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 Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said the 'Ground Zero Mosque' is moving forward at Interfaith event on Friday. 'Ground Zero Mosque' moving forwardBy Heather M. Higgins, CNN New York (CNN) – While all eyes are on lower Manhattan, nearly 200 people gathered more than 100 blocks north of Ground Zero on Friday night to honor 9/11 families and to recognize a decade of interfaith work at the Interchurch Center. "Tonight we want to commemorate the event and we are going to honor 10 families who lost victims on 9/11. Five are Muslim, five are not Muslim, to show that we share the pain, we share the hope, we share the prayer," said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. He hosted the event, In Good Faith: Stories of Hope and Resilience, along with the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) and the Interchurch Center. September 11 raised the profile of Islam in the U.S. and, according to Rauf, it caused the Western world to pay attention in a way that made Muslims the subject of intense suspicion. His goal is to build an American Muslim identity and enhance multi-faith dialogue. The event highlighted bridge-building projects and began with a harmonic recitation from the Quran by Ali Karjoovary. "We need a national healing around 9/11 and our hope is that we can achieve it," Rauf said. "And no matter how you slice it, I believe this healing will require the help of religious voices and American Muslims." Rauf, the founder of the Cordoba Initiative, an organization dedicated to improving understanding among people of all cultures and faiths, fell under intense scrutiny when plans to build an Islamic community center adjacent to Ground Zero were unveiled. According to Julie Menin, chairwoman of community board 1 in lower Manhattan, the community center, called Cordoba House, was approved by the local community in a vote of 29 to 1 in May 2010. Nonetheless, it provoked vocal opposition from some families of 9/11 victims and other groups. Rauf dispelled rumors that the project is now on hold. "It is always being moved forward," he said. "I've had this vision for over 20 years. The dream of establishing Cordoba House in New York is very much alive and we are actively pursuing the methods by which we can have such an institution." The project, intended to bring people together, has done more to tear them apart. But Rauf is optimistic about the future, in a nation that was built on the principle of religious freedom. He sees Cordoba House as something that can be replicated both in the United States and around the world. The 10th anniversary of 9/11 has been bittersweet for Rauf. While there are signs of progress, the healing process and building of ties between Muslims and non-Muslims is far from complete. His hope for the 20th anniversary of 9/11? "To bring all people together," he said succinctly. "The battlefront that I see is not between Islam and the West or Muslims and America but between all of the moderates and all of the extremists. We have to band together to combat the extremists of all religions," said Rauf. Up until last summer, Rauf was invited by the State Department to engage in public diplomacy work and to share his experience as an American Muslim, making four trips abroad in 10 years. However, his visit to the Gulf countries during the summer of 2010 was his last. "The controversy has changed my life in some ways," he said. The spirit of the evening was captured in the knotted rainbow ribbons that cascaded over the steps inside the chapel. The giant tapestry was a gift from the people of Norway during the height of the controversy one year ago. Rauf and his wife, Daisy Khan, ASMA executive director and co-founder, see it is a symbol of connectedness. Among those attending the event were Bobby Ghosh, TIME Magazine's world editor, veterans Fahad Khan and Matt Gallagher, and Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., of the Healing of the Nations Foundation, who delivered a healing prayer before inviting all interfaith leaders to the front of the chapel to link hands as a sign of solidarity. Russell Simmons, media mogul and philanthropist, took part in honoring the memory of 9/11 victims, by presenting plaques to 10 families. One woman, who lost her husband, John Patrick Salamone, choked back tears while speaking about her children and the absence of their father. "I lived on the other side of hate," MaryEllen Salamone said, "And peace is a better alternative."
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This is the reason why we worship and praise our good christian president Obama and that Obama will be Lord of the world on October 21st of this year. We need to use Obama to restore the traditional dictates of our good Word Of God or the Bible. The Obama Administration will help us christians restore the good morals of christianity which is good. We need to learn the gospels of Obama and Christ to restore the good morals of the world.
