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AMANPOUR: Imam, thank you for joining us.
IMAM FEISAL ABDUL RAUF: Thank you, Christiane, for having me.
AMANPOUR: Tell me about your plans for the Islamic center.
Are you going to keep it at Park 51, where you proposed?
RAUF: The decisions that I will make -- that we will make -- will be predicated on what is best for everybody.
AMANPOUR: How do you decide that?
RAUF: That's been very difficult and very challenging, because, unfortunately, the -- the discourse has been, to a certain extent, hijacked by the radicals.
The radicals on both sides, the radicals in the United States and the radicals in the Muslim world, feed off each other. And to a certain extent, the attention that they've been able to get by the media has even aggravated the problem.
AMANPOUR: 71 percent of New Yorkers say it should be moved. What is your main reason for not wanting to move it?
RAUF: My major concern with moving it is that the headline in the Muslim world will be Islam is under attack in America, this will strengthen the radicals in the Muslim world, help their recruitment, this will put our people -- our soldiers, our troops, our embassies, our citizens -- under attack in the Muslim world and we have expanded and given and fueled terrorism.
AMANPOUR: Do you think that is a legitimate reason not to move it?
RAUF: It is an extremely important consideration.
AMANPOUR: . People are saying that because you intimated that it would cause great anger in Muslim countries around the world, it could threaten the United States. And people are saying that you made a threat.
Is that -- was that your intention?
RAUF: I have never made a threat. I've never made a threat, never expressed a threat, never -- I've never -- I would never threaten violence ever, because I am a man of peace, dedicated to peace.
We have two audiences. We have the American audience and we have the Muslim audience. And this issue has riveted the attention of the whole Muslim world. And whatever we do and whatever say and how we move and the discourse about it is being watched very, very closely. And if we make the wrong move, it will only expand and strengthen the voice of the radicals and the extremists.
AMANPOUR: But what about the sensitivities of the people who have raised the objections to the center being so close to -- to Ground Zero?
RAUF: I'm extremely concerned about -- I'm very, very concerned about their sensitivities. And this is why we have -- we have reached out to them and we will continue to reach out to them.
AMANPOUR: Do you think you, in retrospect, should have done something different from the beginning?
Did you do enough politicking, if you like, at a grassroots, local level to involve everybody in the community, including the 9/11 families?
RAUF: Well, we certainly had reached out.
And this -- this project was front page news in "The New York Times" last December. No one objected. What has happened is that since May -- five, six months later, for political reasons, certain politicians decided that this project would be very useful for their political ambitions.AMANPOUR:
Sarah Palin made a -- a famous Tweet saying please reconsider, the feelings are too raw.
What did you think about that?RAUF:
I felt it disingenuous, to a certain extent. The fact of the matter is, A, this has been used for political purposes. And there's growing Islamophobia in this country.
How else would you describe the fact that mosques around the country are now being attacked? We are Americans, too. As -- we are -- we are treated and talked about today as if -- as if American Mus -- and Muslims are not Americans.
We are Americans. We -- we -- we are -- we are doctors. We are investment bankers. We are taxi drivers. We are store keepers. We are lawyers. We are -- we are part of the fabric of America.
And the way that America today treats its Muslims is being watched by over a billion Muslims worldwide. And the battleground today, Christiane, is not between Islam and the West. The battleground has been moderates of all faith traditions in all the countries of the world against the radicals of all faith traditions in all parts of the world. AMANPOUR: There's a pastor, Pastor Jones in Florida. What would have happened if the pastor had gone ahead and burnt those Korans?
RAUF: It would have created a -- a disaster in the Muslim world. It would have strengthened the radicals. It would have enhanced the possibility of terrorist acts against America and American interests.
AMANPOUR: And the solution might be that the pastor would not burn the Korans if you would move the Islamic center way away from where you plan it now.
Does that sound like a reasonable compromise?
RAUF:
You can't equate the two, Christiane. How can you equate burning of any person's scripture with an attempt to build interfaith dialogue?
This is a house with multi-faith stakeholders, with multi-faith partners intended to work together toward building peace.AMANPOUR: Did you ever imagine that recommending or suggesting or buying a place so close to Ground Zero would cause this kind of controversy?
RAUF: No.
AMANPOUR: And if you thought it would have provoked this kind of controversy, what would you have done?
RAUF: I would never have done it. I'm a man of peace. I mean the whole -- the whole objective of peace work is not to do something that would provoke controversy.
AMANPOUR: In the latest poll that ABC has conducted, only 37 percent of those who were asked expressed a positive feeling about Islam.
Do you think that Moslems, people such as yourself, others here, can actually have a place to practice their religion freely, to live freely as Americans, given that figure?
It's the most -- it's the lowest figure since 2001.
RAUF: In spite of the polls, the fact is that American Muslims are very happy and they thrive in this country. One of the misperceptions that exists in the Muslim world, which needs to be fixed, is the perception that Muslims in America are -- are -- are living in -- in very, very, very bad circumstances. They cannot practice religion freely.
It is not the truth at all. The fact is, we are practicing. We fast, we pray, we do our prayers. We are able to do that. The laws protect us. Our political systems protect us. And we enjoy those freedoms in this country. And the Muslim world needs to -- needs to -- to recognize that.
The recent controversy, I think, has heightened the concern among Muslims, but we feel that there is a spike of -- of -- of Islamophobia which is reaching and perhaps even possibly exceeding what happened right after 9/11.From:
http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/week-transcript-goolsbee-rauf/story?id=11615052&page=1
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