Part II

[witness23]

Rauf: Men need to hear the "Islamic arguments" for women's rights. Religion News Service reported on November 22, 2006:

Feisal Abdul Rauf, the latest in a family line of imams, weaved through the crowd of chattering women, balancing four cups of coffee on a cardboard tray. Arriving at his table, where he was the only man, he passed the coffees around, wearing a sly grin.

The scene contrasted with popular notions of Islamic religious leaders clinging to antiquated gender roles, and Muslim women as sorely oppressed. A religious leader serving women may not be an image that comes to many minds either Muslims or non-Muslim.

Yet that's exactly what happened this past weekend (Nov. 18-19), when close to 200 women from more than 20 countries gathered here for the Women's Initiative in Spirituality and Equity. Their goal: to create an all-female Islamic council to advocate for women's concerns, and fund women's projects around the world, including scholarships to educate Muslim women.

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Rauf, the coffee-carrying imam, said patriarchy in the Muslim world is exaggerated and Muslim men are willing and able to accept women as equals. It's just a matter of presenting them with women-friendly interpretations of Islamic texts, he said.

"Most Muslim men's hearts are already there; what is needed is an explanation," said Rauf, a New York City imam. "They know what is right. But they don't have the Islamic arguments for it."

Rauf said the Quran is replete with references to women's equality. Islam's Prophet Muhammad, whose ways Muslims try to emulate, sewed his own clothes, swept the floor and did other household chores, for example.

Rauf and Khan said in 2006 that Muslims feel "comfortable in America" because "America protects religions and allows Muslims to be themselves." A June 21, 2006, State Department press release on the "Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow" forum quoted Rauf and his wife, Cordoba Initiative director Daisy Khan, as praising America's religious freedoms:

There are almost 8 million Muslims in America and 25 million in the West, Khan said. But it is a diverse community, particularly in New York where almost 1 million Muslims come from every country in the Muslim world.

It is easier for Muslims to be accepted in the United States, Canada and Australia, because those countries have "a clear sense of being immigrant nations," Rauf added.

As a faith community, American Muslims "feel generally comfortable in America ... in the sense that America protects religions and allows Muslims to be themselves, to practice their faith in the way they want," Khan said.

Time's Ghosh: Rauf argues that "American democracy is the embodiment of Islam's ideal society." Bobby Ghosh of Time wrote on August 3 that "[t]he Kuwaiti-born Rauf, 52, is the imam of a mosque in New York City's Tribeca district, has written extensively on Islam and its place in modern society and often argues that American democracy is the embodiment of Islam's ideal society." Ghosh further noted: "Since 9/11, Western 'experts' have said repeatedly that Muslim leaders who fit Rauf's description should be sought out and empowered to fight the rising tide of extremism."

Rauf, Khan formed organization to "meld Islamic Observance with women's rights and modernity." The New York Times reported on August 11 that Rauf and Khan "founded a Sufi organization advocating melding Islamic observance with women's rights and modernity. After 9/11 they raised their profile, renaming the group the American Society for Muslim Advancement and focusing on connecting Muslims and wider American society. They spoke out against religious violence; the imam advised the F.B.I.; his wife joined the board of the 9/11 memorial and museum."

Rauf argues that "the American political structure" is harmonious with Islam. In a December 12, 2005, article for The New Republic, Spencer Ackerman wrote that in contrast to "Europe's growing Muslim culture of alienation," Muslims in America are less drawn to extremism "because of a fundamentally American attribute: the mutually reinforcing creeds of pluralism and religiosity." Ackerman also quoted Rauf:

