Establishment Of Religion? U.S. Taxpayers Paying For Building Mosques

From Winds of Jihad:

Mosque building tops the ‘To Do’ list of the Muslim POTUS Obama


by sheikyermami on November 23, 2010



‘Uthmān … said … I heard the Messenger of Allāh, peace and blessings of Allāh be on him, say:



“Whoever builds a mosque, desiring thereby Allāh’s pleasure, Allāh builds for him the like of it in paradise.” (B. 8:65.)



The Government Confiscates Your Money to Build Mosques







By Andy McCarthy/National Review





Interesting news in a Washington Times editorial this morning. It is all worth reading, including the first part, which deals with the strong evidence that, in funding Imam Feisal Rauf’s sojourn to the Arabian Peninsula, the State Department is effectively paying for him to raise funds for the Ground Zero mosque project — broadly opposed by Americans who are also being kept in the dark about its financing.



Then there’s the next part of the editorial:



Americans also may be surprised to learn that the United States has been an active participant in mosque construction projects overseas. In April, U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania Alfonso E. Lenhardt helped cut the ribbon at the 12th-century Kizimkazi Mosque, which was refurbished with assistance from the United States under a program to preserve culturally significant buildings. The U.S. government also helped save the Amr Ebn El Aas Mosque in Cairo, which dates back to 642. The mosque’s namesake was the Muslim conqueror of Christian Egypt, who built the structure on the site where he had pitched his tent before doing battle with the country’s Byzantine rulers. For those who think the Ground Zero Mosque is an example of “Muslim triumphalism” glorifying conquest, the Amr Ebn El Aas Mosque is an example of such a monument – and one paid for with U.S. taxpayer funds.



The mosques being rebuilt by the United States are used for religious worship, which raises important First Amendment questions. U.S. taxpayer money should not be used to preserve and promote Islam, even abroad. In July 2009, the Office of the Inspector General published an audit of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) faith-based and community initiatives that examined whether government funds were being used for religious activities. The auditors found that while USAID was funding some religious activities, officials were “uncertain of whether such uses of Agency funding violate Agency regulations or the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution” when balanced against foreign-policy objectives.



For example, our government rebuilt the Al Shuhada Mosque in Fallujah, Iraq, expecting such benefits as “stimulating the economy, enhancing a sense of pride in the community, reducing opposition to international relief organizations operating in Fallujah, and reducing incentives among young men to participate in violence or insurgent groups.” But Section 205.1(d) of title 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations prohibits USAID funds from being used for the rehabilitation of structures to the extent that those structures are used for “inherently religious activities.” It is impossible to separate religion from a mosque; any such projects will necessarily support Islam.



There is no good reason for our government to be doing “Muslim outreach.” The State Department’s chosen emissaries — folks like Rauf and Abdurrahman Alamoudi (now serving a 23-year prison sentence) — are not representative of American opinion (there are already plenty of people in the Gulf happy to trash the United States, we don’t need to add to their number). If we’re looking to cut useless spending, “Muslim outreach” would be an excellent place to start.



That aside, though, someone in Congress needs to get to the bottom of whether this government is also underwriting Islamic religious institutions, and doing so in violation of U.S. law. And wholly apart from questions of legality and utility, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states Rauf is visiting are swimming in petro-dollars — why can’t they fund icons of Islamic supremacism on their own . . . maybe using the money they’d otherwise spend on the hate literature they produce for American Islamic centers?



Ground Zero Mosque Imam Rauf Meets with and “Highly Regards” “Spiritual Leader” Of the Muslim Brotherhood who Defends Hitler and Nuclear Terror

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=hdSUkU6UaG



Imam Yusuf al-Qaradawi is a notorious America hater and vile Jew-hater. Back in August, I broke the explosive, exclusive audio of Ground Zero mosque Imam’s radical remarks extolling the work of this genicidal maniac:





IMAM FEISAL ABDUL RAUF: I just came from a conference in Jordan, Amman where there were over 170 leading Muslim scholars from almost every part of the Muslim world, including some of the most important names like Sheikh Tantawi of Egypt, Sheikh Ali Gomaa, who is the Chief Mufti of Egypt, the Chief Mufti of Jordan, the Sheikh Al-Qaradawi, who is a very very well known Islamic jurist, highly regarded all over the Muslim world.



Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf: “We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al Qaida has on its hands of innocent non Muslims. You may remember that the US-led sanctions against Iraq led to the death of over half a million Iraqi children. This has been documented by the United Nations. And when Madeleine Albright, who has become a friend of mine over the last couple of years, when she was Secretary of State and was asked whether this was worth it, said it was worth it.



Ground Zero mosque Imam highly regards a defender of Hitler and Nuclear terror.



“Spiritual Leader” Of the Muslim Brotherhood Defends Hitler and Nuclear Terror



“Moderate” Qaradawi Defends Hitler and Nuclear Terror



IPT News

November 9, 2010



During the past month, Imam Yusuf al-Qaradawi, spiritual guide to the Muslim Brotherhood, has called on Muslims to acquire nuclear weapons “to terrorize their enemies.” He also boycotted an interfaith meeting with Jews on grounds he believes they support murdering Muslims in Palestine, and he additionally said Muslims are permitted to kill Israeli women because they serve in the army.



This continues Qaradawi’s long-established support of violent jihad. But despite this record, he has been embraced as a “moderate” Muslim by his defenders in the West and the Arab world. In a September interview, former London Mayor Ken Livingstone said “the fact that Sheikh Qaradawi has been banned [from Britain] is a disgrace; he is one of the leading progressive voices in the Muslim world.” Livingstone blamed “a huge smear campaign organized by Zionists.”



In America, John Esposito, a religious scholar who is close to the Brotherhood, has called Qaradawi a supporter of a “reformist interpretation of Islam and its relationship to democracy, pluralism and human rights.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and prominent Islamists like Tariq Ramadan, grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, have expressed similar sentiments about Qaradawi.



Barrie Osborne, producer of Hollywood blockbusters like The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix, has hired Qaradawi as a consultant for a movie about the Prophet Mohammed. Last month, Qaradawi was given a medal for public service by King Abdullah of Jordan.



Qaradawi has won these awards despite a long record of anti-Semitism and advocating violence against purported enemies of islam. Consider the following examples:



In an interview last month with Al-Jazeera’s Arabic-language service, Qaradawi was asked if Muslims should try to get atomic weapons “to terrorize their enemies.” Qaradawi replied that this goal would be permissible, saying he was “happy” to learn that Pakistan had such a nuclear weapon to defend itself. Qaradawi explained that that was the meaning of Koranic verses urging Muslims “to terrorize thereby the enemy of God and your enemy.”

Support for Iran and Muslim rights to possess nuclear technology have been recurring themes for Qaradawi.



“It is obligatory on all Muslims to resist any possible attack the US might launch against Iran,” Qaradawi said in a 2007 interview. “The U.S. is an enemy of Islam that has already declared war on Islam under the disguise of war on terrorism and provides Israel with unlimited support.”



It was wrong to deny Iran the right to ostensibly peaceful nuclear technology so long as the United States and Israel had nuclear weapons, he said.



Last month, Qaradawi boycotted the 8th Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue conference in Qatar, saying he opposes discourse with Jews on principle.

“How can we conduct a dialogue in a time when they seize lands, shed blood, burn farms, and demolish houses? Palestine’s conundrum has to be resolved first before we sit together at the same table,” he said.



A source close to Qaradawi told the Egyptian newspaper al-Masry al-Youm that the imam does not oppose talking to Jews because of their religious affiliation, noting that he has met with representatives of the anti-Zionist Neturai Karta, an organization seen here attending a Holocaust-denial conference staged by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.



The Neturai Karta are Jews who reject the principles of Zionism and the occupation of Muslim lands, although “the majority of Jews at present are with the actions of murder in Palestine,” the source said in explaining Qaradawi’s willingness to talk to the group.



In a recorded address last month to a Hamas-organized parley in Gaza, Qaradawi said Palestinians must continue violence against Israel.