On "Bashing" Muslims

Frank Gaffney


Last week, a tectonic shift took place in the firmament of the War of Ideas. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich directly and forcefully took on Shariah, the totalitarian theo-political-military program of authoritative Islam that its adherents seek to impose on the entire world. As he noted, the United States is squarely in the cross-hairs of Shariah's devotees. In response, the usual suspects - the multiculturally sensitive elite that reflexively excuses the Islamists joined by proponents of the latters' stealth jihad, notably elements of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) - have reflexively responded by accusing the Speaker of "bashing" Muslims. It is, of course, far easier to engage in ad hominem attacks than contend with Newt's characteristically thoughtful and informed critique. It is also expedient to try to portray a focused challenge to the beliefs and practices of a subset of the Islamic faith as an assault on all Muslims.

In fact, it is not "bashing" all Muslims if one points out that the comprehensive doctrine to which some of them adhere is a threat to our liberties, our government and our way of life. Objectively, that is the case; a global theocracy - the end-state commanded by Shariah - administering a severely repressive, even barbaric criminal code aimed at enforcing submission by Muslims and non-Muslims alike is incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.

As it happens, one man who has expressly said he seeks to "bring Shariah to America" is Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam currently promoting construction of a 13-story, $100 million mosque once dubbed "Cordoba House" in proximity to Ground Zero. Speaker Gingrich has properly and powerfully opposed that idea: In an op.ed. in Human Events last week, he wrote: "It is simply grotesque to erect a mosque at the site of the most visible and powerful symbol of the horrible consequences of radical Islamist ideology.... For radical Islamists, the mosque would become an icon of triumph, encouraging them in their challenge to our civilization."

Unfortunately, the problem is not merely the location of the mosque. Rather, it lies with those like Imam Rauf who are advancing the Muslim Brotherhood agenda that Mr. Gingrich calls "creeping Shariah" and the MB itself says is "to destroy Western civilization from within."

Rauf has myriad connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. His father was a prominent figure in the organization back in Egypt in the 1940s. After Gamal Nasser cracked down on the organization, the elder Rauf fled first to Kuwait, where Feisal was born, then made his way to Malaysia and ultimately America. Once in New York, he bought up a third of a city block on the Upper East Side and built a large, Shariah adherent mosque and Islamic Center on 96th Street. The younger Rauf serves on the board of that mosque.

Feisal Abdul Rauf also published in 2004 a book entitled What's Right About Islam is What's Right about America. It is in English, but intended for Muslim audiences. Interestingly, this book appeared under a different title in Malaysia (and in the local language, not in English). The title has been changed, in an instructive way: A Call to Prayer from the WTC Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America Post 9/11.

Now, dawa is the essence of creeping Shariah. Dawa is all about proselytizing, recruiting and indoctrinating in the ways of Shariah and the jihad it demands. And, as the acknowledgements page of the American version indicates, "a special non-commercial edition [of the book was published] to promote a proper understanding of Islam and common ground between Islam and the West." The organizations that made that possible were two that the U.S. government has identified as Brotherhood fronts: the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT).

As Debra Burlingame, sister of the pilot of the aircraft that was flown into the Pentagon on 9/11, observes: "No Muslim cleric who believes in ‘religious tolerance' and who purports to be a U.S. Constitution-embracing American, would ever, ever give his book, his work, to these two organizations for dissemination. This would be akin to someone who makes racial equality their sole cause in life, donating their book to the KKK to recruit members."

Then, there is another book by Feisal Rauf: Islam: A Sacred Law - What Every Muslim Should Know About Shariah. It makes clear the imam's affinity for the Wahhabi and Salafi doctrines. As the New York Police Department documented in a major analysis released two years ago and entitled Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat, there is an ominous connection between indoctrination in Wahhabi mosques and Islamist "radicalization" here.

In short, Imam Rauf is clear, particularly with Muslim audiences, that he seeks to impose Shariah here in America. He is no moderate. To the contrary, he has myriad ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and its seditious, Shariah program. As a result, it seems all-too-predictable that the megamosque he seeks to build at Ground Zero would be a beachhead for Shariah and a new, dangerous incubator of jihadism in the heart of New York.

It is not "bashing" any Muslim to point out these facts. To the contrary, it would be the height of irresponsibility not to take note of, and act upon, them - first by stopping the Ground Zero Mosque, then by ensuring that America remains Shariah-free.