more on ground zero imam

Masjid al-Farah in New York City since
1983. Through his sermons and writings, Imam Abdul Rauf seeks to provide
spiritual seekers with answers to their eternal questions that often
hinder them from developing a personal relationship with the Divine. ...
Imam Abdul-Rauf is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Islamic
Center of New York, and of the Interfaith Center of New York. He
lectures regularly at Synagogues, Churches and Mosques, and on radio and
television programs in the United States and abroad."/
http://www.perdana4peace.org/agenda.aspx?x=3

The website that is the source of the bio and quote belongs to the
Perdana Global Peace Organisation, that lists him as a one of its
leaders. Now, Perdana has quite a narrow definition of "global peace"
since it only focuses in virulent criticism of Israel and was one of the
main donors and partners in the Free Gaza flotilla: /*"Freedom Flotilla
partners are IHH (Turkish human rights organisation), European Campaign
to End the Siege of Gaza (ECESG), The Perdana Global Peace Organisation
from Malaysia, and the Greek and Swedish Ship to Gaza campaigns and the
International Coalition for Lifting the Siege on Gaza.*/"
http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/56-news/1168-join-us-at-the-launch-to-gaza

Perdana is a creation of Malaysian former Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad, a brazen anti-Semite who said in a speech at the Tenth Islamic
Summit in 2003: /"The Muslims will forever be oppressed and dominated by
the Europeans and the Jews. It cannot be that there is no other way. 1.3
billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews. There must be
a way. We are actually very strong. 1.3 billion people cannot be simply
wiped out. The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million. But
today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and
die for them. They survived 2000 years of pogroms not by hitting back,
but by thinking. They invented and successfully promoted Socialism,
Communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would
appear to be wrong, so they may enjoy equal rights with others. With
these they have now gained control of the most powerful countries and
they, this tiny community, have become a world power."
http://www.adl.org/Anti_semitism/Malaysian_1.asp

/The website of the Cordoba Initiative adresses the issue of Imam
Rauf's connection to Perdana:/ //"Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has never been
a member of this group. Several years ago, Imam Feisal was invited to
Malaysia, the most moderate Islamic country in the world, to participate
in a Peace Conference sponsored by the Perdana Peace Group. He was one
of the hundreds of speakers present. He has no political, advisory or
business affiliation of any nature with the Perdana group. A photo of
Imam Feisal was taken at the conference, and this has been used to
"prove" his membership in the Perdana Global Peace Organization, but the
allegation is false. Because of the controversy surrounding Perdana, we
have requested the Perdana Group to remove the photo of him from their
publicity./"
http://www.cordobainitiative.org/?q=content/frequently-asked-questions

I must say that this disclaimer sounds questionable to me. Imam Rauf's
connection seems much more serious than a candid photo taken at a
conference. We can imagine what kind of "peace conference" Perdana
convened in the "most moderate Islamic country in the world" lead by
Mahathir Mohamad. / /Imam Rauf is mentioned also as one of the signers
of the/ Kuala Lumpur Initiative to Criminalise War
http://www.perdana4peace.org/Default.aspx / This initiative, also led by
Mahatir Mohamad, inspired the creation of the/ Kuala Lumpur Foundation
to Criminalise War/ that wants to establish a tribunal to judge war
crimes. Since almost all the alleged war crimes mentioned in the
foundation website are committed only by Israelis and Americans, it is
clear who is the target of this campaign.
http://criminalisewar.org/?m=201006