Not at Ground Zero

I am an American Muslim dedicated to defeating the ideology that fuels global Islamist terror — political Islam. And I don’t see such a “center” actually fighting terrorism or being a very “positive” addition near Ground Zero, no matter how well intentioned.

To put it bluntly, Ground Zero is the one place in America where Muslims should think less about teaching Islam and “our good side” and more about being American and fulfilling our responsibilities to confront the ideology of our enemies.

Khan and Rauf avoid discourse on reform and political Islam. Instead, they simply give us the familiar, too vague condemnation of “extremism and violence.” They seem to conveniently view 9/11, al Qaeda and every manifestation of militant Islamism as simply a public-relations problem for “Muslims in the West.” Imam Rauf has even gone so far as to bizarrely say that the 9/11 terrorists were “not Muslims.”