Building on Wayne’s excellent piece on why he supports the Cordoba House community center in Manhattan, it’s useful to understand a bit more about Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative, i.e., the guy behind this project. So here are some of his quotes, helpfully compiled by The Rude Pundit:
“The issue of women’s rights is more than an issue for women or about women. It involves everyone…The best of you are those who are best to their women. Consequently, the worst of men are those who are worst to their women.”- From the Yemen Times, August 9, 2009, at a conference on advancing the cause of women in Islam.
Rauf believes in “showing those who resort to violence that it is counter to the very idea of Islam.” – From theKhaleej Times (UAE), July 5, 2009.
“Islam denounces suicide of any sort, especially suicide bombings that kill innocents. Even in a defensive war sanctioned by Islamic law, suicide is expressly forbidden.” – From a June 2009 commentary by Rauf.
“The Quran expressly and unambiguously prohibits the coercion of faith because that violates a fundamental human right – the right to a free conscience. The Quran says in one place ‘There shall be no compulsion in religion.’ And in another it says, ‘To you your beliefs and to me, mine.'”- Same as above.
“It’s because they love what we have here, and we have prevented them from having it there. We have supported regimes that have been authoritarian and oppressive to their own people. This is why people are angry with us. If we had encouraged democracy in Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden would have run for political office there.” – From a July 10, 2004 interview with the Dallas Morning News, upon being asked if terrorists “hate our freedoms.”
“This is why we have been looking for, calling for so long for democratic regimes, for societies where people are empowered in much of the Arab and Muslim world. We are seeing massive changes going on right now in the Arab and Muslim world. When you have a disempowered people, you have things like this going on.” – From a February 7, 2006 interview on ABC regarding the protests over the Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed.
And that’s ust a few of the quotes The Rude Pundit compiled. Click over for more.
