Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Hundreds of thousands for project's imam come from high-profile network investor
The Saudi prince whose post-9/11 relief check was rejected by former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani has found a more willing recipient in the city for his millions: the head of the Ground Zero mosque project.
The same Saudi potentate, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, owns the biggest chunk of the parent company of the Fox News Channel outside of the Murdoch family.
Former Bush advisers have similar ties to the prince and the proposed mega-mosque in Manhattan, which may explain why they've asked Republicans to soften their opposition to it.
WND has learned that one of the original board members of the nonprofit group promoting the 13-story mosque and "cultural center" took the job as a favor to James A. Baker III, the former President George H.W. Bush official and lawyer who defended Saudi government officials against a lawsuit filed by families of 9/11 victims. Baker has counted bin Talal as a client.
Bin Talal has pumped more than $300,000 into the project headed by New York imam Feisal Abdul Rauf as part of the prince's campaign to "improve the image of Islam in the American public." The prince's charitable foundation in 2008 gave $125,000 to Rauf, which came on the heels of an earlier $180,000 gift, according to the Arab press...
[Full Article]Labels: Alwaleed bin Talal, Fox News, ground zero mosque, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf
Reported by Priscilla - August 18, 2010
NewsHounds.us
Up until today, neither Fox hosts nor Fox guests, on shows that I've reviewed, mentioned that the “controversial” Imam of the Manhattan Islamic cultural center has ties to the Bush administration and the FBI. Sean Hannity claimed that this member of the Muslim clergy wants to “shred our Constitution” and “is anything but moderate.” Hannity even asked if Rauf should be in the country. A number of anti-mosque Fox guests have repeated the meme that Rauf dislikes the US. Unofficial 9-11 “spokesperson,” Debra Burlingame said that Rauf is a liar and is funded by terrorists to which Fox “news” anchor, Shannon Bream, didn’t bat an eyelash. But funny, the real information is out there with only a quick check of “Lexis” or even just plain “Google.” Sam Stein, at the Huffington Post, has put it all together. It was mentioned this morning on Fox & Friends; but during the segment, Gretchen Carlson continued to advance the same old, same old Fox/right wing anti mosque propaganda.
Stein reported that Rauf was “brought to a forum hosted by the FBI shortly after 9/11 to help ease the social tensions between Muslim Americans and federal agents.” He also reported that this “radical” Imam has participated in interfaith forums at the Aspen Institute where he rubbed elbows with political figures from both parties. But here’s the shocking part about this terrorist in Imam’s clothing. He assisted the Bush administration with outreach to Muslims. He even accompanied Bush advisor Karen Hughes to the Middle East. In 2007, the Bush State Department sent him on a tour of Muslim countries in order to promote tolerance and religious diversity. Finally, this morning, Clayton Morris mentioned this information on Fox & Friends; although unabashedly right wing Gretchen Carlson alluded to Rauch’s comment about US policies being responsible for 9-11 – a view held by 9-11 Commissioners and Glenn Beck! She also referenced Rauf’s “so called State Department trip” as a way to “maybe raise some money.” Gretch made baseless suggestion that the “so called trip” is really a fundraiser for the mosque - a comment that she made at another point during the show. She claimed that Rauf has “not really gone on record to call Hamas a terrorist organization – words taken straight out of Murdoch’s NY Post and echoed by Islamophobe Pam Geller on her blog. As Clayton Morris retorted that the Bush administration didn’t have a problem with his comments, the agitprop chyron, trying to have it both ways, read: “A Man of Peace? Rauf Assisted FBI in Counterterrorism Efforts.”
Comment: Wonder if the rest of the Fox entourage will bring up these new “inconvenient truths?” Oh, and does Fox "News" know that there's a mosque in the Pentagon which was also damaged on 9-11?!
Labels: FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, George W. Bush, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf
In March 2003, federal officials were being criticized for disrespecting the rights of Arab-Americans in their efforts to crack down on domestic security threats in the post-9/11 environment. Hoping to calm the growing tempers, FBI officials in New York hosted a forum on ways to deal with Muslim and Arab-Americans without exacerbating social tensions. The bureau wanted to provide agents with "a clear picture," said Kevin Donovan, director of the FBI's New York office.
Brought in to speak that morning -- at the office building located just blocks from Ground Zero -- was one of the city's most respected Muslim voices: Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. The imam offered what was for him a familiar sermon to those in attendance. "Islamic extremism for the majority of Muslims is an oxymoron," he said. "It is a fundamental contradiction in terms."
It was, by contemporaneous news accounts, a successful lecture.
Flash forward six-and-a-half years, and Feisal Abdul Rauf occupies a far different place in the political consciousness. The imam behind a controversial proposal to build an Islamic cultural center near those same FBI offices has been called "a radical Muslim," a "militant Islamist" and, simply, the "enemy" by conservative critics. His Cordoba House project, meanwhile, has been framed as a conduit for Hamas to funnel money to domestic terrorist operations...
[Full Article]Cenk Uygur (host of The Young Turks) filling in for Ed Schultz on MSNBC talked to Sam Stein of the Huffington Post about his piece explaining how the 'Ground Zero Mosque' Imam is not only not radical, but he helped the Bush administration and FBI with counterterrorism. Link to his piece below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08...
Labels: FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, ground zero mosque, Huffington Post, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, provocateur, Sam Stein
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]