Islamic Center Imam Speaks Out
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: So, as we begin this hour, speaking of overseas, I want to welcome the men and the women who are watching us right now on Armed Forces Network all over the world. We are your news of record at this hour. Here is your national conversation.</s>SANCHEZ (voice-over): Here is what is making the LIST on this day. The president asks this pastor to call off his plan to burn Korans this weekend. He says the action could threaten the U.S. and our troops overseas. Will the president's message convince this pastor? Hundreds of women told by this lab technician their mammograms were fine and they were cancer-free. The problem is the doctors, they never even saw or read the scans.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She put 1,289 lives in danger.</s>SANCHEZ: Now many of them may have cancer. Fear, destruction and death, the plot for a new reality TV show. Think "Punk'd," but Baghdad style. The lists you need to know about. Who's today's most intriguing? Who's landed on the list you don't want to be on? Who's making news on Twitter? It's why I keep a list. Pioneering tomorrow's cutting-edge news right now.</s>SANCHEZ: But at the very top of our LIST this hour, the planned Islamic center near ground zero. "The New York Times" did post that op-ed by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. With the article, we got our very first sense of where he's coming from on this planned center. Now, you just heard what George Pataki had to say about this, former governor of the state of New York. He was in fact governor on 9/11. So, soon after I did that interview, Imam Rauf came on CNN and answered some of those charges when he spoke to CNN's Soledad O'Brien. That was on "LARRY KING." I want you to hear this now, to hear from the imam himself, how he responds. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE") SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: And there are many people who have said, why not just go somewhere else?</s>IMAM FEISAL ABDUL RAUF, FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN, CORDOBA INITIATIVE: I understand the sensitivity of the people. I really do. And I'm very, very concerned about it. We've reached out and are still reaching out to 9/11 families.</s>O'BRIEN: Did you reach out to them before?</s>RAUF: Yes.</s>O'BRIEN: To all the families?</s>RAUF: Not to all the families, but to as many as we could reach, especially those who are very concerned about this issue.</s>O'BRIEN: Before you started the proposal?</s>RAUF: No, not before we started, but once this thing happened. I need to remind the audience that this story first broke last December in "The New York Times." It was a front page article in "The New York Times." And no one objected. This controversy only began in May. And it began as a result of some politicians, who decided to use this for certain political purposes. And this is when it began to snowball, Soledad.</s>O'BRIEN: So you think it's been politicized?</s>RAUF: Absolutely. This is very dangerous and tragic.</s>SANCHEZ: So, the imam, as you just heard, believes that this controversy is politicized, purely political. But, be that as it may, you still have to ask, why this location? Why not try and build it, for example, somewhere else? (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE") O'BRIEN: Wouldn't it further the goal of peacemaking, and you've talked a lot about it, to move it? Why is that an option that's of the table now?</s>RAUF: Nothing is off the table, Soledad.</s>O'BRIEN: It's not off the table?</s>RAUF: But we are consulting. We're talking to various people about how to do this so that we negotiate the best and the safest option. As I mentioned--</s>O'BRIEN: What are those conversations like? What's on the table?</s>RAUF: The biggest issue is the national security issue.</s>O'BRIEN: How do you pull out without looking like you've lost?</s>RAUF: Without making it look like -- without making it look, both in this country and in the Muslim world. You must remember, Soledad, and Americans must remember, that what we do is watched all over the world, all over the world. And we are very engaged with the Muslim world, very engaged. And our security is really number one. Our national security, our personal security, is extremely important. And this issue has become, now, a national security issue. And therefore, in our conversations, in our decision making process, we have to weigh many, many factors, and that has been dominant among them.</s>SANCHEZ: Now let's talk about the question of contributions. If you watched my interview with former New York Governor Pataki, you saw where he asked about the money. He wanted to know where the imam got the money to build this center. The imam told Soledad that he didn't actually have the money yet, that he would start a campaign to try and raise the money. Now let me play for you one last thing from the imam. He had a message of unity, as he described it, for people of all religions, he says for Jews and for Christians and for Muslims. Here he is. Take a listen. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE") RAUF: And more importantly -- well, we have freedom in this country, freedom of speech. But with freedom comes responsibility. And a famous saying to shot fire in a crowded theater. This is dangerous for our national security, but also it's the un-Christian thing to do. Jesus Christ didn't teach us to do that. We Muslims have a -- we look to the example of our prophet. Many Christians say what would Jesus do? Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek. Jesus taught us to love your enemy. We are not your enemies. But this is what Jesus taught us to do. And I would like to suggest that, you know, we all have to live by the highest principles of our faith traditions. As I mentioned, it's important -- I want Christians to live -- to be perfected Christians and I want Muslims to be perfected Muslims and Jews to be perfected Jews. If we don't do that, if we judge each other by the worst of the other's behavior and by the best of our own, where are we going?</s>SANCHEZ: And as this controversy continues, you can depend on CNN to bring you the most balanced coverage. Four hours from now, the NFL kicks off its regular season, so a lot of people are asking, what's going on with Tom Brady? What's he really thinking about? I'm going to have an update on his car accident. That's ahead. Also, three American hikers have spent more than a year behind bars in Iran, but now Iranian leaders say one of them will be released Saturday. Why and who is next on the LIST.