Yesterday on This Week, Chritiane Amanpour discussed the state of the Ground Zero Mosque with Daisy Khan, wife of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and one of the principal backers of the planned Islamic community center. A highlight:
AMANPOUR: Is America Islamophobic? Are you concerned about the long-term relationship between American Muslims and the rest of society here?
KHAN: Yes, I think we are deeply concerned, because this is like a metastasized anti-Semitism. That’s what we feel right now. It’s not even Islamophobia, it’s beyond Islamophobia. It’s hate of Muslims. And we are deeply concerned. You know, I have had, yesterday had a council with all religious — Muslim religious leaders from around the country, and everybody is deeply concerned about what’s going on around the nation…
AMANPOUR: The last word, do you think it will go ahead?
KHAN: Of course it has to go ahead. There’s so much at stake.
While there has been much ado about using the Ground Zero Mosque to “build dialog” between America and the Muslim world, Khan attempts to build dialog not by thoughtfully refuting the legitimately held objections to putting a Mosque a 4-iron away from where the Twin Towers were leveled in the name of Islam, but by labeling those who disagree with her Muslim-haters. Presumably this honorific goes for other Muslims too. (Today on Mark Levin’s radio show, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser suggests perhaps even most American Muslims oppose the proposed site for the Cordoba Initiative.)