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I could not refrain from commenting. Very well written!
He is smiling beatifically but he is a devil in disguise. If he had some decency and humanity in him he would have chosen another place far far away from the place where this most evil deed took place. What he is trying to build is comparable to building a church or erecting a cross in Auschwitz or Treblinka. Shame on him for being so insensitive and his attempt to cause controversy and division among the people. NO rebuttal or explanation from him is justifiable.
There is absolutely no reason why Muslims should build this center anywhere else besides where they currently plan to.
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The mosque should be named for a victim of September 11th. Perhaps one of the Muslim victims listed at http://www.cair.com/Portals/0/pdf/Muslim-Victims-of-911.pdf
Do not use Gods name when you hurt and kill innocent men, woman and children. Do not use Gods name to hide behind your evil deeds. Remember God knows your true heart and your true intentions. God speaks of loving thy neighbor and not killing them in senseless acts of murder. God will judge you and you will live an eternity in hell!!
The time has come for great intervention; evil men will perish from the face of the earth.
scientist have concluded there are at least ten dimensions four are knowable while six can be inferred mathematically. only one who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent can declare the state of godhood ; ours is only a pathetic conjecture.
There Are 11
There is no god you are born you live you die that's it people deal with it.
Prove it. You're 'bold enough' to make the statement so be 'bold enough' to prove it irrevocably.
Unless they can raise millions of dollars really quickly, this project is going nowhere.
Willful Cordoba defamation. Give srael BACK the (Dome on the) Rock. How about a First Baptist Church of Saudi Arabia?
Snakes.
The Dome of the Rock was never Israel's to begin with. There was a Temple somewhere on that mount, but who knows exactly where.
On the Rock!!
I am going to open a Temple to myself near the site myself. Because people must learn to live their lives according to my rules so that they can cross the rainbow bridge when they die, so I can welcome them into Valhalla with open arms. True Warriors(tm) only of course. No, we don't have 72 virgins or winged humanoids on clouds... but we do have big breasted Valkyries and plenty of beer!
Frigg gets first pick of the warriors on who rows her celestial boat. Don't forget.
To Elizabeth you are a candel in the dark .god bless you.
America's problem is not the presence of Muslims but the legally allowed blasphemies and immorality. The Founding Fathers would surrender the nation rather to Muslims than to the drunk hedonists.
There is no such thing as a legal blasphemy because the government has no religious laws. If every citizen is guaranteed the freedom of religion and of speech, blasphemy can not exist.
Morality is a civil issue. With the freedom of speeches, discriminating humans based on colors and genders is illegal. Mocking the things of God must be made illegal, too.
Morality is a civil issue, not a religious one.
God is a religious issue and nothing concerning religion can be legislated by the government as guaranteed by our const.i.tution.
Besides which, "mocking" falls under freedom of speech as well.
I can mock anything and not be arrested for it. Words, right up to the line of hate speech that inspires violence or criminality, can not be silenced just because someone disagrees or because someone is offended.
This is one of the bases upon which our country is founded.
@ColoredMountains,
"Mocking the things of God must be made illegal, too."
Sorry, but isn't the government allowed by God to rule and aren't you supposed to submit to earthly authority because of that? So by disagreeing with Freedom of Speech and Religion, are you not "mocking" that which God has arranged. How dare you!?!? Repent, before it is too late!
Yeah...blasphemy causes someone to drop dead on sight. Or maybe it's someone's over sensitivity on hearing the blaspheme that drives them to murder which they would have done sooner or later. I prefer FREE SPEECH to your cry baby state.
shame we have seen 3500 killed in cold blood and we are still sleeping ......................................................
very articulate elizabeth but islam is not a lovely, peaceful religion seeking escape from religious persecution. its ideology was reiterated by pope benedict xvi quote of byzantine emperor manuel II paleologus : " show me just what mohammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhumane , such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." islam is seventh century arabia bound in religious legalism (sharia). christianity is the only religion where god seeks his own through a personal revelation, an epiphany.
