. * Rauf's father studied and taught at Islam's closest equivalent to the Vatican --- Al-Azhar University --- beside Hassan al-Banna, perpetuating the pious family tradition of radicalism. * In...

Mysterious Group Buys Building Next to Ground Zero For Mosque Wednesday, December 16, 2009 Jim Hoft A mysterous Muslim group with unknown sponsors has purchased a building steps away from Ground Zero. Hudson New York reported: An identified group with unknown sponsors has purchased building steps away from where the WorldTrade Center once stood — to turn it into potentially one of the largest New York City mosques. At the moment the building, the old Burlington Coat Factory, already serves as a mini-mosque: an iron grill lifts every Friday afternoon for a little known Imam leading prayers a few yards...

For a man whom one would hope has nothing to hide, the imam behind the Ground Zero mosque project sure has dropped out of sight. Having triggered an uproar in the U.S., Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf ducked out of the country weeks ago and, apart from a potted statement last week praising his own project, has pretty much clammed up. In New York Rauf has become a sort of phantom celebrity. His name is plastered all over the public debate, but Rauf himself has been absent and oddly unavailable, even by phone or e-mail, to answer questions. From his New...