Most Americans would be horrified by the notion that they live in a country that abides by Islamic law. But some American Muslim leaders contend that U.S. society is harmonious with Koranic injunctions without even trying. "America is positively, unabashedly religious," enthuses Feisal Abdul Rauf, a New York-based imam. In his important 2004 book, titled What's Right With Islam, Abdul Rauf contends that space for religiosity is essentially inseparable from American liberalism, codified in both the U.S. political system and the broader U.S. social compact: "Fully in keeping with the principles of the Abrahamic ethic, American religious pluralism was not merely a historical or political fact; it became, in the mind of the American, the primordial condition of things, a self-evident and essential aspect of the American way of life and therefore in itself an aspect of the American creed." Drawing on hundreds of years of Islamic writings, Abdul Rauf makes the case that, by upholding the five conditions understood by Muslim legal scholars to constitute the good society -- life, mental well-being, religion, property, and family -- "the American political structure is Shariah compliant."

Rauf: Muslims are fleeing to Western states that more compatible with Islamic principles. From a July 18, 2005, interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp.:

RAUF: A century ago or more than a century ago the Chief Mufti in Egypt made a statement which was very well known in the Muslim world and among scholars of Islam even in the West.

On a visit to Paris and to France he returned and said that in France I saw Islam but no Muslims and in Egypt I see Muslims with no Islam. It's a very important point for people to understand, both Muslims and non-Muslims.

The reason why Muslims are fleeing many of their societies to countries like Australia, western Europe, United States and Canada is because the societal mandates of an Islamic society and Islamic State is in fact the kind of structure of society that we see in Western societies - the ability of people to participate in issues of governance, issues of the economic wellbeing and economic pie are fundamental to Islamic principles of governance. [accessed via Nexis]

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Rauf has promoted engagement between religions

Rauf was invited to speak at Daniel Pearl memorial service, and he spoke of "confirm[ing] the common ground of our faiths." The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg noted on August 19 that Rauf spoke at a memorial service for Daniel Pearl, a Jewish journalist who was kidnapped and murdered by militants in Pakistan. Rauf stated:

O Lord, we are people who are not usually in the same room with one another, and all too rarely with an opportunity to talk to each other.

We are people of faith and perhaps people without any professed religion: practicing and perhaps not. Today we are members of many faiths: Christian, Jew and Muslim. But we have come together to confirm the common ground of our faiths, on which we all stand united, to assert our common values, values that constrain us to act in the highest sense of what it means to be human.

We are here to assert the Islamic conviction of the moral equivalency of our Abrahamic faiths. If to be a Jew means to say with all one's heart, mind and soul Shma` Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ahad; hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, not only today I am a Jew, I have always been one, Mr. Pearl.

If to be a Christian is to love the Lord our God with all of my heart, mind and soul, and to love for my fellow human being what I love for myself, then not only am I a Christian, but I have always been one Mr. Pearl.

And I am here to inform you, with the full authority of the Quranic texts and the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, that to say La ilaha illallah Muhammadun rasulullah is no different. It expresses the same theological and ethical principles and values.

We are here especially to seek your forgiveness and of your family for what has been done in the name of Islam.

Rauf: God sent "the truth to every other faith tradition." Rauf stated during a January 9, 2005, CNN interview: "I think that religious leaders and thinkers should amplify the common message to all of our faith traditions and those of us from within the Muslim tradition need to point out that we believe, as Muslims, that God did send the truth to every other faith tradition. There's not a community to whom God did not reveal the same principles of the absolute truth and the absoluteness of God that God is the God of all of humanity and that we are to treat each other as we want ourselves to be treated."

Rauf, Khan reportedly perform interfaith marriage ceremonies. The Washington Post reported that Rauf "and his wife also serve as spiritual guides for a small community of Muslim American go-getters, holding zikrs in their home as well as doing informal matchmaking and performing marriage ceremonies, including ones for interfaith couples."

Rauf attended interfaith conference with Jewish, Christian leaders and Bush official Karen Hughes. In March 2006, Rauf attended the International Conference on Faith and Service with Walter Isaacson, Karen Hughes, Rabbi Irving Greenberg, and Rev. Richard Cizik. The Washington Times report on the event stated:

Islamic doctrine says there "shall be no compulsion in religion" and says people of all faiths should be allowed to practice their religion unmolested, said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, head of the American Society for Muslim Advancement. "It is a travesty of Islamic law and Islamic thought" that these principles are violated today.

