Com­ment: In the increas­ing­ly Kafkaesque polit­i­cal land­scape in this coun­try, noth­ing high­lights the intel­lec­tu­al and moral bank­rupt­cy of both sides of the polit­i­cal aisle than the debate over the “9/11 Mosque.” Con­ser­v­a­tive ele­ments have cor­rect­ly not­ed the links of Feisal Abdul Rauf and asso­ciates to the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, as well as dis­turb­ing indi­ca­tions that his much-bal­ly­hooed “mod­er­a­tion” may be large­ly illu­so­ry.

As Pres­i­dent Oba­ma has cor­rect­ly not­ed, Muslims–like mem­bers of oth­er faiths–MUST have free­dom to wor­ship as they please. Reli­gious free­dom is an unshak­able tenet of Amer­i­can soci­ety. So, how­ev­er, is the rule of law and sep­a­ra­tion of church and state. The Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (with which Rauf is clear­ly asso­ci­at­ed) is an Islam­ic fas­cist orga­ni­za­tion that advo­cates the world­wide imple­men­ta­tion of sharia–Islamic law–including the Unit­ed States. Rauf him­self has made state­ments indi­cat­ing that he is of sim­i­lar mind­set.

Con­ser­v­a­tive com­men­ta­tor Alyssa Lap­pen has chron­i­cled Rauf, his fam­i­ly his­to­ry and pro­fes­sion­al asso­ci­a­tions.

“Feisal Abdul Rauf” by Alyssa Lap­pen; Inves­tiga­tive Report Pre­pared for ACT! for Amer­i­ca.

On the oth­er hand, the GOP and their allied ele­ments stead­fast­ly ignore the ongo­ing and deci­sive links between Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, the Bush admin­is­tra­tion, the GOP and the Mus­lim Brotherhood/Bank al Taqwa milieu.

The so-called “pro­gres­sive” sector–Pacifica Radio in particular–is com­plic­it with the same ele­ments, laud­ing con­vict­ed ter­ror asso­ciate and George W. Bush polit­i­cal ally Sami al-Ari­an.

Nor has the GOP and it allies touched on the links of Mus­lim Broth­er­hood lynch­pin Prince Alwaleed of Sau­di Ara­bia to News­corp (he’s the sec­ond largest stock­hold­er, behind the Mur­dochs.)

It turns out that Alwaleed, too, has con­tributed to the sup­port of Rauf.

“News Cor­p’s Num­ber-Two Share­hold­er Fund­ed ‘Ter­ror Mosque’ Plan­ner” By John Cook; Yahoo.com; 8/20/2010.

Excerpt: . . . Indeed, as none oth­er than Rupert Mur­doch’s New York Post report­ed last May, the King­dom Foun­da­tion, al-Waleed’s per­son­al char­i­ty, has donat­ed a total of $305,000 to Mus­lim Lead­ers of Tomor­row, a lead­er­ship and net­work­ing project spon­sored joint­ly by two of Rauf’s orga­ni­za­tions, the Amer­i­can Soci­ety for Mus­lim Advance­ment and the Cor­do­ba Ini­tia­tive. Al-Waleed owns a 7 per­cent, $2.3 bil­lion stake in News Cor­po­ra­tion. Like­wise, News Cor­po­ra­tion owns a 9 per­cent, $70 mil­lion stake — pur­chased in Feb­ru­ary — in Rotana, Al-Waleed’s Sau­di media con­glom­er­ate. Put anoth­er way: Rupert Mur­doch and Fox News are in busi­ness, to the tune of bil­lions of dol­lars, with one of the “Ter­ror Mosque Imam’s” prin­ci­pal patrons. . . .