Sheboygan Mosque: Wall Street Journal

Over the weekend, Obama's screwy, confusing remarks regarding the mosque at Ground Zero created additional controversy to the already boiling mess.

His "clear" support for the Ground Zero mosque has also brought some national attention to the mosque plans in Sheboygan County.

From the Wall Street Journal:

At a dinner Friday celebrating the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Mr. Obama said Muslims have a right, as a matter of religious freedom, to build a religious center near Ground Zero. "Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country," he said to applause.

On Saturday, the president said, "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque" near Ground Zero, he told reporters during a visit to the Gulf Coast. "I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding."

Later Saturday, White House spokesman Bill Burton said the president wasn't backtracking. "The president is not backing off in any way from the comments he made last night," he said. He had no further comment on Sunday.

...Recently approved plans to establish a mosque in Sheboygan County, Wis., have also stirred intense feelings. Imam Mohammad Hamad, president of the Islamic Society of Sheboygan, appreciated Mr. Obama's emphasis on religious freedom. "The issue here is not the issue of a religious building, it is an issue of the Constitution," he said. Another Sheboygan mosque supporter, the Rev. Gregory S. Whelton, a pastor at St. John's United Church of Christ in Sheboygan, said Mr. Obama articulated the same issues of religious tolerance that were at stake there.

"It falls right in with the middle of our debate," he said, adding that the local debate centered on religious tolerance and opponents' concerns that the mosque would attract extremists, a notion Rev. Whelton called "really funny."

While he believes Muslims have a right to construct mosques anywhere, the mosque near Ground Zero is different because of the circumstances of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he said. "To do it in light of what has happened," he said, "I'm not sure I would agree with that. But as far as their right to do it, absolutely."

I think it's ridiculous for there to be confusion about where Obama stands regarding the mosque at Ground Zero.

Clearly, religious freedom is a pillar of the United States. Obama supports tolerance. Of course. No confusion.

However, Obama is wimping out when it comes to being clear about the Ground Zero mosque. It's very simple. Does he agree with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's Ground Zero plans or not? Yes or no? Is Rauf's project, taking into account the questions about its financial underwriting as well as Rauf's views regarding terrorist groups like Hamas, the right thing to do?

About Rauf:

Rauf has emerged as a controversial figure because of his refusal to acknowledge Hamas as a terrorist organization, which is how the U.S. government classifies the group. The imam also has been quoted as saying U.S. foreign policy was in part responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

More about Rauf:

The leader of the “Ground Zero mosque” project in New York, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, is commonly portrayed as a moderate and a sincere believer in interfaith dialogue. Typical is a profile in Time that described Rauf and his wife as "the kind of Muslim leaders right-wing commentators fantasize about: modernists and moderates who openly condemn the death cult of al-Qaeda and its adherents." But such descriptions are belied by his record, especially at the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), the non-profit that he founded and chairs along with the Cordoba Initiative, sponsor of the proposed mosque and cultural center in downtown Manhattan.

...Rauf’s own rhetoric has not always been measured. On March 21, 2004, he told the Sydney Morning Herald that the U.S. and the West would have to recognize the damage they have done to Muslims before terrorism can end. The Australian daily reported “Imam Feisal said the West had to understand the terrorists’ point of view.” The paper also cited Rauf’s arguments that “the Islamic method of waging war is not to kill innocent civilians . . . it was Christians in World War II who bombed civilians in Dresden and Hiroshima.”

On June 23, 2004, Rauf told Chris Hedges, then a writer for the New York Times, that, in Hedges’s words, “Islamic terrorists do not come from another moral universe--that they arise from oppressive societies that he feels Washington had a hand in creating.” More recently, on February 7, 2010, Rauf told the Egyptian daily Almasri Alyaum, “I have been saying since the 1967 war that if there is peace between Israel and Palestine, in time the Palestinians will prevail.”

...Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf did not inadvertently become involved with Islamic groups aligned against America. ASMA, which he founded in 1997, operates a program titled “Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow” (MLT) partly funded by Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal (famous for his offer of a $10 million check, right after 9/11, to Rudy Giuliani, who rejected it). In 2008, Alwaleed donated $125,000 to ASMA for MLT, following a previous gift of $180,000. Alwaleed’s beneficence was also extended at that time to the fundamentalist Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

Rauf projects an inclusive attitude. Describing the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow program, ASMA promises that it will include “representation of all religious ideologies & sects: (Shia, Sunni, Ismaili, Sufi, Salafi, secularists, traditionalist etc).” But “Salafi” is just a cover term for “Wahhabi”--the state sect in Saudi Arabia, which spreads around the globe its message of violence against Shias, Sunnis who reject “Salafism,” Ismailis, Sufis, secularists, and traditionalists.

So, given what we know about Rauf and his radical cohorts, is Rauf's project the right thing to do?

As president, Obama should be straightforward and answer that question. Yes or no?
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Stop Stifling Debate on Ground Zero Mosque