Photo by shizhao @ Wikipedia

There are many reasons to oppose New York Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s plans to building a mosque and “cultural learning center” two blocks away from Ground Zero.  The perception that you’re slapping the faces of 9/11 victims’ families is only one of them, and surely Imam Feisal has to know this when he began the project.  It’s poor judgment at best.

However, some pundits have taken it upon themselves to pull the fearmongering card to express their opposition to the mosque.  When I stumbled across the article on the mosque controversy at Michelle Malkin’s site yesterday, the word “Sharia” naturally caught my attention.  Seeing that, I thought it worthy of further research.  Does Feisel follow and promote Sharia law at his current New York mosque on West Broadway Ave?

If he does, I can find no evidence of it.  In fact, the mosque, the Masjid al-Farah, appears to have Sufism as its denomination.  I don’t know a whole lot about Sufism, but what I do know is that it tends to be one of the most tolerant and non-fundamentalist branches of Islam.  While Wiki tells me that some branches do follow Sharia, I can find absolutely no evidence that it is taught by Imam Feisal.

That is not to say that Feisal has not been controversial on occasion.  He has made some “blame the West” statements, but not really anything that suggests Feisal is a violent radical.  I’ve seen worse from some non-Muslim leftists, and of course Muslim radicals.

So, while plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero may be insensitive, that bad judgment is what we should focus on, not baseless fearmongering.