N.Y. mosque imam in Mideast for outreach tour

The 15-day trip is being funded by the State Department

Craig Ruttle / AP

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, executive director of the Cordoba Initiative, addresses a gathering as groups planning a proposed Islamic center two blocks from the World Trade Center site spoke about their plans at a community board meeting in New York.

updated 8/19/2010 4:10:40 PM ET

MANAMA, Bahrain — The imam leading plans for an Islamic center near the Manhattan site of the Sept. 11 attacks began a U.S.-funded outreach tour of the Middle East Thursday to talk about religious tolerance in America.

The U.S. State Department said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf arrived in Bahrain for the start of a 15-day tour in which he will discuss Muslim life in America.

"He will be visiting mosques," said department spokesman P.J. Crowley. "He will be involved in direct discussions to help people in the countries he'll visit understand the role of religion in our society, how American Muslims celebrate Ramadan, how we emphasize religious tolerance in our society."

The trip — estimated to cost about $16,000 — is funded by the State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs and will include visits to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Details of the imam's specific plans in each country have been closely guarded — possibly in reaction to the rancor in the United States over plans proposed by the imam's organization, The Cordoba Initiative, for an Islamic cultural center near the site of the World Trade Center towers.

Crowley said he would be recording short lectures for Bahraini television to take advantage the expanded audiences during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and could even address the controvery of the new Islamic center.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he talks about the ongoing debate within the United States, as an example of our emphasis on religious tolerance and resolving questions that come up within the rule of law," he said.

The department said Rauf will get a daily $200 honorarium for the tour. Airfare is included, as well as the standard federal government per diem for expenses and lodging in each of the cities he will visit, spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

The published maximum per diem rate for U.S. government employees in Manama is $396, in Doha it is $341, and in Abu Dhabi it is $496.

Rauf will not be allowed to raise funds for the mosque on the trip, Crowley told reporters.

Rauf's tour has drawn attention because of his plans to build an Islamic center in lower Manhattan near ground zero. Foes of the project say it is insensitive and disrespectful to the victims of 9/11 and their families. The debate has become politicized ahead of November's midterm congressional elections.

According to the State Department, it will be Rauf's fourth U.S.-government sponsored trip. He traveled twice to the Middle East in 2007 during the Bush administration and once earlier this year.

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38773262/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

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Muslims Lobbying to Worship in Spain's Cordoba Cathedral

(Photo: AP Photo / Manu Fernandez, File)
In this Aug. 6, 2009 file photo, tourists visit what was formerly the Great Mosque of Cordoba in southern Spain. The mosque was transformed into a cathedral in 1236 when King Ferdinand III captured the city from the Moors. Since then, except on rare occasions, Muslim prayer rites have been forbidden inside.


While the dispute over the proposed Cordoba House near New York City’s Ground Zero has been highly publicized over the past few months, less known is the debate over Spain’s Cordoba Cathedral, which was formerly the Great Mosque of Cordoba.

For quite some time now, Muslim groups have tried to convince leaders of the Cathedral of Cordoba in southern Spain to allow the Catholic church to be used for both Muslim and Christian worship as the site still remains significant for many Muslims.

The Bishop of Cordoba, Demetrio Fernandez, however, says sharing the space with Muslims would be like a man sharing his wife with another man.

"There are things that are shared and others that are not, and the Cathedral of Cordoba is not shared with Muslims," said Fernandez, according to the Spanish-language Europa Press.

Built in the 8th century after the Moorish invasion of Spain, the Cordoba house of worship was transformed from a mosque into a cathedral in 1236 when King Ferdinand III captured the city of Cordoba from the Moors.

Since then, except on rare occasions, Muslim prayer rites have been forbidden inside.

Earlier this year, in April, there was a scuffle between police officers and Muslim tourists from Austria who were trying to pray in what was once the Great Mosque of Cordoba.

Historically, however, relationships between Christians and Muslims in Cordoba have been cordial. The city is known as the City of Three Cultures because Muslims, Jews and Christians lived there in harmony during medieval times.

And today, for many, that still holds true.

Fernandez told the Europa Press back in June that his church reportedly has "a good relationship with Muslims" and wants to collaborate with Muslims in search of "peace, justice and coexistence between peoples."

“But that is one thing," he said. "[It's] another, very different, to want to share the same temple for worship, which is neither possible for Muslims nor for Catholics," he stated.

Despite the bishop’s rejections, efforts to open Cordoba Cathedral for Muslim prayer and worship are ongoing.

Mansur Escudero, who is leading a movement that is pushing for the right of Muslims to pray at the Cordoba Cathedral, said the issue is not only important for Muslims but for humankind.

The Spanish convert to Islam told CNN recently that the sharing of Cordoba Cathedral would be “a beautiful paradigm of tolerance, knowledge, culture.”

“We want it to be a place where anyone – whether Muslim, Christian or Jew – can do his meditation or his internal way of worshiping, or praying or whatever he wants to call it," he added.

Presently, Roman Catholics make up 94 percent of Spain’s 40 million-large population while Muslims make up a little more than two percent. The city of Cordoba is home to around 330,000 people.

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Source: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100818/muslims-lobbying-to-worship-in-spains-cordoba-cathedral/

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