BeAChooser
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- Jun 20, 2007
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Here's the full lecture by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf in which he made the quoted statements:
http://www.unisa.edu.au/hawkecentre/events/2005events/Imam_transcript.asp
He not only lays the death of the half million Iraqi children SOLELY on the door step of the US (and even tries to dishonestly make it look like US government officials accept that responsibility), many of his other views don't stand up to much scrutiny either. Perhaps because he cites only leftists and leftist anti-American documentaries (like Farenheit 911) as the source of those views. Whether you admit it or not, he's adopted the views of extremists on the left in the US and abroad.
In that lecture, he states: "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?" Like it or not, the latter part of that statement is an attempt to justify what happened on 9/11. Right after saying that he even mentions the half a million [dead Iraqi children] again. And by repeating the lie that the US is responsible for half a million Iraqi children dead during Saddam's rule as if that is fact, he is only strengthening the hatred of the US that has taken root in the Islamic world. He is only making matters worse.
And building a Mosque named Cordoba close to the site of 9/11 is not going to make things better either. Not when the Islamic world will view that as a victory over the US, just as they viewed the orignal Cordoba Mosque in Spain as a victory over Christians. America is NOT an intolerant country. There are nearly 2000 mosques in the US (contrast that with the number of churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia and other major muslim countries). There are over a hundred in New York City alone. Rauf says America must understand where Muslims are coming from. Well I would respond that perhaps he (and Muslims) need to understand where we are coming from just as much. He needs to understand why this is a sensitive issue to MOST Americans.
http://www.unisa.edu.au/hawkecentre/events/2005events/Imam_transcript.asp
He not only lays the death of the half million Iraqi children SOLELY on the door step of the US (and even tries to dishonestly make it look like US government officials accept that responsibility), many of his other views don't stand up to much scrutiny either. Perhaps because he cites only leftists and leftist anti-American documentaries (like Farenheit 911) as the source of those views. Whether you admit it or not, he's adopted the views of extremists on the left in the US and abroad.
In that lecture, he states: "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?" Like it or not, the latter part of that statement is an attempt to justify what happened on 9/11. Right after saying that he even mentions the half a million [dead Iraqi children] again. And by repeating the lie that the US is responsible for half a million Iraqi children dead during Saddam's rule as if that is fact, he is only strengthening the hatred of the US that has taken root in the Islamic world. He is only making matters worse.
And building a Mosque named Cordoba close to the site of 9/11 is not going to make things better either. Not when the Islamic world will view that as a victory over the US, just as they viewed the orignal Cordoba Mosque in Spain as a victory over Christians. America is NOT an intolerant country. There are nearly 2000 mosques in the US (contrast that with the number of churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia and other major muslim countries). There are over a hundred in New York City alone. Rauf says America must understand where Muslims are coming from. Well I would respond that perhaps he (and Muslims) need to understand where we are coming from just as much. He needs to understand why this is a sensitive issue to MOST Americans.
