PrintAugust 18, 2010
Head Of Pan-Arab TV Network Opposes Ground-Zero Mosque
How's this for supreme irony?
After his inauguration, President Obama granted his first formal interview to the Al-Arabiya pan-Arab TV network. It was the first move in his outreach to the Muslim world -- one of his highest priorities.
Now comes Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, the general manager of Al Arabyia, and tells Americans, including President Obama, that building a mosque near Ground Zero is a terrible idea that can only damage Muslims worldwide.
"Muslims do not aspire for a mosque next to the 11 September cemetery," Rashed wrote in a column widely read and circulated throughut the Arab world..
Why?
Because a mosque so near the former World Trade Center site "will be turned into a symbol of those who committed the crime. The last thing Muslims want is a symbolic mosque as a museum next to a cemetery, a shrine for Islam haters, a mosque built over the corpses of 3,000 killed U.S. citizens, buried alive by people chanting God is great, which is the same call that will be heard from the mosque."
Dubai-based Al-Arabiya was Obama's preferable choice over Al-Jazeera because Rashed's network has a "more moderate" history. For example, it ran afoul of Hamas several times. That's why Obama evidently felt that it was the right megaphone to reach Muslims who might be receptive to his message.
Now, however, Al-Arabiya's boss, has knocked the props from under Obama's support of the Ground-Zero mosque, however hedged, by tellling him, thanks but no thanks; this mosque at this location will be poison for the Muslim world. Rashed's strong criticism may be the first nail in the coffin of this ill-conveived undertaking.
Also, as the debate rages, Rashed doesn't fit the bogeyman put up by supporters of the $100 million project that it's only angry Republicans whoi comprise the opposition. If there's one thing Rashed is not, it's run-of-the-mill registered Republican.
