Moving NY mosque would boost Islamic extremism, imam warns
AFP on Yahoo ^ | 9/12/10 | Maxim Kniazkov
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WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Islamic cleric behind plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero in New York warned Sunday that retreating on the project would only strengthen the hand of the Muslim extremists.
But imam Feisal Abdul Rauf did not commit to keeping the Islamic cultural center at its current site, two blocks from where Al-Qaeda hijackers crashed planes into the World Trade Center.
"The decisions that I will make -- that we will make -- will be predicated on what is best for everybody," he told ABC's "This Week" program.
Thousands marched through New York on Saturday's ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, facing off in angry debate under a heavy police presence as they protested both for and against the project.
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Two people were shot and killed Sunday by the Afghan army in the eastern district of Baraki Barak as a crowd of up to 300 protesters chanted anti-US slogans and tried to storm the governor's office.
Jones flew to New York at the weekend to meet with Abdul Rauf, but the imam has so far snubbed him and vowed not to barter.
"How can you equate the burning of any person's scripture with an attempt to build inter-faith dialogue?" Abdul Rauf told ABC. "This is a house with multi-faith partners, intended to work together towards building peace."
The imam said the "discourse has been, to a certain extent, hijacked by the radicals," making his decision "very difficult and very challenging.
"The radicals on both sides, the radicals in the United States and the radicals in the Muslim world, feed off each other. And to a certain extent, the attention that they've been able to get by the media has even aggravated the problem."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
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Go to hell you disgusting pofs.
