http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=191797Two days after President Obama came out in support of a plan to build an Islamic cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero, the controversial project has received yet another high-profile endorsement – this one from the chief of the terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
"We have to build the mosque, as you are allowed to build the church and Israelis are building their holy places," stated Mahmoud al-Zahar, a co-founder of Hamas who is regarded as the chief of the group in Gaza.
Zahar said that as Muslims, "We have to build everywhere."
"In every area we have, [as Muslims] we have to pray, and this mosque is the only site of prayer, especially for the people when they are looking [to be] in the group, not an individual," he said.
Zahar was speaking in a radio interview today with Aaron Klein, WND's Jerusalem bureau chief and host of investigative show on New York's WABC Radio.
Zahar told Klein he was speaking on the mosque issue with authority, claiming Hamas "is representing the vast majority of the Arabic and Islamic world, especially the Islamic side."
Zahar said that Muslims around the world, including those in the U.S., are united in a common cause.
Stated the Hamas chieftain: "First of all, we have to address that we are different as people, as a nation totally different. We already are living under the tradition of Islam. ... Islam is controlling every source of our life as regard to marriage, divorce, our commercial relationships. ... Even the Islamic people or the Muslims in your country, they are living now in the tradition of Islam. They are fasting, they are praying."
New York Islamic leader Faisal Abdul Rauf, president of the Cordoba Initiative, has caused a stir with his proposed 13-story, $100 million Islamic cultural center and mosque near the corner of Park Place and West Broadway – about two blocks from the site of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
Rauf sparked controversy last month when he refused during a live interview on Klein's WABC show to condemn violent jihad groups as terrorists. Rauf repeatedly refused on the air to affirm the U.S. designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization or call the Muslim Brotherhood extremists.
The Brotherhood openly seeks to spread Islam around the world, while Hamas is committed to Israel's destruction and is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks aimed at Jewish civilian population centers.
During the interview, Klein also asked Rauf who he believes was responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.
"There's no doubt," stated Rauf. "The general perception all over the world was it was created by people who were sympathetic to Osama bin Laden. Whether they were part of the killer group or not, these are details that need to be left to the law-enforcement experts."
Rauf has been on record several times blaming U.S. policies for the Sept. 11 attacks. He has been quoted refusing to admit Muslims carried out the attacks.
Referring to the Sept. 11 attacks, Rauf told CNN, "U.S. policies were an accessory to the crime that happened. We (the U.S.) have been an accessory to a lot of innocent lives dying in the world. Osama bin Laden was made in the USA."
Topic: Hamas chief on 9/11 mosque: 'Islam must build everywhere' (Read 2125 times)