And also his trip to the Middle East as sponsored by the State Dept
- with no coverage of what he is doing and saying on our dime.
http://pajamasmedia.com/claudiarosett/the-imam-has-landed-so-when-does-he-phone-home
The Imam Has Landed ... So When Does He Phone Home?
August 19, 2010 - by Claudia Rosett </blog/author/claudiarosett/>
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It's now almost a month since the imam behind the Ground Zero mosque
project answered any questions from the U.S. media (or any other media,
as far as I'm aware), or even bestirred himself to fill in the American
public on his exact whereabouts. All it's been possible to discern is
that after spending weeks in Malaysia (and elsewhere?), Rauf is moving
on to the Middle East --- with the State Department, after two weeks
of hemming and hawing, finally confirming on Wednesday the bare-bones
dates
<http://dailycaller.com/2010/08/18/us-spending-16000-for-imams-mideast-tour/>of
his taxpayer-funded travels to Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
But I can report a recent sighting, of sorts. Not a sighting of Rauf
himself, mind you. Nor the sound of his voice. But late Wednesday night,
New York time --- Thursday morning in the Middle East --- I phoned the
U.S. Embassy in Bahrain, the first stop on Rauf's "public diplomacy" tour.
Asked if the imam had arrived in Bahrain, an embassy official told me:
"Yes, that's correct."
And that, folks, is the sum total right now of the information available
to the American public about the taxpayer-funded public outreach
activities these next few days of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf in Bahrain. I
had more questions. But Imam Feisal evidently moves in circles in
which inquiries about whom he's meeting overseas, what he's telling
them, or where he plans to get $100 million for his mosque and Islamic
center near Ground Zero are seen by both Rauf and his hosts as an
extraordinary intrusion on his public outreach and bridge-building
endeavors. The U.S. Embassy in Bahrain would offer nothing further on
the record aboutAmbassador Adam Ereli's
<http://bahrain.usembassy.gov/index.html> controversial guest. There is
so far no reply to queries I emailed to the U.S. embassies in Bahrain,
Qatar and the UAE. Visitors to the web site of the U.S. Embassy in
Bahrain are of course welcome to read President Barack Obama's remarks
at last Friday's Iftar dinner at the White House, in which Obama
effectively endorsed Rauf's mosque and Islamic center project near
Ground Zero, referring to the right of Muslims "to build a place of
worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan."
The web site of the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain does not feature any of the
vigorously dissenting articles or comments by Americans to the effect
that the uproar over plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero, on a site
hit by debris from one of the hijacked planes, is not a matter of Rauf's
rights, but of his judgment --- and whether it is a jab in the eye,
rather than a bridge-building move, to plant a mosque and Islamic center
so close to a former community hub --- the World Trade Center --- where
more than 2,700 Americans were murdered in the name of Islam.
As Rauf now goes about his apparently covert public outreach program in
Bahrain, he is supposed to be telling his audience about life in
America. That is why the State Department is shelling out $16,000 for
his Middle East Swing --- which may sound like peanuts to the
public-outreachers at the State Department, but is more than most
Americans could possibly afford right now for a summer jaunt abroad. For
Rauf, the State Department tour includes per diems of $396 to keep him
comfortable in Bahrain, $341 when he moves on to Qatar, and $496 when he
gets to the United Arab Emirates.
In making the rounds of the Middle East oil capitals, as Rauf meets for
the secret discussions State has arranged with his nameless
interlocutors, what account is he giving of the controversy and in some
cases the anguish <http://www.911familiesforamerica.org/> he and his
Cordoba House/Park 51 partners are causing right now, back home in
America? Is he still in the business of telling his audience, ashe did
less than three weeks <http://www.islamfortoday.com/60minutes.htm> after
the Sept. 11, 2001, Islamist attacks, that "in the most direct sense,
Osama bin Laden is made in the U.S.A."?
Whenever Rauf does finally deign to re-insert himself in person into the
U.S. debate, it could entail some interesting footwork on his part. A
big question by now is why this self-described bridge-builder would
treat the American public with such staggering contempt. Having provoked
a raging debate, Rauf for weeks now has removed himself from the reach
of all questioners, and disclosed nothing about his doings and his plans
for a lengthy summer sojourn abroad --- some of that on the U.S.
taxpayers' tab.
When he does resurface, I'd wager it will be with an interview or
remarks given to a reporter too friendly to ask real questions ---
something along the lines of the supreme puff-piece that the/Wall Street
Journal's/ news pages ran on Aug. 2
<http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2010/08/02/ground-zero-mosque-founder-we-want-to-repair-the-breach/?KEYWORDS=daisy+khan>,
in which the reporter spoke with Rauf's wife, Daisy Khan, and apparently
asked not a single question about money, nor about why Rauf himself had
vanished from public view. Or perhaps Rauf's return will be handled by
an outlet such as the /New York Times/, as naturally and unthinkingly as
the /Times/ handled his disappearance. Remember the article Aug. 10
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/nyregion/11mosque.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=daisy%20khan&st=cse>, in
which a /New York Times/ reporter also interviewed Khan, and somewhere
around the 14th paragraph mentioned, in passing --- as if it were quite
normal to have the leader of the project drop out of sight, no further
questions needed --- that "Imam Feisal is in Malaysia and could not be
reached for comment for this article." /Really? He could not be reached
at all, not even by his cheering section at the New York Times? Why not?/
Or maybe, as Rauf makes his rounds of Gulf petro-dollar domains, an item
will slip out here and there in the local press --- in which, for the
first time in weeks, the imam himself pipes up. Whatever Rauf finally
does to break radio silence, the protracted and bizarre information
blackout in which he has already indulged --- with all its implied scorn
for the questions and anxieties of the American public -- is a
sorry portent of how he might manage his "bridge-building" $100 million
mosque and Islamic center near Ground Zero.
--
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