Feisal Abdul Rauf

Faisal Abdul Rauf is a Muslim religious leader who is spearheading the construction of an Islamic cultural center three blocks from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. The media have dubbed the project the "Ground Zero Mosque" from its nearness to Ground Zero and because it will include a mosque.

Faisal has blamed America for harming Muslims.

In an interview with Ed Bradley shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Faisal described Muslim opposition to America's foreign policy as "a reaction against the US government politically, where we espouse principles of democracy and human rights, and where we ally ourselves with oppressive regimes in many of these countries."

He told Bradley:

• I wouldn't say that the United States deserved what happened, but united states policies were an accessory to the crime that happened ... Because we have been accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. In fact, in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.

External Links

• Feisal Abdul Rauf: The Man Behind The 'Ground Zero Mosque' - Huffington Post
• Individual Profile on Faisal Abdul Rauf
• The Cordoba Initiative