- "In its Aug. 11 edition, the New York Times runs a lengthy front-page article that points to inadequate PR preparations as the fuse that lit the controversy over plans to build a $100 million Islamic community center and mosque near Ground Zero ("For Muslim Center Sponsors, Early MIssteps Fueled a Storm" by Anne Barnard)
Barnard, in her exhaustive piece, faults the mosque's sponsors for failing to anticipate accusations of building a victory monument to terrorism. While they garnered support from some Jewish and Christian groups, she reports, they did little to engage likely opponents, adding: "More strikingly,
In other words, if there were missteps by the project's sponsors, it was all about lack of adequate public and community outreach in the planning process.- they did not seek the advice of established Muslim organizations experienced in volatile post 9/11 passions and politics."
- Nowhere, however, in an article that, in addition to its front-page prominence also takes up a full one third of an inside page,
- While they recognize that the mosque's sponsors have a perfect legal right to build near Ground Zero, they question whether -- given the lingering pain of 9/11 survivors and families -- picking this particular location is the right thing to do.
None of this appears in Barnard's article that purports to inform readers why such a storm of opposition has clouded the proposed mosque.
For example, on Sept. 30, 2001, less than three weeks after 9/11, Imam Rauf said on CBS' "60 Minutes" program that "United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened...we have been accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world."
In other words, the man behind the Ground Zero mosque indicts Barnard's article, with its focus on PR missteps, is silent about the real bona fides -- or lack thereof -- of its chief sponsor. Her only reference to the views of Imam Rauf is a statement he reportedly made to a real estate broker in 1999 that "we're not the ones doing bombs; we're moderates and Americans."
- Even more tellingly, there is nothing in her article about questions that have been raised about the anti-U.S., pro-Hamas radicalism of its sponsor, Imam Rauf.
- On the same program, Imam Rauf also opined that "in fact, in the most direct sense, Osama Bin Laden is made in the USA."
- the United States as an accessory to 9/11,
- More recently, Imam Rauf again turned the tables against the U.S. by refusing to condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization and declaring that "the U.S. and the West must acknowledge the harm they have done to Muslims before terrorism can end."
- Really? What about his rationalization of terrorism, his demand for an American apology to the Muslim world, and his charges that
- the U.S. also bears responsibility for 9/11?
US taxpayer dollars are being used to finance an "outreach" trip for Imam Rauf and his wife to middle east locales (the third time US tax dollars have financed a trip for Imam Rauf per the State Dept.).
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- The other problem is the mosque doesn't hold clear title to the land. Con Edison owns half of it.
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