"islam is not a lovely, peaceful religion seeking escape from religious persecution"
Yeah...and the Catholic Church was wonderful at blatantly murdering innocent people during the Crusades and Inquisition and persecuting people for centuries. So much for upholding the Commandments – especially 'Thou shalt not kill".
@Isis – why do you think every1 is a Catholic? Great thing about Catholics in Western Europe (if you leave out the local Pagan slaughter and torture) is the formation of Protestantism and soon after other splinter groups and pacifist groups and Catholicism also helped to tamper war between tribes and unite them under one God instead of playing my God is bigger than yours.
the islamic cordoba house is portrayed as an interfaith community center. the god of abraham and moses proclaimed and demonstrated he is the only god. in arabia the sun god was female and the moon god as male; thus the crescent moon symbol. the hadith which is revered by islam notes that muhammad purged the ka'bah of 360 stone idols and left the moon god , allah , the only one to be worshiped. the ideology obviously presents a dilemma .
If you look into the history of the Jewish faith, from which the Christian faith came, you will find that the god known now as YHWH or Jehovah is an amalgamation of several earlier gods, some of whom were rather bloodthirsty. If you look at the stories of the bible, god is said to have demanded the deaths of hundreds of thousands of non-believers.
How is that any different?
Allah is God, so there's no difference other than each religion calls him something different (God, Allah, YHWH or Jehovah) . Also, don't forget that Jesus's story is based on components of the Mithra story (pagan god, born on Dec. 25th in 600 BC, born of a virgin, heralded by shepherds, and died around March/April). Of course, Emperor Constantine forced all the priests to combine pagan gods and festivals with the new Christian religion at the Council of Nicea in 325AD in order to consolidate his empire. What the Emperor wants, the Emperor gets. Out of that came Jesus's birthday on Dec. 25th which was originally the pagan festival day for Sol Invictus (the Victorious Sun) and the rest of the great fantasy story (see Pope Leo X's quote in the early 1600's...paraphrased: "It has served us well, this myth of Christ" – out of the mouth of a Pope no less). That says it all.
to Isis, enough lies about islam. I am egyptian christian and i was forced to study quran in egypt. i know what it is about. islam has nothing about peace or forgiveness. As for the islamic and muslims history, look around u, almost every war in the world involves muslims. the forgiving americans are allowing u to build a mosque on ground zero; does saudi arabia allow building churches? does egypt, with 10% christians, really allow building churches (not on paper or renovate the ones the muslim terrorists burn down? enough is enough ... the educated people around the world know ur islamic violent history.
@Isis – Jesus was born in SEPTEMBER. His birth was moved to December, yes – to conform to the Pagans to convert them. Passover was renamed Easter after the Celtic Goddess Eoster to ease their conversion. Stop listening to Papacy mouths – including the current one.
The 9/11 Victory mosque will not be built in NYC. Enough firemen and police lost their lives on that day, their fellow workers will not allow such an abomination to be built.
Last time I looked it is being built. Also it seems to me that we have a country founded on the principle of free exercise of religious faith – whatever the faith. People came to the U.S. to escape religious persecution, and the last thing we as a people should espouse is persecution based upon religious beliefs. There are extremists in every religious group, and every extremist has the potential to be dangerous. Does that mean all religion should be banned? Of course not. Islam is a lovely, peaceful religion in the same way Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. are. People are encouraged to find and be their best selves and to worship G-d (by whatever name). Is there some way out stuff in the Q'uran? Sure. Have you read the Bible? There's some very violent strange stuff in there, too. Our responsibility as human beings is to live principled, peaceful lives with each other. Our responsibility as CITIZENS of this country is to protect the rights of every person to worship as s/he wishes. Otherwise we have no expectation that our right to do so will be protected either.
If we allow our fear to dictate our lives then we let the terrorists win.
"The 9/11 Victory mosque"
?? Never heard of such a thing. Plz tell us where this place would be. You would think one would hear sucha phrase if it was true.