OPEN
LETTER FROM FORMER MUSLIM TERRORIST TO 9/11 GROUND ZERO MOSQUE IMAM

 

Dear Feisal Abdul Rauf,

 

The bottom line is that America
wants to know if you are a Jihadist or a moderate Muslim?

 

America is a nation that believes
everyone deserves a chance, including you and your ideas for our nation. But
the only way to find out is to answer some questions. We have not heard from
you and we suspect, the reason you do not answer any questions is because you
have great connections and the best defenders speaking for you – the president
of the most powerful nation on earth, the mayor of the greatest city in the
nation, and the speaker of the house. Perhaps they can answer my questions. But
when we ask them about you, they simply tell us not to be concerned, that we should
seek the “positive” things you’ve accomplished. A drawback to this way of
thinking can, at times, be akin to ignoring a drop of cyanide in a punch bowl.
Would you drink? (Y/N)

 

Even Nancy Pelosi insists that
you are a moderate and we are not. To answer them, and since they object that
we need balance, I decided to discuss your positive accomplishments. And since
I failed to include your positive accomplishments in all my investigations, I
promise this time that I will, even point to my failures. So let’s discuss your
“positive” accomplishments:

 

FIRST ACCOMPLISHMENT

YOU COMBAT RACISM, STEREOTYPES

AND TERRORISM

 

Before we deal with the war on
terror, let’s deal with the war of words. Why do your defenders use the
following words so much: stereotype, racism, divisive, inflammatory, hateful,
hate speech, Islamophobia, bigotry, ignorance, and tolerance? Why do they never
use the words "Islamic terrorism"?

 

Also, do you think that America
needs to apologize for calling the war on terror “war on terror”? (Yes/No) The
official government policy is not to use the divisive term “terrorist” but
instead "man made disasters".

 

I have a confession. I was a
man-made-disasterist and now I am an x-man-made-disasterist. Why is it that so
many peaceful Muslims loved me when I was a man-made-disasterist and they hate
me after I became an x-man-made-disasterist?

 

While I admit that I failed to
read your book “What’s Right With Islam”, why can’t we ask; what’s wrong with
Sharia? Why is it that when we ask this question, your defenders accuse us of
being divisive?

 

While you accuse us of
Islamophobia, why are we not allowed to accuse you of Islamophobia phobia? Can
we take a balanced approach and deal with both Islamophobia and Islamophobia
phobia, equally?

 

I loved your brilliant definition
of stereotyping. On Egyptian radio, you defined it as:

 

“If you and your husband have a
dispute, you say ‘all men are the same’ and he says ‘women are all the same’”

 

Many Americans struggle with
similar stereotyping such as “all Imams are the same”. But can you blame them?
Especially when they watched Anwar Awlaki on PBS and NPR condemn terrorism only
to later support it; he had to go into
hiding from U.S. drones in Yemen. Americans were shocked. So, are all Imams the
same? And since you say that you are not the same as Awlaki, is your Sharia
different than his? How many Sharias are there? And when it comes to Imam
Awlaki, do you support killing him wherever we find him?

 

You, Obama and his pastor Joel
Hunter said: “Americans are ignorant about Islam”. Is that not stereotyping all
Americas as ignorant? And since it’s ok to call “Americans” ignorant”, can we
also say “Muslims are ignorant about America”? (Yes/No) Would that not be
considered stereotyping? (Yes/No)

 

Also, since you agree with Obama
and Hunter, are these men Sharia compliant? (Yes/No)

I must credit you, on Egyptian
radio you did instruct Muslims to stop stereotyping, even rebuking one Egyptian
interviewer (Hind Bashandi) that blamed the U.S. government for the war in
Iraq. You countered:

“The government is not the
action. An individual is the action. America did not invade Iraq, Bush invaded
Iraq.”

 

I see. it’s an individual not the
system.

 

So it wasn’t an Islamic invasion
on the WTC on 9/11? It was Bin Laden? Will you then condemn Bin Laden? (Yes/No)

 

And since Hezbollah is a
government within a government, we should only condemn Nasrallah, right? Why
does Bloomberg say that “Islam did not attack America, Al-Qaeda did”? Why does
he blame Al-Qaeda? How about when the Jews of Banu-Qurayza were killed during
Islam, and since we can’t say it was Islam, do we then say it was Muhammad?

 

Yet, whenever I ask Muslims the
question “who killed these Jews” they tell me “Jews”. The Jews kill
Palestinians, Muslims, Lebanese, olive groves, women, children and even
Muhammad himself was killed by a Jewess. When I began to investigate further, I
found out that Jews killed more life than any other people on earth; germs. And
they were given Nobel Peace Prizes. Would it be stereotyping to say that Jews
must control everything?

 

When it comes to terrorism, your
critics are wrong when they say that you did not answer questions about Hamas.
You did:

 

“the trend towards Islamic law
and justice begins in religious movements like Hezbollah Hamas or Islamic
Resistance Movement because secularism had failed to deliver what the Muslim
wants, which is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…the only law that
the Muslim needs exists already in the Koran and the Hadith.” 1

 

Although I admit that when I discovered
this statement on Al-Ghad paper in Jordan, I wanted to paint you as a an
man-made-disasterist. I won’t do this here, but may I ask:

Now, do you prefer Israel over
Hamas? (Yes/No)

Hamas over Israel? (Yes/No)

Support both equally? (Yes/No)

Is there a fourth choice? Please
provide.

