Imam Feisal Rauf, the central figure in the coterie planning a huge mosque just off Ground Zero, is a full-throated champion of the very same Muslim theologians and jurists identified in a landmark NYPD report as central to promoting the Islamic religious bigotry that fuels modern jihad terrorism.Wahhabism.
Whether in the form promoted by Saudi money around the globe, or in the more openly nihilist brand embraced by terrorists, Wahhabism is a totalitarian ideology comparable to Nazism or, closer still, the state Shintoism of imperial Japan. We would never have allowed a Shinto shrine at the site of the Pearl Harbor carnage especially one to serve as a recruiting station for Tokyos militarists while World War II was still on. For the same reasons, we must say no to a Wahhabi mosque at Ground Zero.
This fact alone should compel Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg to withdraw their support for the proposed mosque.
In August 2007, the NYPD released Radicalization in the West The Homegrown Threat. This landmark 90-page report looked at the threat that had become apparent since 9/11, analyzing the roots of recent terror plots in the United States, from Lackawanna, NY, to Portland, Ore., to Fort Dix, NJ.
The report noted that Saudi Wahhabi scholars feed the jihadist ideology, legitimizing an extreme intolerance toward non-Muslims, especially Jews, Christians and Hindus. In particular, the analysts noted that the journey of radicalization that produces homegrown jihadis often begins in a Wahhabi mosque.
The term Wahhabi refers to the 18th century founder of this austere Islamic tradition, Muhammad bin Abdul al-Wahhab, who claimed inspiration from 14th century jurist Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah.
At least two of Imam Raufs books, a 2000 treatise on Islamic law and his 2004 Whats Right with Islam, laud the implementation of sharia including within America and the rejuvenating Islamic religious spirit of Ibn Taymiyyah and al-Wahhab.
He also lionizes as two ostensible modernists Jamal al-Dinal-Afghani (d. 1897), and his student Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905). In fact, both defended the Wahhabis, praised the salutary influence of Ibn Taymiyyah and promoted the pretense that sha ria despite its permanent advocacy of jihad and dehumanizing injunctions on non-Muslims and women was somehow compatible with Western concepts of human rights, as in our own Bill of Rights.
In short, Feisal Raufs public image as a devotee of the contemplative Sufi school of Islam cannot change the fact that his writings directed at Muslims are full of praise for the most noxious and dangerous Muslim thinkers.
Indeed, even the classical Sufi master that Rauf extols, the 12th-century jurist Abu Hamed Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali, issued opinions on jihad and the imposition of Islamic law on the vanquished non-Muslim populations that were as bellicose and bigoted as those of Ibn Taymiyyah.
Also relevant is the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow program run by the American Society for Muslim Advancement, an organization founded by Rauf and now run by his wife. Among the future leaders it has recognized are one of the co-authors of a denunciation of the NYPD report, a counter-report endorsed by all major Wahhabi-front organizations in America. Another future leader of interest to New Yorkers: Debbie Almontaser, the onetime head of the citys Khalil Gibran Academy.
More revealing is the fact that Rauf himself has refused to sign a straightforward pledge to repudiate the threat from authoritative sharia to the religious freedom and safety of former Muslims, a pledge issued nine months ago by ex-Muslims under threat for their apostasy. That refusal is a tacit admission that Rauf believes that sharia trumps such fundamental Western principles as freedom of conscience.
Wahhabism whether in the form promoted by Saudi money around the globe, or in the more openly nihilist brand embraced by terrorists is a totalitarian ideology comparable to Nazism or, closer still, the state Shintoism of imperial Japan. We would never have allowed a Shinto shrine at the site of the Pearl Harbor carnage especially one to serve as a recruiting station for Tokyos militarists while World War II was still on.
For the same reasons, we must say no to a Wahhabi mosque at Ground Zero.
