Imam Rauf's Hush-Hush Taxpayer-Subsidized Middle East Tour — Plus, Inside the Victory Mosque's Shady Washington-Riyadh Finance Trail

Tammy Bruce identifies Imam Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan as "Obama's favorite Hillary Clinton Department funded Islamists." And while "Little Miss Daisy" made some rounds on the Sunday talk show circuit, our "bridge-building" Imam is little to be found. He has turned up, of course, in Bahrain. Most press outlets don't seem to care, but see the New York Post, "'Ground Zero' Imam on Mideast Tour to Make Islam 'Americanized'":

The imam behind the plan to build a mosque near Ground Zero surfaced yesterday far from the controversy -- in Bahrain, where he's on a taxpayer-funded trip to the Middle East to spread good will.



Appearing in public for the first time in weeks, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, speaking at a mosque near Bahrain's capital of Manama, said he wants to "Americanize" Islam -- but dodged questions about the uproar over his planned mosque and community center.



Rauf spoke against fanaticism, saying, "This issue of extremism is something that has been a national-security issue -- not only for the United States but also for many countries and nations in the Muslim world."



"This is why this particular trip has a great importance because all countries in the Muslim world -- as well as the Western world -- are facing this . . . major security challenge," Rauf told Associated Press Television News in a brief interview.



The cleric also said he was working on a way to "Americanize Islam," but didn't offer any details.

No details...



That makes sense, since the dude's looking for $100 million large to help finance the Ground Zero Victory Mosque. No doubt sharia finance networks will be coming up with some of that cash, news of which of course wouldn't go over so well with some of the 9/11 families now speaking out in New York. Indeed, opponents of the mosque might not have the full details on the depth of Imam Rauf's scam, which is more fundamentally implicated into the Obama administration than has been noted by most commentators. See, for example, Sharia Finance Watch:

It is highly likely that the financing from this mosque is coming from one of two sources, or perhaps both: foreign sources and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). NAIT is reported to hold title to as many as 80% of the mosques and Islamic centers in the U.S. There are three things that are especially disturbing about this:



1. NAIT is at least partially funded by Saudi Arabia (a foreign power with a dismal human rights record and significant portions of its royal family associated with jihad.



2. NAIT is a Muslim Brotherhood organization. This was stipulated to by the defense in the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history.



3. In that same terrorism financing trial, the United States v. the Holy Land Foundation, NAIT was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. The prosecution was successful in that case, defendants were convicted on all counts. When NAIT challenged its classification as an unindicted co-conspirator, the Justice department refused to relent and issued a spirited and strong justification.



Foreign financing for this mosque on this site has implications far beyond building a place where Muslims can go pray. There is reason to believe that this site was chosen with some other purpose in mind. Of all the places to build such a mosque, why Ground Zero? It’s not a residential area. There are no large numbers of Muslim residents in the neighborhood. If foreign powers are behind its financing, then the implications immediately become much more profound and sinister. Nevertheless, Imam Rauf remains tight-lipped on the subject of financing sources, media such as The Economist exhibit no intellectual curiosity on the subject and apologists such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg refuse to even consider that it might be a bad idea if the Muslim Brotherhood or a foreign Salafi power is behind the project.

Also, Doug Hagmann reported yesterday on the financial trail tying Imam Rauf's Cordoba Initiative to far-flung financiers in the Persian Gulf and back to the Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton State Department. See, "Report of Investigation Park 51":

Despite the plentiful amount of information developed by independent researchers, bloggers, and commentators that has been published about the questionable associations of project front man ABDUL-RAUF over the last few weeks, he continues to travel to the Middle East as an emissary of America at the behest of the Obama/Clinton State Department. Ostensibly, his purpose is to “discuss Muslim life in America and religious tolerance” with Islamic leaders in Muslim countries. Despite his questionable associations, the U.S. State Department is steadfast in their support of his goodwill tour.



Not only is the U.S. State Department unwavering in their support in spite of such controversy, they are invoking an unprecedented shroud of secrecy over the trip. When questioned about the content and message of Abdul-Rauf’s goodwill tour, U.S. State Department Spokesman Phillip Crowley curiously cited a 62 year-old law, erroneously claiming that the law shields Rauf’s message from the American public – at least by way of government web sites - as cited in this article published Tuesday by the editor of Family Security Matters.



It is clearly evident that there is something very disturbing taking place behind the scenes that is permitting this “duck or bleed” approach being employed by politicians and lawmakers. It is only when we investigate deeper into the people and groups behind this assault on American sensibilities and “follow the money” do we find the nefarious nexus of “Cap and Trade globalists,” Progressives” and Islamic leaders who are pushing for a “one world” religion.



The latter group, including foreign entities and governments, is working to replace our Judeo-Christian heritage with Islam as the dominant religion of America and Shariah in place of the U.S. Constitution. It is being conducted under the pretext of interfaith dialogue and unity, an objective for which Feisal ABDUL RAUF and his closest associates have been groomed.



While ABDUL RAUF and his associates are working to install Shariah in the U.S., the former group is engaged in the systematic effort to destroy the current religious and moral structures as a means to facilitate their objectives of control and domination. The Progressives and globalists are exploiting this transformation for their own agenda, which is the implementation of global governance. That is exactly what can be found when the layers of deception and distraction are carefully and methodically pulled back and the prospective money sources are identified.

All that sounds, well, almost fantastic.



But that's only momentarily. This is reality, and information to this effect has been in the public domain for some time. We can even go back and read the words of Imam Rauf himself, "What Shariah Law Is All About":

At the core of Shariah law are God's commandments, revealed in the Old Testament and revised in the New Testament and the Quran. The principles behind American secular law are similar to Shariah law - that we protect life, liberty and property, that we provide for the common welfare, that we maintain a certain amount of modesty. What Muslims want is to ensure that their secular laws are not in conflict with the Quran or the Hadith, the sayings of Muhammad.



Where there is a conflict, it is not with Shariah law itself but more often with the way the penal code is sometimes applied. Some aspects of this penal code and its laws pertaining to women flow out of the cultural context. The religious imperative is about justice and fairness. If you strive for justice and fairness in the penal code, then you are in keeping with moral imperative of the Shariah.



In America, we have a Constitution that created a three-branch form of government - legislative, executive and judiciary. The role of the judiciary is to ensure that the other two branches comply with the Constitution. What Muslims want is a judiciary that ensures that the laws are not in conflict with the Quran and the Hadith. Just as the Constitution has gone through interpretations, so does Shariah law.

It's almost unconscionable that Imam Rauf places the guarantees of universal moral goodness and inalienable rights found in the Declaration of Independence alongside the commands to crushing violence and the racist/sexist morality of submission found in Sharia. But this is the meme that Americans are being subjected to over and over again. This is the "interfaith" agenda that seeks to subordinate the U.S. Constitution to Islamic law, to have American courts interpret American laws so that they "are not in conflict with the Quran and the Hadith." Of course, it's the other way around in this country, at least according to the 1st Amendment. But you won't get that from the Democrats and the communists and their jihadi enablers in the mainstream press.



We are being blinded by a blizzard of lies and propaganda, and those who are standing up in opposition are being excoriated as Muslim-hating bigots.



This is sick and perverted. We have to keep fighting.



The Family Security Matters report is here: "The Ground Zero Mosque - What Have We Not Been Told?"



Photo Credit: Looking at the Left.