Cordoba House

Rick Lazio calls out Andrew Cuomo on Ground Zero mosque

Rick Lazio, who is running for governor, stood alongside firefighter Tim Brown and 9/11 family member Debra Burlingame to call for an investigation of the Cordoba House’s finances. (DNAinfo/Julie Shapiro)

This afternoon, the New York Daily News reports:

GOP gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio is calling out his Dem opponent Andrew Cuomo about the Ground Zero mosque proposal … Lazio demanded that state Attorney General Cuomo check the legality of the funding sources for the $100 million Cordoba House Islamic center planned near the site of the 9/11 terror attacks. “New Yorkers have a right to feel safe and be safe,” Lazio told reporters in Lower Manhattan. “There are serious security questions about the appropriateness of this mosque.” In a letter he sent to Cuomo, Lazio cited press accounts that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who’s spearheading the mosque’s construction, is a “key figure” in an organization that funded the flotilla that sought to break Israel’s Gaza blockade. … Cuomo, who has come out in favor of letting the project proceed, as have numerous city officials although the public is split on the issue, put out this statement via AG’s office spokesman Richard Bamberger: “Anyone who has evidence of wrongdoing should send it to us and we will review it.”

Okay; we will send his office a link to this post. After reading it, it should be obvious to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that Imam Rauf’s Cordoba House mosque is being funded by a conglomerate of Islamists, anti-Semites, and terrorism supporting organizations and nations.

Alyssa A. Lappen writes:

Imam Rauf says that New York Muslims provided nearly $5 million in cash to buy the Park Place building. Yet in fiscal 2009, Rauf’s ASMA received large international donations. In the year ended June 30, 2009 — days before Feisal closed the purchase — ASMA received at least $1.3 million. The largest donation, $576,312, came from Qatar. That Persian Gulf nation has long harbored terror financiers, and even the government stands accused of funding international terrorism. Qatar also has, for decades, hosted Muslim Brotherhood spiritual chief Yusuf al-Qaradawi. The elderly sheikh, a large and founding shareholder in the terror-financing al-Taqwa Bank, champions sharia law, wife beating, and suicide bombing.

On June 5, 2010, the New York Post reported that Imam Rauf:

“…is a key figure in Malaysian-based Perdana Global Peace Organization, according to its Website. Perdana is the single biggest donor ($366,000) so far to the Free Gaza Movement, a key organizer of the six-ship flotilla that tried to break Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip Monday. Nine passengers aboard the largest ship died in clashes with Israeli commandos…”

On June 20, Imam Rauf falsely claimed, “They had a conference in December of 2005 and I was invited there to lecture. That is the extent of my relationship with Perdana,” during a WABC radio interview with Aaron Klein. In fact, during that conference Rauf was a key signer of the group’s Kuala Lumpur Initiative to Criminalize War. The group’s leader is none other than the infamous anti-Semite and former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad; the Malaysian government has been a major contributor to Imam Rauf’s Cordoba Initiative since its founding in 2002.

In January 2010, The Malaysian Insider reported:

Mahathir stated the September 11 attacks, conducted by Arab Muslim terrorists and coordinated by Osama bin Laden would have been “staged” by a US government conspiracy to justify attacking Muslims. He added that Jews “had always been a problem in European countries. They had to be confined to ghettoes and periodically massacred. But still they remained, they thrived and they held whole governments to ransom … Even after their massacre by the Nazis of Germany, they survived to continue to be a source of even greater problems for the world.”

Imam Rauf’s financial and personal relationship with Mahathir is far more extensive than apparently he wants people to know. According to J.E. Dyer:

This is not a superficial or accidental connection; Rauf’s father, an Egyptian Islamic scholar from Cairo’s al-Azhar University, founded the Islamic University of Malaysia and had a long association with Mahathir Mohammed. When Mahathir was hospitalized and required surgery in 2007, after the elder Rauf had passed away, the younger Rauf arrived from New York to lead interfaith prayers for him in Kuala Lumpur.

“There are interests in creating an Islamic presence at the site of the worst atrocity in the history of the Republic. It’s very important to the people who want to hurt this country,” Debra Burlingame said.

Quinnipiac poll: New York voters oppose Ground Zero mosque

From June 21 – 28, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,183 New York City registered voters over the proposal to build a Cordoba House “Muslim mosque and cultural center two blocks from Ground Zero” They were asked, “Do you support or oppose this proposal?” The Quinnipiac University Poll found:

New York City voters oppose 52 – 31 percent … Opposition to the mosque is 56 – 31 percent among white voters, 45 – 34 percent among black voters and 60 – 19 percent among Hispanic voters. Opposition among religious groups is 66 – 22 percent among Jews, 66 – 24 percent among white Catholics and 46 – 36 percent among white Protestants.

“New York enjoys a reputation as one of the most tolerant places in America, but New Yorkers are opposed to a proposal to build a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero. Is it because we’re still nursing the wounds from the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center or is it more like bigotry?” asks Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Abraham Maslow found that the ultimate manifestation of discrimination is genocide.

With due respect to Mr. Carroll, real world experience does not make for ignorant prejudice; a more accurate example of prejudice is what the followers of shariah law felt when they slaughtered 2,976 people on 9/11.