Building West-Muslim Bridges
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1265347988736&pagename=Zone-English-News/NWELayout#ixzz0vyOeGglM
By Mohammad Sabry IOL Staff ________________________
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"My purpose is to spread harmony and peace between the West and the Muslim world," Imam Abdul-Rauf told IOL.
CAIRO – Sitting firmly in his seat with a determined look in his eyes, American Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf appears resolved to bridge the gap between the West and the Muslim world.
"My purpose is to spread harmony and peace between the West and the Muslim world," Imam Abdul-Rauf, chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, told IslamOnline.net in an exclusive interview.
"My role is to see how can my work help improve this relationship."
With that in mind, the American imam founded the Cordoba Initiative in 2003 to clear mutual mistrust.
"First (we seek) to identify the sources of conflict between the Muslim world and the West," he said.
"We have developed under this initiative a number of projects which we believe are effective in creating this discourse about these particular arenas," he said, citing projects in political, religious and cultural arenas.
"(They aim) to help reduce the conflict inshaAllah and solve it as well."
According to its website, the Cordoba Initiative aims to achieve a tipping point in Muslim-West relations within the next decade, steering the world back to the course of mutual recognition and respect and away from heightened tension.
Born in 1948, Imam Abdul-Rauf is a well-known figure in the field of West-Muslim relations.
In 1997, he founded the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), reportedly the first Muslim organization committed to bringing US Muslims and non-Muslims through programs in academia, policy, current affairs and culture.
An imam of Masjid al-Farah in New York, Abdul-Rauf also sits on the Board of Trustees of the Islamic Center of New York and serves as an adviser to the Interfaith Center of New York.
He authored three books on Islam and its place on contemporary Western society.
Support
Imam Abdul-Rauf is currently on a State Department-sponsored tour to build bridges.
"This is part of it as the work is huge and can't be done by one person or one organization," he said.
"It is also to share people like yourself the work that we do. We need people in the media and we need people to talk to understand what we do."
He defended the US government's support for his organization.
"If I don't have the ears of people in the political power, I would not engage in the issues of today," he said.
"So if you want to solve the problems, you have to have the anchor of each place.
"As an American citizen and as an American organization, we have to comply with American laws, not doubt. But unless I get involved in the big issues of today, we can't solve them."
Imam Abdul-Rauf does not think such relation with the US government could create suspicions about him or his initiative.
"My Cordoba Initiative is supported by both the West and the Muslim world," he insisted.
"My work has drawn the attention of governments of many countries," he said, naming Malaysia, Qatar, the Netherlands and Britain.
"We are looking to get the initiative like the United Nations. The UN has the support of all countries but to serve a common purpose of peace."Protected Muslims
As part of his bridges-building efforts, Imam Abul-Rauf is championing a project to build an Islamic Center two blocks from Ground Zero in New York.
"We would like to have our center equipped with (state-of-the-art) technology," he added.
"We would like our center in some aspects to have this technology so we can display and show what Muslims today are doing in the common bonds of civilizations."
Imam Abdul-Rauf believes American Muslims are continually improving all the time and credits that to the system in America.
"This is the societal system of law, the principle of civil rights, the civil rights protection and the freedom of religions. These are things that are built in the legal American structure."
Many believe American Muslims, estimated at between six to seven million, have become sensitized to an erosion of their civil rights since 9/11.
Imam Abdul-Rauf does not seem to agree.
"The American legal structure and political structure is to ensure that these individual rights of the people are not breached or eroded.
"And because we enjoy these protections the situation of Muslim Americans are always improving."
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Every piece of shit democrat who voted for Obama and still supports him should hang.
