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Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Imam leading The Cordoba Project Community Center in Lower Manhattan, wrote an op-ed in the NY Times yesterday where he talks about what this so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" means:

We have all been awed by how inflamed and emotional the issue of the proposed community center has become. The level of attention reflects the degree to which people care about the very American values under debate: recognition of the rights of others, tolerance and freedom of worship.

Many people wondered why I did not speak out more, and sooner, about this project. I felt that it would not be right to comment from abroad. It would be better if I addressed these issues once I returned home to America, and after I could confer with leaders of other faiths who have been deliberating with us over this project. My life's work has been focused on building bridges between religious groups and never has that been as important as it is now.

We are proceeding with the community center, Cordoba House. More important, we are doing so with the support of the downtown community, government at all levels and leaders from across the religious spectrum, who will be our partners. I am convinced that it is the right thing to do for many reasons.

This is a man who has been committed to spreading the peaceful message of Islam:

Above all, the project will amplify the multifaith approach that the Cordoba Initiative has deployed in concrete ways for years. Our name, Cordoba, was inspired by the city in Spain where Muslims, Christians and Jews co-existed in the Middle Ages during a period of great cultural enrichment created by Muslims. Our initiative is intended to cultivate understanding among all religions and cultures.

Our broader mission -- to strengthen relations between the Western and Muslim worlds and to help counter radical ideology -- lies not in skirting the margins of issues that have polarized relations within the Muslim world and between non-Muslims and Muslims. It lies in confronting them as a joint multifaith, multinational effort.

Read the entire op-ed for a better understanding of this man and the project.

In addition, he's been following up this article with appearance on the news shows:

"If I knew that this would happen, that this would cause this kind of pain, I wouldn't have done it," the imam told Soledad O'Brien on "Larry King Live" on CNN in his first extensive televised remarks since the controversy ballooned after the project cleared its last legal hurdle last month. "My life has been devoted to peacemaking."

He continued:

"If we move from that location, the story will be that the radicals have taken over the discourse," he said. "The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack. And I'm less concerned about the radicals in America than I am about the radicals in the Muslim world."

Pressed on whether the center would be built on the proposed site, Mr. Abdul Rauf said he hoped to create a center with prayer spaces for Muslims, Jews, Christians and others that would "build relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims."

Yup - he sure sounds like a terrorist, doesn't he?

Clearly, either you believe the man or you don't. If you don't believe him, then you must think that he's a secret Islamo-terrorist bent on destroying America. Or, you just don't like Muslims and their religion.

He finished the interview covering a few points that his detractors have brought up:

But Mr. Abdul Rauf also addressed two past remarks that had drawn criticism. Revisiting a "60 Minutes" interview in the weeks after 9/11 in which he called American policies "an accessory" to the attacks, he said he had been trying to note that the United States had empowered Islamist militants like Osama bin Laden in their fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and that like a marriage counselor, his job was to tell unpleasant truths to the United States and its Muslim critics.

But he added, "Looking back, I realize it was not a very compassionate thing to say, and I regret having said those words."

Asked about a recent radio interview in which he declined to describe Hamas, the Palestinian group that pioneered suicide bombings in Israel, as a terrorist group, he said, "I condemn everyone and anyone who commits acts of terrorism, and Hamas has committed acts of terrorism."

The imam said his goal was to speak directly to the majority of Americans who disapprove of the center's location and to introduce himself and his record. He closed by wishing his Jewish friends a happy Rosh Hashana.

Yup, he sounds like a terrorist, indeedy.

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