June 23, 2010 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNew.org - For those accustomed to dealing with Islamists posing as moderates, one of the most useful techniques for determining the genuineness of their claim is posing the simple question, "Do you support Hamas?"Since support of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood is almost emblematic among radical Muslims, few if any are willing to condemn these organizations in public - it's a bad career move, could stop funding.
With this in mind Aaron Klein, a World Net Daily reporter and host of a New York radio talk show, invited Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf - the lead proponent of an effort [the Cordoba Initiative] to construct a towering mosque within throwing distance of Ground Zero, the former World Trade Center destroyed by Muslim terrorists on September 11, 2001 - to appear on his program.
It's still unclear why Rauf decided to call his building plan the Cordoba Initiative, given Spain's unpleasant experience during its 700 odd years of Islamic subjugation.
Getting the interview started, and after posing a number of innocuous questions to the imam, which he fielded in his usual deft manner, Klein went on the offensive, asking Rauf pointedly if Hamas was a terrorist organization as designated in 1995 by the Clinton State Department.
Rauf responded in what has now become the classic manner of the Islamist.
He adamantly refused to identify Hamas as a terrorist group, nervously dancing around the topic while claiming he was a "bridge builder," doing everything he could to avoid directly confronting the issue. [see, World Net Daily, June 20, 2010, Ground Zero' imam makes stunning terror comments, Claims to support peace but refuses to condemn violent jihad groups, http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=168797]
When asked by Klein if the Muslim Brotherhood - the Egyptian terrorist organization which created Hamas - was a terrorist organization, Rauf responded in a similar manner refusing to condemn the organization which has served as the ideological inspiration for all modern jihadism, including al-Qaeda.
Rauf did take the opportunity to deny that his father had been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, answering a question not asked by the interviewer, but most likely prompting raised eyebrows among those listening.
It's clear from this exchange - thanks to Mr. Klein - that Rauf is unquestionably an Islamist, a believer in political Islam, and, one might add, a person who is apparently not overly concerned with telling the truth.
Operating on the premise that a witness once impeached is forever after suspect, every claim or representation the imam has made regarding the Cordoba Initiative must now be viewed in that light.
This leaves New York residents in a tough place, as they have been denied political redress for concerns that an in your face totem to religious imperialism, Rauf's now most assuredly radical mosque, will dominate the landscape where 3,000 American died at the hands of his co-religionists on September 11, 2001.
