Who Is Funding The NYC Mosque? Fox News!

Last week I reported that News Corp, the parent of Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and more, made a donation of $1 million to the Republican Governors Association. It’s bad enough that a major media company is bankrolling GOP campaigns and still pretending to be fair and balanced when they report on those campaigns, but things just got even crazier.

For weeks there has been a raging battle over the proposed construction of an Islamic community and prayer center a couple of blocks away from the site of the former World Trade Center. One of the most frequently repeated criticisms by opponents of the Park51 project is that they wanted to know where the money was coming from. In the absence of that information they alleged, without proof, that the center was being funded by terrorists or groups sympathetic to terrorists.

Mosque at Ground ZeroWell now we know precisely where some that funding came from. It has now been revealed that Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, News Corp’s largest shareholder outside of the Murdoch family, has donated over $300,000 to organizations run by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the principal planner of Park51. One of those organizations was the Park51 project itself.

So now that we know that a major shareholder of News Corp is providing funding to Imam Rauf to build the center, will the critics be satisfied and drop their complaints? Will they expand their attacks to include News Corp and Rupert Murdoch? Will they even hear about it on their favorite cable news network, Fox News (who never bothered to report on the million dollar gift to the GOP)?

If this center is such an affront to the victims and survivors of 9/11, then isn’t News Corp and Fox News partly responsible for it? I wouldn’t be too surprised if it was all part of a plot to generate a controversy that would advantage them politically as well as boost their ratings.

Furthermore, if the insult that critics allege is due to the mosque being “near” the site where thousands of Americans were killed, then shouldn’t they also oppose any mosques being built in Iraq? More Americans were killed there than at the WTC on 9/11. Doesn’t that make Iraq “hallowed ground” as well?

I really can’t fathom why a building that is nothing more than an Islamic YMCA is causing such a ruckus. I think it is far more insulting to exploit 9/11, and to use the painful images from that day in crass political advertising. That’s exactly what Republican Roy Blunt has done here, in an ad that takes his opponent, Robin Carnahan, to task for not opposing the center. The ad features a video of the smoking WTC ruin with a voiceover of Carnahan saying…

“I’m not gonna try to tell folks in New York what to do, and I don’t want them trying to tell us in Missouri what to do. So in the end it’s gonna have to be their decision. But, you know, I think this a time when we ought to be trying to get people of all faiths to come together, not divide them.”

If I didn’t know better I would think that’s an ad for Carnahan. What’s wrong with that statement? It’s an affirmation of Missourians interests and a call for peace and brotherhood. Apparently Blunt is against those things.

Another exploitative and disturbing ad was from New York Republican Rick Lazio. In fact he has two of them here and here. Both ads urge his opponent, Andrew Cuomo, to initiate an investigation into the Park51 project. Lazio is one of those who is seeking to ascertain the funding sources. Of course now we know that all he needs to do is ask his hosts the next time he appears on Fox News.

This Just In: Not only is Alwaleed, the News Corp shareholder, a financial backer of Imam Rauf, but Rupert Murdoch’s book division, HarperCollins, is the publisher of Rauf’s book, What’s Right with Islam Is What’s Right With America. When will the right-wingers start to hold Murdoch & Co. accountable?

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14 thoughts on “Who Is Funding The NYC Mosque? Fox News!

  1. Not only are they overreacting to the proposed mosque, it’s funny how no one has said anything about the office building that has been under construction since 2006 AT Ground Zero. There will be a museum and memorial as part of the building, but the majority of it will be an office building to be known as 1 World Trade Center. Strange how no one has go on and on about “hallowed ground” over what is actually being built at Ground Zero. Hypocrite is thy name, Republicans.

  2. Not to mention that it’s *not* a mosque! A mosque is a holy building used *exclusively* for religious purposes.

    • The non-mosque that is at not-groundzero is a non-story that, for some reason, has bewitched the not-media.

  3. The Prince has this thing sussed. He fulfils the religious obligation to give alms and then let the Aussie lizard man make it back for him. He ought to win an award from the Club for Growth.

  4. are you serious? So Fox News and News Corp decide how Prince Alwaleed bin Talal spends his own money now?

    • You know, anyone who ever received a donation from George Soros for anything, no matter how small or insignificant or deserving, is immediately castigated as being part of some radical leftist cabal bent on destroying America. But when the largest shareholder of News Corp outside of the Murdoch family is revealed to be a prominent backer of Rauf, the dementia of right-wingers permits them to dismiss it.

      That’s an acute case of hypocritical tunnel-blindness. Alwaleed is much closer to Murdoch than the guilt-by-association blackboard myths that Glenn Beck engages in. It’s not just his investment in News Corp. Rupert Murdoch has also invested tens of millions in Alwaleed’s Saudi media conglomerate, Rotana. This is not a casual acquaintance.

      The point here is NOT that Alwaleed or Murdoch or Fox News should be attacked for Alwaleed’s philanthropy. It’s that the critics who are hyperventilating about imaginary terrorist financiers of Park51 fall silent when they find out (if they find out) that the money comes from someone connected to their beloved rightist media hero rather than from Al Qaeda.

      • Mark,

        I don’t care what George Soros does with his money. why other people care-I just don’t get. Now for the park51 story: I’ve been silent on the whole thing and don’t really care. The building is not a “mosque”, it’s not at Ground Zero. I (now)get your point.

    • And I always appreciate knowledgeable, substantive comments that are based on reason.

      I’m sure your contribution to this debate is the best that you can do. Give my regards to the rest of your remedial class, and remember, you’re special.

    • omg you just destroyed her… hahahahaha

  5. UPDATE- Saw the replay of F&F where they are all wound up about “this guy” who Rudy woundn’t take money from and “this guy” who is funding the project. They never mention his NAME and sure don’t show his picture. Should be hilarious to see how this plays out.

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