Feisal Abdul Rauf appeared on CNN last night, on the Larry King Show. Interviewed by Soledad O’Brien, he spoke of how he has served his community. The video is below.
Strangely – considering how the president had argued at an iftar dinner on Friday August 13 that it was Rauf’s right to build a mosque, and considering he has been a paid emissary of the State Department, the imam spoke of the Separation of Church and State. Around 3.23 in the video, while discussing the media interest in the "Ground Zero Mosque", the following exchange took place.
Soledad O’Brien: [Referring to the reactions to the ground Zero Mosque proposal] Do you think it’s been politicized?
Feisal Abdul Rauf: Absolutely! This is very dangerous and tragic for two reasons. Reason number one is that it goes against the fundamental American principle the Separation of Church and State. This concept of separation of religion and politics, or church and state, has a wisdom behind it, and the purpose behind it is not to politicize religion, because when you politicize religion it is dangerous.
Soledad O’Brien: But ultimately, when you look at the polls, something like seventy one percent of Americans think that, even though there’s a right to build there, a center that will include a mosque and other things which we’ll talk about in a minute, the wisdom of it may not be there. Is that political, or is that just people saying that sensitivity-wise, it’s the wrong thing to do?
Feisal Abdul Rauf: I am extremely concerned about sensitivity. But I am also concerned about responsibility. If we move from that location, the story will be….. that the radicals have taken over the discourse. The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack. And I’m less concerned about the radicals in America than I am about the radicals in the Muslim world.
Soledad O’Brien: But isn’t that also saying you’re less concerned about the voices of opposition here?
Feisal Abdul Rauf: No – I don’t mean it that way. I meant it that – the danger from the radicals in the Muslim world than our national security, to the national security of our troops. I have a niece who works in the army in southern Iraq. The concern for American citizens who live and work and travel overseas will increasingly be compromised if the radicals are strengthened and if we do, it will strengthen the argument of the radicals to recruit, politically to recruit, and their increasing aggression and violence against our country.
Soledad O’Brien: There are Ground Zero families that I’ve spoken to, who are on all sides of the debate, I mean they’re not all of one voice, as I’m sure you know, and they’ve said: "And what about me? I can’t find my son’s body, and they want to build a mosque on the spot where he might be."
Feisal Abdul Rauf: Well first of all, this is not that spot – this is not Ground Zero proper. This is outside that. No-one’s body is in that location. I am very sensitive to those feelings. As an imam, as any religious person does, we have to minister to the pain and hurt to our congregations and our ministry and our communities. And it is part of our intention – which is why we are reaching out more to 9/11 families, which is why we would like to have a memorial in this center for 9/11 families, we have not finalized all our plans yet. We are willing to sit down and engage and do something, that will help us heal. You cannot heal a trauma by walking away from it. We have to sit down and talk about it, have a dialog about it, find a way to move through and beyond it.
As pointed out by Big Peace, the suggestion that his words about the radicals in the Muslim world: "his words can have only one meaning: Build this mosque or face the wrath of radical Islamists."