We can stop the mosque at Ground Zero if we exchange the multicultural point of view for a culturist point of view and prosecute the mosque’s primary backer, Imam Rauf, under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Passed in 1938, FARA initially focused on “subversive” political propaganda. The purpose of FARA is to insure that the U.S. Government and the people of the United States are informed of the source of information (propaganda) and the identity of persons attempting to influence U.S. public opinion, policy, and laws. Upon registering as a foreign agent, the public has access to the foreign agent’s records concerning the publicity campaigns, lobbying expenditures, funding flows, offices activities and disbursements in support of those activities. In addition, the Act also requires that informational materials (formerly called propaganda) be labeled with a conspicuous statement that the information is disseminated by the agents on behalf of the foreign principal.
The act was passed in response to German propaganda in the lead-up to World War II. Unfortunately, persons whose activities are of a "purely commercial nature or solely of a religious, scholastic, academic, scientific or fine arts nature are exempt. CAIR Unmasked, an organization dedicated to getting the Council of American – Islamic Relations, registered as a foreign agent, does not think religious status excuses Islamic organizations from compliance with FARA.
The problematic distinction between religious and political activities in our law stems from our confusing our culture with supposed global culture. We assume a separation of church and state. But this is a very western notion based on Jesus Christ’s order to “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Muhammed, the founder of Islam, was both a political, religious leader, and a warlord. Islam has no separation of church and state or mosque and state. In order for us to properly enforce FARA we must recognize that Islam is both a religious and a political system.
Two pieces of evidence underlay this contention. The first is the existence of Sharia courts. Sharia courts are Islamic religious courts. In Islamic jurisprudence, they decide civil as well as religious disputes. So when advancing Islam, foreign agents are also advancing a legal system. This proves that Islam is inherently political. Secondly, we must know that Islam is an expansive political system. Much like NAZI and Communist systems, we must recognize it as a competing aggressor. As evidence, we should remember that Islam nearly conquered Spain and Eastern Europe. They were only stopped from taking all of Europe by defensive military action. The very existence of the large “Muslim world” is evidence of successful military expansion.
The proposed mosque at Ground Zero of the 9 – 11 attacks is to be named “Cordoba House.” Cordoba was the capital of Spain under Muslim domination. This is an overt reference to a desire to re-establish hegemony over western lands. The fact that it is at the site of an Islamic attack on our greatest symbols of economic and military might, confirms this assertion. Multiculturalism tells us that we have no core culture. Furthermore its directive to “celebrate diversity” assumes that no cultures are aggressive or un-American or anti-western. We must take a culturist point of view that recognizes cultural diversity and competition. We, the West, have a non-Islamic culture to protect and a right to protect it from aggressors. We need to replace the multicultural point of view with a culturist point of view.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is the head of the effort to build a mosque at Ground Zero. He refuses to say where the $100 million for the mosque’s construction is coming from. We can only speculate that it must derive from Malaysia or Saudi Arabia. Were a brave politician to demand it, we could force him to register Imam Rauf as a foreign agent under FARA. This would mean that his books would be open and he would have to label his mosque as propaganda! Strengthened, FARA could then be used to forbid the mosque and the Saudi’s relentless building of mosques across America. The New York Post reports that the Kuwaiti born Rauf who is based in Malaysia has ties to the flotilla of jihadis that caused conflict with Israel. He provides a fantastic opportunity for a culturist application of FARA.
We need to reverse our multicultural blindness to cultures in general, we need to take a culturist approach to Islam and recognize it as a hostile political system. From this vantage point we need to get disclosure from the Islamic propagandist Imam Rauf under FARA in order to stop the travesty of a mosque being built at Ground Zero.