Andrew G. Bostom, M.D., M.S. (Providence, RI), is the author of the highly acclaimed The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims. More on his work can be found at www.andrewbostom.org, including a preview of his eagerly anticipated forthcoming book, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History.
Whether in the form promoted by Saudi money around the globe, or in the more openly nihilist brand embraced by terrorists, Wahhabism is a totalitarian ideology comparable to Nazism or, closer still, the state Shintoism of imperial Japan. We would never have allowed a Shinto shrine at the site of the Pearl Harbor carnage especially one to serve as a recruiting station for Tokyos militarists while World War II was still on. For the same reasons, we must say no to a Wahhabi mosque at Ground Zero.
This fact alone should compel Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg to withdraw their support for the proposed mosque.
In August 2007, the NYPD released Radicalization in the West The Homegrown Threat. This landmark 90-page report looked at the threat that had become apparent since 9/11, analyzing the roots of recent terror plots in the United States, from Lackawanna, NY, to Portland, Ore., to Fort Dix, NJ.
The report noted that Saudi Wahhabi scholars feed the jihadist ideology, legitimizing an extreme intolerance toward non-Muslims, especially Jews, Christians and Hindus. In particular, the analysts noted that the journey of radicalization that produces homegrown jihadis often begins in a Wahhabi mosque.
The term Wahhabi refers to the 18th century founder of this austere Islamic tradition, Muhammad bin Abdul al-Wahhab, who claimed inspiration from 14th century jurist Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah.
At least two of Imam Raufs books, a 2000 treatise on Islamic law and his 2004 Whats Right with Islam, laud the implementation of sharia including within America and the rejuvenating Islamic religious spirit of Ibn Taymiyyah and al-Wahhab.
He also lionizes as two ostensible modernists Jamal al-Dinal-Afghani (d. 1897), and his student Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905). In fact, both defended the Wahhabis, praised the salutary influence of Ibn Taymiyyah and promoted the pretense that sha ria despite its permanent advocacy of jihad and dehumanizing injunctions on non-Muslims and women was somehow compatible with Western concepts of human rights, as in our own Bill of Rights.
In short, Feisal Raufs public image as a devotee of the contemplative Sufi school of Islam cannot change the fact that his writings directed at Muslims are full of praise for the most noxious and dangerous Muslim thinkers.
Indeed, even the classical Sufi master that Rauf extols, the 12th-century jurist Abu Hamed Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali, issued opinions on jihad and the imposition of Islamic law on the vanquished non-Muslim populations that were as bellicose and bigoted as those of Ibn Taymiyyah.
Also relevant is the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow program run by the American Society for Muslim Advancement, an organization founded by Rauf and now run by his wife. Among the future leaders it has recognized are one of the co-authors of a denunciation of the NYPD report, a counter-report endorsed by all major Wahhabi-front organizations in America. Another future leader of interest to New Yorkers: Debbie Almontaser, the onetime head of the citys Khalil Gibran Academy.
More revealing is the fact that Rauf himself has refused to sign a straightforward pledge to repudiate the threat from authoritative sharia to the religious freedom and safety of former Muslims, a pledge issued nine months ago by ex-Muslims under threat for their apostasy. That refusal is a tacit admission that Rauf believes that sharia trumps such fundamental Western principles as freedom of conscience.
Wahhabism whether in the form promoted by Saudi money around the globe, or in the more openly nihilist brand embraced by terrorists is a totalitarian ideology comparable to Nazism or, closer still, the state Shintoism of imperial Japan. We would never have allowed a Shinto shrine at the site of the Pearl Harbor carnage especially one to serve as a recruiting station for Tokyos militarists while World War II was still on.
For the same reasons, we must say no to a Wahhabi mosque at Ground Zero.
Andrew G. Bostom, M.D., M.S. (Providence, RI), is the author of the highly acclaimed The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims. More on his work can be found at www.andrewbostom.org, including a preview of his eagerly anticipated forthcoming book, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History.
