Interview With Cordoba Movement Founder Imam Faisal Rauf
BLITZER: You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Happening now, payback for some African-American farmers and Native Americans. Just minutes from now, President Obama is expected to sign into law a bill settling their long-standing lawsuits against the federal government. We're going to show you what happens. And a space-age first. A commercial company takes a monumental step toward creating the next vehicle for space travel. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. An American-Muslim is in police custody charged with plotting to bomb a military recruiting station in Baltimore. The incident is prompting new concerns about what seems to be a growing number of such cases in the United States. I spoke about that and more with Imam Faisal Rauf, he's the founder of the Cordoba Movement, the spiritual leader of the proposed new cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero in New York. And I asked him specifically whether he thinks there's a bigger problem right now with American-Muslims being recruited for jihad.</s>IMAM FEISAL RAUF, FOUNDER, THE CORDOBA MOVEMENT: No doubt, there is a problem. And this is why it's important for us to end this spiral, this downward spiral of discourse, of hatred, of animosity between America and Islamic world and Americans. And this is why I'm launching the Cordoba Movement, which is a multifaith, multinational movement focusing on reversing this cycle of hatred and creating an opposite cycle of tolerance and hopefully, even harmony and love. This is what we need to work on.</s>BLITZER: It's in contradiction to Anwar al-Awlaki, the American- born cleric in Yemen right now whose got a website together with others that are aggressively seeking to recruit American-Muslims to fight against the United States. What's the best way to stop these kinds of guys?</s>RAUF: We have to -- we have to end this downward spiral by creating the opposite. One of the things that happened very positively from our experience this summer was the optics in the Muslim world of the mayor of New York City, the politicians of New York City, the interfaith community supporting our attempts to establish a center. There was just in the Sunday edition of "New York Style" magazine, it quoted a Bahraini newspaper who said, this support for the American community for our community center was the best propaganda, the best PR that could possibly happen for America. So what we have learned, Wolf, is that we can actually end this spiral and we have to engage with it and push back against it. We cannot let it dominate the discourse. Just last night, I met with a number of the 9/11 families and community, survivors, family members and entities whom we have committed ourselves to engaging with in changing this discourse not only about the center but the larger issue of faith and beliefs, what America stands for, what Muslims stand for and how we can reclaim the discourse from these extremists. We have extremists in the Muslim world, extremists in all faith traditions and when this happens, when you have an Awlaki make something and then you have a pastor threatening to burn the Koran, you create -- and the extremists feed on each other. We need to change it because the battlefront is not between Islam and the West, but when the moderates of all faith traditions, including atheists and agnostics, and the extremists of all faith traditions, including the extremists who are agnostic.</s>BLITZER: Are American-Muslims doing enough to join you in this fight? Are you satisfied with what your fellow American-Muslims are doing?</s>RAUF: We need to do more. We are stretched, we are -- we are -- but we need to do more and we cannot do this alone. We need to organize better. We need to partner better and this has to be a joint effort between Muslims and members of other faith traditions. This is the only way can do it.</s>BLITZER: Let's talk about the cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero. How much money have you actually raised for it so far?</s>RAUF: We have yet to begin a capital campaign. All that has happened is the developer put together and a group of investors who acquired the property. We have yet to begin a capital campaign to raise the money for that, and that is the work and focus of the developer. On his focus is the real estate and the development and the raising of the money for that development. But what has happened is that my focus was been, was before and will continue to be on how we can actually win the peace and how do we wage the peace against the extremists who have hijacked the discourse. And that's what we aim to do and that is why we've founded this movement, cordobamovement.org. I encourage your listeners to visit our website and learn more about our projects, our programs, our approaches on how to win the peace and register the voice.</s>BLITZER: All right, there was a story on "The Daily Beast" by our CNN contributor John Avlon saying your group has actually applied for some federal funding for the cultural center. Is that true?</s>RAUF: Well, the developer, I understand, has developed for the Lower Manhattan development funding, which was funding established for the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan. This is what I do understand, yes.</s>BLITZER: Because there's been criticism Irshad Manji, I know you know who she is, the author of "The Trouble With Islam." She was quoted in that "The Daily Beast" as article saying, "The New Yorkers I speak with have questions about Park 51," which is the name of the cultural center, "Requesting money from public coffers without engaging the public shows a staggering lack of empathy, especially from a man who says he's all about dialogue." Do you want to respond to Irshad Manji?</s>RAUF: Absolutely. I mean, I have focused myself on dialogue. My track record speaks for itself. And as I told you, we were engaged with the 9/11 survivors and families yesterday and they recognize that this is going to be the important. One of the ladies president yesterday said, look, I don't want my daughter to grow up hating anybody. Another gentleman who was a 9/11 survivor said, you know, I was in a stairwell and I was surrounded by Muslims and we were all looking to survive together. There are many important stories and they're concerned. And their major concern is how the discourse has been -- has become so vitriolic and one of hatred and accusatory voices. So we are working together with them to create programming in the immediate future on how we can actually reclaim the dialogue.</s>BLITZER: Are you at all considering moving the proposed cultural center and mosque from that location near Ground Zero to a less controversial location?</s>RAUF: At the moment, the dream is still alive to establish this center, because the issue is not really about the real estate. This issue is about the broader problems between -- and the perception between Muslims and members of other faith communities. Let me remind you, the issue that happened and the controversy this last summer is not about just our proposed center. There were many, many -- which was intended to be a community center open to all. There were three, four, five, six other mosques, proposed mosques around the country, from the Midwest and Tennessee, in San Diego, that also received criticism. So what really appeared was really an anti- Islam sentiment which was whipped up and fanned, and this is very, very dangerous.</s>BLITZER: So I just want to be precise. As of now, you still want to build it at that location?</s>RAUF: This is our dream, yes.</s>BLITZER: Imam Feisal Rauf, thanks very much for coming in.</s>RAUF: Thank you so much for having me, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: The backlash against WikiLeaks has unleashed a series of hacker attacks on credit card Web sites and other major online targets. Stand by. We have the latest. And a foreign country's newly filed lawsuit against the former vice president of the United States, Dick Cheney.