Build the Ground Zero Mosque, Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek
«The man spearheading the center, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, is a moderate Muslim clergyman. He has said one or two things about American foreign policy that strike me as overly critical —but it’s stuff you could read on The Huffington Post any day. On Islam, his main subject, Rauf’s views are clear: he routinely denounces all terrorism—as he did again last week, publicly. He speaks of the need for Muslims to live peacefully with all other religions. He emphasizes the commonalities among all faiths. He advocates equal rights for women, and argues against laws that in any way punish non-Muslims. His last book, What’s Right With Islam Is What’s Right With America, argues that the United States is actually the ideal Islamic society because it encourages diversity and promotes freedom for individuals and for all religions. His vision of Islam is bin Laden’s nightmare».
La lettera di Fareed Zakaria alla Anti-Defamation League, il Post
«State scegliendo di usare il vostro immenso prestigio per prendere una posizione che è palesemente in contrasto con gli obiettivi della vostra organizzazione. Le vostre stesse dichiarazioni in proposito, asserendo che dobbiamo rispettare i sentimenti delle vittime anche se sono sentimenti irrazionali o bigotti, hanno peggiorato le cose».
NY vs. the mosque, New York Post
«It’s our feeling that they’re starting to wonder whether Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s insistence that he’s interested in promoting “tolerance” is entirely genuine — especially in light of his dodging over where the money for the mosque will come from».
Shut Up, He Explained, William Kristol, Weekly Standard
«As is the way of contemporary liberals, Bloomberg spoke at a very high level of abstraction. He appealed to the principle of religious toleration, while never mentioning the actual imam who is responsible for and would control the planned Ground Zero mosque. To name Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf might invite a consideration of his background, funding, and intentions. Do Rauf and his backers believe in the principles underlying the “inspiring symbol of liberty” that greets immigrants to the United States and before which Bloomberg stood? Bloomberg didn’t say. It apparently doesn’t matter. Toleration means asking nothing, criticizing nothing, saying nothing, about whom or what one is tolerating. This is the Sergeant Schultz standard of toleration: I know nothing».
More Moderate Muslims, Andrew C. McCarthym, National Review
«The memorandum elaborates that every city should have an “axis” and “perimeter” from which this jihad-by-sabotage strategy is headquartered. That axis, it adds, will be known as “the Islamic Center.” Islamic centers — just like the one at Dar al-Hijra, just like the one planned for Ground Zero — are to become “the ‘base’ for our rise,” the memo says. They are to be the focal point of education, preparation, and the “supply [of] our battalions.” Battalions are small cells of fighters. In Muslim Brotherhood ideology (i.e., Islamist ideology) it is assumed that, at a certain mature point, when Muslim forces are strong enough, violent jihad will be effective, so Islamists prepare for it».
