That “moderate” WTC Mosque Imam

Well, at least a few journalists are doing their jobs and finding previously published words of the proposed-WTC mosque backer, Imam Feisel Abdul Rauf. Here’s the WSJ:

In a letter published on November 27, 1977, Mr. Rauf commented on Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s historic trip to Israel and encouraged his fellow Muslims to “give peace a chance.” That John Lennon lyric sounds good. But he added: “For my fellow Arabs I have the following special message: Learn from the example of the Prophet Mohammed, your greatest historical personality. After a state of war with the Meccan unbelievers that lasted for many years, he acceded, in the Treaty of Hudaybiyah, to demands that his closest companions considered utterly humiliating. Yet peace turned out to be a most effective weapon against the unbelievers.”

He’s referring to a treaty in the year 628 that established a 10-year truce between the Prophet Muhammad and Meccan leaders and was viewed by Muslims at the time as a defeat. But Muhammad used that period to consolidate his ranks and re-arm, eventually leading to his conquest of Mecca. Imam Rauf seems to be saying that Muslims should understand Sadat’s olive branch in the same way, as a short-term respite leading to ultimate conquest.

To drive that point home, he added in the same letter that “In a true peace it is impossible that a purely Jewish state of Palestine can endure. . . . In a true peace, Israel will, in our lifetimes, become one more Arab country, with a Jewish minority.”

Nice, eh? There’s more at the link.

It’s reminiscent of a quote, the author whom I cannot remember, who basically stated, “If the Palestinians unilaterally disarmed tomorrow there would be peace and their own state. If the Israelis unilaterally disarmed tomorrow there would be no Israel or Jews remaining.” Time and again so many “moderate” Islamist political figures say one thing to the West but hide their true feelings when the spotlight is upon them.