Rauf Lecture Reveals Radicalism
IPT News
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."
(IPT fact check: A report by the British government said at most only 50,000 deaths could be attributed to the sanctions, which were brought on by the actions by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.)
- The United States has supported authoritarian regimes, Rauf said, and it's understandable that people in those nations would take action into their own hands. "Collateral damage is a nice thing to put on a paper but when the collateral damage is your own uncle or cousin, what passions do these arouse? How do you negotiate? How do you tell people whose homes have been destroyed, whose lives have been destroyed, that this does not justify your actions of terrorism. It's hard. Yes, it is true that it does not justify the acts of bombing innocent civilians, that does not solve the problem, but after 50 years of, in many cases, oppression, of US support of authoritarian regimes that have violated human rights in the most heinous of ways, how else do people get attention?"
(IPT fact check: This is justifying acts of terrorism by blaming the United States for the oppression of Islamic regimes of their own citizens. This also ignores U.S. aid of Muslim citizens in nations such as Kosovo and Kuwait).
- Asked why Muslims commit suicide bombings, Rauf belittled the fanatical religious motivation of such attacks and said: "But what makes people, in my opinion, commit suicide for political reasons have their origins in politics and political objectives and worldly objectives rather than other worldly objectives. But the psychology of human beings and the brittleness of the human condition and how many of us have thought about taking our own lives, we may be jilted, had a bad relationship, you know, didn't get tenure at the university, failed an important course, there's a host of reason why people feel so depressed with themselves that they are willing to contemplate ending their own lives. And if you can access those individuals and deploy them for your own worldly objectives, this is exactly what has happened in much of the Muslim world. "
(IPT fact check: Here Rauf tries to negate that suicide bombings are driven by Islamic religious beliefs and trying to equate terrorist activity to someone who doesn't get tenure.)
- On Israel, Rauf said he does not favor the plan to establish a Palestinian state along with Israel. Instead, "The differences, perhaps, may lie on whether the solution lies in the two-state solution or in a one-state solution. I believe that you had someone here recently who spoke about having a one land and two people's solution to Israel. And I personally - my own personal analysis tells me that a one-state solution is a more coherent one than a two-state solution. So if we address the underlying issue, if we figure out a way to create condominiums, to condominiamise Israel and Palestine so you have two peoples co-existing on one state, then we have a different paradigm which will allow us to move forward."
(IPT fact check: A one-state solution is a euphemism for the destruction of Israel, because Palestinian Muslims will quickly outnumber the Jewish resident of Israel. Such a position is advocated by radical groups, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.)
- "And when we observe terrorism," he said, "whether it was done by the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka or by al Qaida or whoever is behind the bombings in London or those in Madrid, we can see that they were target political objectives.
(IPT fact check: Rauf again seems to justify terrorist acts by equating hitting civilians with political objectives.)
T
Skeptical
Aug 25, 2010 12:51
A lot of these quotes seem to be taken out of context. Can the IPT please provide the full audio for this lecture so that readers and viewers of the site may decide for themselves if Rauf is being an apologist or actually said otherwise?Also, the IPT "fact checks" seem to be dangerous assumptions based on underlying prejudice and Islamophobia. To assert that because Rauf supports a one-state solution, he also favors the "destruction of Israel" is just plain propoganda. I am shocked and appalled that Mr. Emerson would allow this fear-mongering to be associated with the IPT. The organization has a responsibility, which shouldn't include painting Imam Rauf as a radical Islamist seeking to take over America.
I'm disappointed in the IPT. Looks like Emerson is joining Pam Geller in the conservapatriot crazy brigade
facts
Submitted by Buz Chertok, Aug 25, 2010 12:10
When trying to utilize a "fact" checking effort to impeach the words of a person who is supported by liberal, progressive or whatever handle people of that persuasion are applying to themselves these days, no success is to be expected because their universal motto is "DON'T CONFUSE ME WITH THE FACTS-MY MIND IS MADE UP!"Rauf's apologetics for jihadist mass murderers
Aug 24, 2010 11:10
One of the most prominent things that Feisal Abdul Rauf conveniently omits in the first statement is that al Qaeda is but one part of a much wider network of Islamist groups that have killed exponentially more Muslims AND non-Muslims than the number of fatalities in Iraq that Rauf disingenuously blames on the United States (instead of Saddam's Tikriti mafia). Given Rauf's association with individuals and groups connected to the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood, his dissembling should come as no surprise.As was the case in Rauf's statements in his post-9/11 interview with Ed Bradley on "60 Minutes", this is a classic case of terrorist apologetics intended to provide moral and political cover for jihadist mass murderers. Potentially more troubling is that his statements could be read as a Muslim religious authority legalizing, in Islamic terms, AQ's actions on September 11, 2001 by presenting the attacks as a legitimate form of jihad.
Response and "Fact Checking"
Submitted by Guy, Aug 24, 2010 03:39
Glad that you are impressed "Fact Checking the Fact Checkers". Most of this stuff is pretty elementary, if you will excuse what could be considered "pomposity" or "pedantic" material.Naturally, we all abhor the periods in which the USA supported tyrants in order to further their efforts in international politics. The problem is, none of us has ever sat in the position of a Director of the CIA, or Secretary of State, while facing an adversary like the U.S.S.R. Yes, we now can see that support for a Sadaam Hussein, in order to counter a radical Iran, was a source of many, many problems. We can also see that our training and materiel for a young Osama Bin Laden, makes us look like fools, to SOME. There is a great, adage for these situations: 20/20 Hindsight. Also, I'd add, that many are "arm-chair generals". Only those who have actually acted as leaders of large, life-and-death operations, can really relate to the life of a real general like a McChrystal, or an Eisenhower.
Counting dead bodies is something people do, but I'd say we are LUCKY that Al Qaeda has not tallied up 50k or 100k or more casualties. It is not from lack of DESIRE to achieve those deaths, but from being THWARTED in many of their efforts, and those of fellow travelers in terrorism.
Ultimately, the only point I can agree with is one that you mention when you say you UNDERSTAND how Muslim citizens can harbor antipathy toward the US because their homes and relatives have died during US military operations. I'd point out, though that we really need to remember all those Iraqi citizens who profoundly thank the US for having removed Sadaam Hussein from his tyrannical reign over the Iraqi people. I've reviewed carefully the history of this madman, and I cannot imagine how most people can rationalize the notion that he should STILL BE RUNNING THINGS IN IRAQ. Since we are wallowing in "what if" and fantasy here, we must remember that many say we should never have removed Saddam. The people who say this, arguably, do not have the intellectual capacity to imagine what level of heinous, torturous, death-dealing would have occurred in a lengthy life by Hussein and/or the reign of one or the other of his psychotic children, Qusay, etc.
That seems to show the problem with both the tallying of dead bodies and with the assessment of what Israel should really be doing. You can never really imagine the repercussions of your suggested solutions. I'd say it is better to let sovereign nations deal with their own issues unless they engage in such level of atrocity that intervention is needed. Israel has not engaged in anything approaching what Iran, or Iraqi dictator Hussein engaged in. Israel has not used large-scale chemical weaponry on its adversaries. Also, Israel has tended to respond to attack as opposed to initiating attack.
Anyway, this Imam has shown that he is typical in his viewpoints of the USA, and that he does not hold the US in very high esteem. Nonetheless, he was educated here, and has chosen to vote with his feet and live here. It might behoove him to mention what it is that he ADMIRES about the USA. Once people discuss things in that manner, it becomes more apparent that they have "good will" toward America.