ON RECONCILIATION

I admit that you have endlessly
talked about reconciliation between Christians and Jews but I couldn’t find
your take on converted Muslims to Christianity. Would you reconcile with them?
(Yes/No) And will you condemn the killing of converts? (Yes/No)

ON CAPITALISM

We should have pointed out your
call to have an “American Islam” as well as an “Islamic-democracy” in the
Middle East. It sure beats the heck out of Obama’s oxymoronic
Capitalistic-socialism and ObamaCare. However, I would like to know if your
American style Islamic Sharia would include interest banking. Many Muslims call
this Riba and Sharia forbids Riba. Do you then support interest banking?
(Yes/No)

In what you call your “blueprint
for the United States” you claim to have written the guide to President Obama’s
historic speech in Cairo who in turn addressed the “Muslim suffering in
America” and suggested implementing Zakat (Islamic Welfare System) in America.
In your view, can some of that Zakat money be spent on political advancement of
Sharia? (Yes/No) Is it true that advancing Sharia is also political Jihad?
(Yes/No) Is it true that the eighth branch of Zakat is for advancing Jihad?

ON VISION AND CREATIVITY

It’s nice that the Cordova building
will have a swimming pool, lecture hauls, sports center and bridge building
classes. The name “Cordova” was brilliant to promote the golden age of Islam
when Christians were honored to accommodate a crescent in place of the cross on
top of Cordova’s church. Or let’s say mosque? What was Cordova prior to Islam’s
opening in Spain; the golden age of Christendom?

 

Perhaps Americans are being too
harsh and are getting back on the wrong Muslims when they say: “we do not want
them to have anything next to Ground Zero”? After all, the only thing you had
to do with the “9/11 rubble” was to print it on your Indonesian version of your
book cover.

 

And since we rejected the mosque,
will the pool at your center have “Kafers welcome”? (Yes/No)

You have worked effortlessly for
peace. All you wanted was:

“an icon [Cordova Mosque].
Something ideal. Something to be proud of in the Muslim community, not only in
New York but in the Muslim world”.

 

On a side note, my wife loved
your romantic example on how to dialogue with Christians and Jews:

“deal with them as one courts a
girl; stop thinking like a typical Muslim. Then you can engage.”

 

Just what is a “typical Muslim”?
Did you use this technique with Bloomberg?

 

I also failed to include your
compliments of the West:

 

“Muslims in the West see better
ethics in France and Germany, they deal in Islamic ways, they have Islamic
ethics there.”

 

Can you clarify? Calling
Judeo-Christian ethics in France and Germany “Islamic” is brilliant but is it
then accurate to say that your definition of “Islamic Sharia” is the same as
“Judeo-Christian ethics”? If so, I must then apologize for exposing you as a
promoter of Sharia since “Sharia” is not really Sharia but a western
constitution.

 

Do you then recommend we export
our western “Sharia” (Judeo-Christian-ethics) to the Muslim world since we
already have it in the West and they need it badly in the East?

 

You have also stated that one of
the main hindrances to peace is:

 

“the attack invasion of Iraq and
Afghanistan.”

 

And since American troops at Fort
Hood benefited from lectures by Imam Louay Safi of the Islamic Society of North
America, will you agree we have pastors conduct the same in Iraq? How else can
we fight American terrorism? Would you suggest moderate Americans be sent throughout
the Middle East? And as we have ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) can we
have ASNA (American Society of North Arabia)? Would you recommend moderate
Americans build a 13 story Christian center there?

 

I loved the way you laughed with
radio host Hind Bashandi when you mocked American bloggers:

 

“Many American blogs print that
Muslims want a Caliphate”.

 

This is like Arabs thinking that
Saudi Arabia is Judenrein (free of Jews)? Do you hate stereotyping?

 

And just to check the American
pulse, let’s survey everyone. Just to assure my genuine intentions, I will not
include typical ignorant stereotype questions about the funding for this noble
“Cordova peace center” or ask inflammatory questions regarding Caliphate,
beheadings, amputation of limbs or lashings for certain sins and infractions.

 

I will finally ask my 3 last
questions regarding Civil Sharia Laws”:

 

1. Marriage between Muslim men
with Jewish women is protected by American Sharia law. Will marriage between
Jewish men with Muslim women also be protected by American Sharia law? (Yes,
No)

2. Will inheritance be
distributed equally to males as well as females under American Sharia law?
(Yes, No)

 

3. Since land sales by non-Muslim
Americans to Muslim Americans is protected under Sharia law, will land sales by
American Muslims to other people of different faiths also be allowed under the
American Sharia law, including, but not limited to the purchase of mosque
properties owned by Muslim Americans to be sold to non-Muslim Americans that
include setting up places of worship for other faiths? (Yes, No)

 

Finally, I was delighted that you
now reconciled with the Christian faith when you stated:

 

“we all worship the same God”.

 

So I salute you in the name of
Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, my Lord, and yours. Right? (Yes/No)

 

With best regards,

 

Walid Shoebat

 

Founder of The Shoebat Foundation

 

1 From an article titled “Sharing
The Essence Of Our Beliefs” by Feisal Abdul Rauf, Al-Ghad Newspaper in Jordan,
5/9/2009 http://www.alghad.com/?article=12635