But Palin has libeled Imam Rauf (The Michigan View 1.14.11)

Posted by hpayne on January 14, 2011

When it comes to national controversies, Sarah Palin has been wronged – but she has also been wrong.

She was libeled this week as an instigator of the Tucson massacre, but she has spread libel herself about the Ground Zero Mosque imam, Faisal Rauf. “Rauf refuses to recognize that Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of our ally, Israel,” she wrote on her Facebook page last July.

Rauf is in Metro Detroit this weekend and repeated – again – that he opposes Hamas and terrorism in an interview this morning with Frank Beckmann on WJR. “Hamas is a terrorist organization. They have committed terrorist acts,” he told Beckmann.

This is consistent with what his website, CordobaInitiative.org, which states: “Hamas is both a political movement and a terrorist organization. When Hamas commits atrocious acts of terror, those actions should be condemned. Imam Feisal has forcefully and consistently condemned all forms of terrorism, including those committed by Hamas, as un-Islamic.”

Or when he told Soledad O’Brien on CNN’s Larry King Show last September 8 that “I condemn everyone and anyone who commits acts of terrorism. And Hamas has committed acts of terrorism.” He also said he would “absolutely” refuse any monies from Hamas. And Israel? “Targeting of civilians is wrong. It’s a sin in our religion, whoever does it. I am a supporter of the State of Israel,” he said in a radio interview last June.

“(I) feel it would be an intolerable and tragic mistake to allow such a project sponsored by such an individual to go forward on such hallowed ground,” Palin concluded.

But “such an individual” told Beckmann that he has had a mosque on this “hallowed ground” in lower Manhattan “for twenty years. I’m very sensitive to 9-11. Members of our mosque were among the victims – and were among the first responders.”

Many more Muslims have died at the hand of Muslim extremism than any other faith. Like most American Muslims, Rauf says he wants to build a “YMCA” to celebrate America’s tolerance for all religions.

The “tragic mistake” here is Palin’s.

Comments are closed.