Someone (my Republican brother) sent me these quotations from Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Imam of the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" to prove that he was a radical. I have re-read them many times and still find them rather rational, defensible and, yes, "moderate"....What's going on here?
"The United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al-Qaida has of non-Muslims, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the leader of the effort to build a mosque near the site of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York, told an Australian audience in July 2005.
In a taped speech, Rauf made a number of comments that would make anyone who is not concerned about the mosque at the Ground Zero site rethink their support for the man tasked with heading the "bridge-building" center. Among them [click on the play button to hear each one]:
"We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al Qaida has on its hands of innocent non Muslims. You may remember that the US-led sanctions against Iraq led to the death of over half a million Iraqi children. This has been documented by the United Nations. And when Madeleine Albright, who has become a friend of mine over the last couple of years, when she was Secretary of State and was asked whether this was worth it, said it was worth it."
READ or Hear all of these quotations:
Steven Emerson: A 'moderate Muslim' exposed
Part of what's going on here is that these quotes have been taken out of context to make them seem more inflammatory than they really were. Media Matters, a liberal press watchdog group has a good discussion on this (including the longer version of the quotations): http://mediamatters.org/research/201008230063
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