Imam Behind Ground Zero Mosque Silent About Malaysian Government’s Pro-Jihad Statements
Imam Rauf raised no objections to official calls for suicide bombing in America and Israel.
Previously unpublished English translations of sermons from Malaysia’s Department of Islamic Development (JAKIM) reveal potentially lethal levels of hostility towards the West that appear to have gone unnoticed. The Department of Islamic Development cannot be dismissed as some renegade fringe group. It is an official and intrinsic part of the Malaysian government, similar in function to the Department of Health and Human Services in the United States.
Pajamas Media
Evidence continues to mount showing that the developer of the proposed mega-mosque at Ground Zero, Abdul Faisal Rauf, is untrustworthy at best, and possibly downright dangerous. The project would be called Cordoba House, named for a Spanish city conquered by the Moors which Muslims regard as a model for other communities.
Rauf’s political/religious vision is intimately connected with Malaysia, where he lived for ten years as a youngster and where he now owns a home and bases his policy-making organization, the Cordoba Initiative, which also has an office in Manhattan. Malaysian officials have come out with statements that are virulently anti-American and anti-Semitic, including explicit calls for jihad and suicide bombing. Rauf claims that he intends to build bridges between the West and Muslims, yet he has never made any public statement objecting to such incitement.
Previously unpublished English translations of sermons from Malaysia’s Department of Islamic Development reveal potentially lethal levels of hostility towards the West that appear to have gone unnoticed. The Department of Islamic Development cannot be dismissed as some renegade fringe group. It is an official and intrinsic part of the Malaysian government, similar in function to the Department of Health and Human Services in the United States. On its website, the Department defines itself thusly: “Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) is a Malaysian Government institution which has a vision to assist in the creation of a progressive and morally upright ummah based on Islamic principles in line with the Malaysian vision through an efficient and effective Islamic Affairs Management organisation.” JAKIM is an acronym for Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia.
Every Friday, the Muslim holy day, sermons (khutbahs) are given in mosques. During Israel’s Cast Lead operation in January 2009, when Israel entered Gaza to stop being bombarded with rockets, the khutbahs of Malaysia’s Department of Islamic Development became warlike.
On January 9, 2009, the khutbah denounced Israel as “evil” and a call was made to use the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to channel financial assistance to the Palestinians. A boycott was demanded of all goods and services connected with both Israel and America. Countries that are part of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and all other Muslims were urged to stop using the American dollar as currency.
(Click here for the link to a translation of the January 9, 2009 khutbah.)
On January 16, 2009, military plans were further consolidated. There was a call to “strengthen strategic planning in the defense system of Islamic countries” and to stop allowing foreign military bases to be built in Islamic countries on the grounds that they are used for spying.
(Click here for the link to a translation of the January 16, 2009, khutbah.)
On January 2, 2009, we have the most alarming khutbah of the three given here. The unnamed imam proclaimed his support for Hamas and Hezbollah, demanded a boycott of any goods associated with all Jews (not just Israelis), and called for jihad and suicide bombing, or “bind(ing) the stomach” in the manner of the “fatwa [of] Sheikh Yusof Al-Qaradawi.