Rauf spoke at UN seminar on combating anti-Semitism. The Associated Press reported on June 22, 2004, that Rauf was a speaker at "the first-ever U.N. seminar on combating anti-Semitism." From the article:

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, president of the American Sufi Muslim Association and the only Muslim speaker at Monday's seminar, said he is committed to bringing Muslims and non-Muslims together.

If that happens, Rauf said, "we might be able to create the proverbial straw that might break the back of anti-Semitism and hatred worldwide."

Rauf: "The teachings of Islam are very similar to the teachings of Christianity, of loving the one God and loving thy neighbor." During a November 2006 interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer, Rauf stated:

SAWYER: What don't the rest of us understand about the enflamed feelings of the Muslim community?

RAUF: Well, the Muslim world has felt for a long time besieged by the West, by Western culture, Western faith traditions, Western atheism from the Soviet Union. And what we see over the last 30, 40 years is a -- is a reaction from the action, which began and peaked in the first part of the 20th century against religion in general, and Islam as well as other faith traditions.

SAWYER: Do you feel these are overreactions or appropriate reactions to these two events?

RAUF: I feel they are wrong reactions. The -- these reactions are not at all called for by Islamic teachings. The teachings of Islam are very similar to the teachings of Christianity, of loving the one God and loving thy neighbor. These are the two common principles.

Rev. William Tully asked Rauf to teach class on "What Every Christian and Jew Needs to Know About Islam." The New York Times reported in December 2007 that Rev. William McDonald Tully of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church "brought in a rabbi, Leonard Schoolman, to run the church's Center for Religious Inquiry, and hired an imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, to teach a course called 'What Every Christian and Jew Needs to Know About Islam.' "

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Rauf has repeatedly condemned violence and "Muslim militants"

Rauf: "We condemn terrorists. We recognize it exists in our faith, but we are committed to eradicate it." A May 21 New York Daily News article quoted Rauf stating: "We condemn terrorists. We recognize it exists in our faith, but we are committed to eradicate it." He also stated: "We want to rebuild this community. ... This is about moderate Muslims who intend to be and want to be part of the solution."

Slate: Rauf has "denounced church burnings in Muslim countries ... proposed to reclaim Islam from violent radicals." An August 2 Slate.com article reported that Rauf "has denounced church burnings in Muslim countries, rejected Islamic triumphalism over Christians and Jews, and proposed to reclaim Islam from violent radicals such as Osama Bin Laden."

NY Times: Rauf "condemns suicide bombings and all violence carried out in the name of religion." A June 23, 2004, New York Times article reported that Rauf "condemns suicide bombings and all violence carried out in the name of religion." The Times further reported that Rauf "meets regularly with Christian and Jewish leaders, not only to forge a common front but also to explain his belief that Islamic terrorists do not come from another moral universe -- that they arise from oppressive societies that he feels Washington had a hand in creating."

After 9-11, Rauf "categorically condemned suicide bombers." A June 8, 2004, Newsday article (accessed via Nexis) reported: "Rauf has done little else since the terrorist attacks that pulled him from his mahogany pulpit in the shadow of Ground Zero. At the outset, he categorically condemned suicide bombers and, in fact, any violence committed in the name of religion." The article further reported: "He also said that American policies 'were an accessory to the crime that happened' since they had armed a generation of jihadists to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan," and quoted him saying, "Explaining is not justifying. ... I want people to understand the things that have fueled terrorism, because if we address them, that's how we eliminate terror."

Rauf: "I can confidently assert that I am closer to my Jewish and Christian brothers here ... than the Muslim militants carrying a narrow view." According to a September 8, 2002, Denver Post article (from Nexis), Rauf told congregants at his Manhattan mosque: "I can confidently assert that I am closer to my Jewish and Christian brothers here a [sic] than the Muslim militants carrying a narrow view."

