Tuesday’s roundup

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, on the first stop of his 15-nation goodwill tour though Muslim nations, spoke expansively about religious law and Islam, but had little to say about the controversy surrounding his plans to build an Islamic center and mosque two blocks north of Ground Zero in NYC. A Bahraini man asked Rauf, “Why […]

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, on the first stop of his 15-nation goodwill tour though Muslim nations, spoke expansively about religious law and Islam, but had little to say about the controversy surrounding his plans to build an Islamic center and mosque two blocks north of Ground Zero in NYC.

A Bahraini man asked Rauf, “Why don’t we just change the place, to show that Islam is not there to threaten everybody, that Islam is a religion of peace?”


To which Rauf responded, “The opposition to us has come from outside the community. The fact that there has been this misunderstanding shows the need for the project.”

The AP finds that Muslims in the Middle East are pretty indifferent to all the Park51 hubub. Over in Europe, though, President Obama is getting a lot of grief over his position on the project, with a German paper calling his lukewarm support “cowardly.”

NY Gov. Paterson and Archbishop Timothy Dolan are meeting today to discuss the controversy. Greek Orthodox Christians wonder why their efforts to rebuild a church damaged on 9/11 haven’t received the attention of politicians.

A NYT columnist, noting that there are mosques four and twelve blocks away from Ground Zero, asks how far away Park51 would have to be to appease its opponents.

National Catholic Reporter compares opposition to Park51 to the hostility Irish Catholic immigrants faced 100 years ago in NYC; the Salt Lake Tribune says Mormons’ “9/11 mosque” moment also occured a century ago, when the first Mormon U.S. senator was elected.

A federal judge blocked the Obama administration from funding human embryonic stem cell research, ruling that it violates a federal law barring the use of taxpayer money for experiments that destroy human embryos. The Ninith Circuit Court ruled that World Vision, the huge Christian charity, is exempt from laws prohibiting religious discrimination in hiring employees.

In its first-ever report to the UN Human Rights Council, the U.S. said a number of minority groups – including Muslims – face discrimination, but the country’s political system has the means to improve the situation. An Alaskan man who compiled a hit list of targets he called “enemies of Islam” was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison. Virginia, which only began hiring non-Protestant prison chaplains last year, doesn’t have nearly enough Muslim chaplains to accomodate its inmates.


James Dobson, founder of the Focus on the Family, will form a political action group. The family of a killed U.S. soldier is disappointed that prosecutors and Westboro Baptist Church reached a deal that will keep both sides out of court.

A report says the British government and the Roman Catholic church colluded to cover up the involvement of a priest in a 1972 bombing that killed nine people and injured 30 in Northern Ireland.

A retired Presbyterian minister is facing a church trial (again) for marrying gay couples. A Muslim woman has rejected Disney’s suggested compromise that she wear a hat-and-bonnet rather than her veil while onstage.

Britons will not be allowed to bring pets, booze or barbecue at open-air service conducted by Pope Benedict XVI next month. Catholics are split over whether it’s worthwhile to protest the Empire State Building’s refusal to honor Mother Teresa.

A country singer has written the worst song evuh about 9/11 and the so-called Ground Zero mosque. Listen here, if you dare.

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