printThe official Right in this country did not tell it like it is: Feisal Abdul Rauf, Chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, and the man behind the mosque in lower Manhattan, was picked by the Bush administration to serve as the American emissary to Muslim countries. Did you know this? I was under the impression that the Imam was B. Hussein’s pick.
I find nothing outrageous about the Imam’s opinion, also mine, that America’s adventurous foreign policy is a necessary condition for Muslim aggression. But that’s not the entire story. Rauff would never admit that our meddling abroad is far from a sufficient condition for Muslim aggression.
However, when Abdul Rauf, in this clip, soothingly says that Islam and America are organically bound, and then proceeds to describe the American Founding Fathers, without mentioning their Christian background and beliefs, as non-parochial men of faith—then I get the creeps.
Rauf sees the three faiths as enmeshed and America’s history as intertwined with Islam and Muslims. At least so he says. Taqiyya, anyone?
This man would make a good snake charmer.
Nice little puff piece by 60 Minutes (interesting how they can trash you or praise you in their tightly edited segments). Of course, the Bush and Obama administrations want to have everyone believe that “real” Moslems abhor violence. Obviously, we do not have 1 million Nidal Malik Hasans shooting up people every day in the USA – but these puff pieces overlook some inherent incompatibilities between modern Western and traditional Islamic values – even if most American Moslems can live peacefully with the incompatibilities.
Meanwhile, America is sending drones and troops (ineffectively) “fighting” imitation Moslems in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen. Other fake Moslems are committing acts of terror in Israel, Lebanon, France, the Netherlands, America, Russia, China, India, Philippines, and Indonesia. An even larger body of Moslems applaud or silently approve of these fake Moslems. Amazingly enough, that great hero, David Petraeus, says that Americans are going to have to be in Afghanistan for 2 generations (whatever happened to Joe Lieberman’s claim that 99.99% of Moslems were on our side??).
Rauf: “You may remember that the US-led sanctions against Iraq led to the death of over half a million Iraqi children.”
This has become standard gospel among many libertarians, etc. So where were the bloated starving bodies of all the living children when America entered Iraq in 2003? Why do claims by one side get accepted with no hard evidence (and blindisiding Albright is not evidence)?
The taqqiya talents of Imam Rauf must, like all talents, improve with practice. Nevertheless I have been rather impressed by the seemingly natural and accomplished demonstrations of it I see everywhere there is an unperturbed Muslim. Even accounting for the general obtuseness of the average Westerner and his eagerness both to please and parade his tolerance, it is impressive. I seem to recall the serpent in the garden had a taqqiya way about him, so I would not have Iman Rauf among the snake charmers but among the snakes – beware the forked tongue in a two-faced man.
However, when Abdul Rauf, in this clip, soothingly says that Islam and America are organically bound, and then proceeds to describe the American Founding Fathers, without mentioning their Christian background and beliefs, as non-parochial men of faith—then I get the creeps.
Especially since our first encounter with Islam was an act of war.