Daily News: Rauf "has a long history of opposing radical teachings." A May 21 Daily News editorial stated that Rauf "has a long history of opposing radical teachings and reaching out across religious lines to Christians and Jews. He leads a mosque in Tribeca, several of whose members were killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center."

Rauf denounced "destructive" response from Muslim world to Pope's controversial remarks about Islam. In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI quoted a Byzantine emperor's statement that Muhammad preached "evil and inhuman" things, prompting sometimes violent protests throughout the Muslim world. The Pope later apologized for his remarks. When asked by Foreign Policy about the speech and the controversy, Rauf stated:

My first thought was deep disappointment that the Muslim world reacted in such a destructive way. The burning of churches and things like that are completely antithetical to the teachings and principles of Islam. While we may have our grounds for disagreeingand some of us may disagree stronglywith the remarks that the Holy Father quoted, and while it might be offensive, destruction was not warranted by Islamic thought or jurisprudence.

[...]

To err is human, to forgive is divine. The need for an apology is less an issue than the duty and responsibility of religious leaders to be educated on other religions and to make sure we are responsible in what we say. One of the cardinal rules of interfaith dialogue is that we should not judge the best of our traditions against the worst of another. There are episodes of history in the Catholic Church, like during the Inquisition, which Muslims cannot regard as normative to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Neither should certain actions taken by certain Muslims be judged as normative of the faith of Islam.

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Rauf is widely viewed as "moderate"

Huffington Post: Descriptions of imam as radical "are frighteningly ... unhinged from reality" to those who "actually know" Rauf. In an August 17 article noting that Rauf worked with the FBI to "provide agents with 'a clear picture' " of Islam, The Huffington Post reported that "[f]or those who actually know or have worked with the imam, the descriptions are frighteningly -- indeed, depressingly -- unhinged from reality." The article further noted that Rauf has served to "promote a more positive integration of Muslims into American society" and reported that "[h]is efforts and profile rose dramatically after the [9-11] attacks when, in need of a calm voice to explain why greater Islam was not a force bent on terrorism, he became a go-to quote for journalists on the beat."

Aspen Institute CEO Isaacson: Rauf "has consistently denounced radical Islam and terrorism, and promoted a moderate and tolerant Islam." In its article, The Huffington Post quoted Aspen Institute president and CEO Walter Isaacson saying: "Imam Feisal has participated at the Aspen Institute in Muslim-Christian-Jewish working groups looking at ways to promote greater religious tolerance. ... He has consistently denounced radical Islam and terrorism, and promoted a moderate and tolerant Islam. Some of this work was done under the auspices of his own group, the Cordoba Initiative. I liked his book, and I participated in some of the meetings in 2004 or so. This is why I find it a shame that his good work is being undermined by this inflamed dispute. He is the type of leader we should be celebrating in America, not undermining."

ADL's Foxman: Rauf "a moderate imam" who "certainly has spoken out against some of the extremism in the Islamic world." On the August 5 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, which opposes the planned Islamic center, stated that Rauf "wrote a book about moderation and tolerance" and that "as far as we're concerned, he is what he is: a moderate imam. He certainly has spoken out against some of the extremism in the Islamic world."

Colleagues have reportedly described Rauf "as having built a career preaching tolerance and interfaith understanding." A December 8, 2009, New York Times article stated: "Those who have worked with him say if anyone could pull off what many regard to be a delicate project, it would be Imam Feisal, whom they described as having built a career preaching tolerance and interfaith understanding." The Times quoted Rabbi Arthur Schneier, leader of New York City's Park East Synagogue, as saying, ''He subscribes to my credo: 'Live and let live.' '' The Times also reported that Joan Brown Campbell, former general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ U.S.A., is "a supporter" of Rauf.