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The imam has stepped into the fray before. Once, it was to address a French ban on girls wearing face-covering veils in public schools, other times, a Swiss prohibition on minarets and the burning of churches in Malaysia.

In those instances, he reminded his fellow Muslims of Islam's teachings: The burqa is a matter of style that only some Muslim countries embrace; the minarets are a matter of architecture, not religion; and firebombing churches did not sit well with Allah.
"If Muslims curse the Christians," he wrote for a Malaysian newspaper in January, "then the Christians will curse the Muslims. And people will curse Allah, and Allah will hold us responsible for that."

Such temperance is evident in many of the writings of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man behind plans to erect an Islamic center and mosque a few blocks from New York's ground zero. But in July, he turned his attention to critics of his plan -- in an effort to explain that the 9/11 conspirators no more represent Islam than abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph represents Christianity.
In a piece for The Washington Post's "On Faith" blog, which hosts a panel of intellectuals, clergy and journalists representing various religions, Rauf reminded readers that many Muslims -- even a Queens-reared ambulance driver -- died in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

"Religion did not distinguish the victims," he wrote. "Whether Protestant, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist, or from any and no professed faith, the roll call of people who died on that terrible day reflected the diverse fabric of New York. They all died together."

Those who know Rauf describe him as a thoughtful man, a bridge builder who seeks to unite all faiths but who won't parse words when he sees religion used for nefarious ends.

His diplomacy has landed him in trouble more than once. He has chided the U.S. for killing civilians in Baghdad. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, he told Ed Bradley of "60 Minutes" that "United States policies were an accessory to the crime."

His colleagues describe him as scholarly, quiet, visionary, serious, tireless, tolerant, open, not frivolous, gentle and bearing a "certain air of dignity."

"I really, at times, am appalled, disappointed, staggered by the lack of knowledge about Islam in America today," said Akbar Ahmed, a professor at American University in Washington and author of "Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam."
Rauf, said Ahmed, is a Sufi. If you break Islam into three categories, you would have traditionalists, modernists and mystics. Rauf falls into the last category.

Ahmed explained the divisions. Traditionalists believe things should be exactly like they were in the seventh century, that Muslims should behave, dress and eat like the Prophet. Modernists believe Islam can be balanced with the contemporary world, through politics, education, military or policy matters. Mystics, who include Sufis, are often the most tolerant Muslims, seeking harmony as well as interfaith and intercultural discourse.

Traditionalists would support Rauf's quest to construct a mosque, but would be suspicious of the Islamic center's planned athletic rooms and swimming pool, Ahmed said. They also would frown on efforts to include Jews and Christians in dialogue.
"Converting Rauf's objective [in New York] into something like a triumphalist monument to mock 9/11 marks a profound lack of knowledge, both of Rauf and of what is happening today," Ahmed said.

If Rauf backs down, he appears weak; if he goes forward, he appears insensitive, Ahmed said, suggesting "the Islamic way out of this impasse" would be to appeal "to the charity and compassion that lie at the heart of God."

Eboo Patel, the Muslim founder of the Interfaith Youth Core and a member of President Obama's advisory council for the Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, said he believes Rauf should build the mosque wherever U.S. law allows. The First Amendment demands it.

Rauf is a major player in the interfaith world and has spoken to groups that include Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims and humanists, said Patel, who has seen him speak "a dozen times from Louisville to London."

Whether speaking in a church, mosque or synagogue, the imam begins every speech with, "My dear brothers and sisters," Patel said. Rauf has "a deep commitment" to the tenets of Islam that call for mercy, compassion and service, he added.

He attributes the negativity surrounding Islam, the mosque and Rauf to a lack of understanding. It would be no different if people lacked knowledge about Judaism or Catholicism, he said.

"Too often that vacuum of knowledge is filled with negative information," he said. "We can't paint an entire religion with a brush of ugliness and violence."

One example of negative information, Ahmed said, involves claims Rauf is attempting to foist sharia, or Islamic law, on the United States.

Ahmed, who served as a high commissioner of Pakistan to the United Kingdom, said it's confusing how civil and criminal law, tribal law, state law and sharia can run parallel in Muslim countries, but sharia has the most limited application.
"Sharia is jurisprudence, simple as that," he said.

While many Americans associate sharia with stoning women for adultery or lashing Muslims for drinking beer, Ahmed said these are Taliban-style corruptions.

In the seventh century, Ahmed said, when tribal allegiances were paramount, theft was a particularly egregious crime. Thus, sharia dictated thieves would have their hands chopped off, but it wasn't always black-and-white.

There were "safety mechanisms," Ahmed explained, and mercy was granted for a variety of reasons. If the thief had starving children or if there was a famine, among other caveats, the punishment could not be meted out.

The sharia the West hears about in Saudi Arabia or Taliban-controlled Afghanistan has been stripped of such safety mechanisms, Ahmed said. He called it a "distorted, violent interpretation of Islam," one to which Rauf would not adhere.

Patel had particularly harsh words for those who say Rauf wants to bring a brutal brand of Islam to America or that he is attempting to denigrate those who died on September 11, 2001.

"Not only is that laughable, but it's bigoted. It's patently false, and intended as a smear," he said.

Rauf has spent his life building bridges, and it's "shocking," Patel said, that his opponents would ignore his vast body of work to home in on a few inflammatory comments.

According to the American Society for Muslim Advancement, which Rauf founded in 1997, the 62-year-old imam has headed the Masjid al-Farah mosque -- about 12 blocks from ground zero -- since 1990.

His credentials are extensive, as are his writings, which include several books, "Islam: A Sacred law," "Quran for Children" and "What's Right With Islam is What's Right With America" among them.

His father spearheaded the construction of a mosque in Manhattan and headed the Islamic Center of New York before taking over the Islamic Center in Washington.

It was at the Washington center's office complex that Rauf's father and nine others, including a reverend, were taken hostage by Hanafi Muslim gunmen in 1977, according to The Washington Post.

After the ordeal ended and Rauf's father heard gunmen had also taken hostages at Jewish and Christian houses of worship, he invited Jews to the Islamic Center, saying, "Now we are one," according to The Post's March 1977 article detailing the siege.

Most recently, the U.S. State Department has tapped him to travel to Muslim countries and expand the aims of his Cordoba Initiative, which strives to build bridges between Muslims and the West.

A news release from the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi last month reported Rauf spoke to a group of businesspeople and discussed the diversity of American Muslims.

"He answered questions from participants on topics including how Muslims, and especially Muslim women, can become involved in interfaith dialogue and help counter negative perceptions of Islam," the news release stated.

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