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The Buffalo News – November 21, 2005
U.S. policies make Muslims distrustful, Arab leader says
By MARK SOMMER
A renowned Arab leader said in Buffalo on Sunday that U.S. missteps in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars - including the use of torture - have created deep distrust of the West throughout the Islamic world. Imam Feisal Rauf made his comments before speaking at the annual meeting of the Western New York chapter of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, held on the University at Buffalo's North Campus.
Rauf is founder of the Cordoba Initiative, a multifaith organization whose objective is to foster understanding between the Islamic world and the United States. He is also the imam of Masjid Al-Farah mosque in New York City and author of the 2004 best-selling book "What Is Right With Islam."
"Revelations [of torture by U.S. troops] in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and the suspension of Geneva Conventions have fueled perceptions that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are wars against the Muslim world, against Islam and intended to humiliate Muslims," Rauf said.
"It suggests the U.S. is not interested in human rights and that Muslims do not deserve human rights, and these are things that are deeply troubling to many, many Americans of conscience, and people of conscience throughout the world."
Rauf said he believed that the Bush administration hoped to achieve democratic objectives but has suffered from a lack of sensitivity toward Islamic society and culture, including the role of religion.
He expressed belief that some mistakes were being corrected and credited the Muslim Public Affairs Council with helping to bring Muslim sensitivities to the public's attention.
Already working against the West, Rauf said, has been its long history of working against Arab aspirations.
"To a large extent, Western foreign policy has actually been against the rise of democracy, and suppressed democracy and democratic regimes in the Muslim world," Rauf said.
He cited the 1953 CIA-sponsored coup of Iran's democratically elected leader, Mohammed Mossadegh; the West's support for suspending Algerian's elections in 1992 to stave off a likely Islamic government; and America's decades-long support of Saudi Arabia and other authoritarian Arab governments…..
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20051121/1007032.asp
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