The department is sponsoring Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's
visit to Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, where he will discuss
Muslim life in America and promote religious tolerance, spokesman P.J. Crowley
said. He said the imam had been on two similar trips and that plans for the
upcoming tour predated the mosque controversy.
"We have a long-term relationship with him,"
Crowley told reporters, noting that Rauf had visited Bahrain, Morocco, the
United Arab Emirates and Qatar in 2007 and went to Egypt last January as part
of an exchange program run by the State Department's Office of International
Information Programs.
"His work on tolerance and religious diversity is
well-known and he brings a moderate perspective to foreign audiences on what
it's like to be a practicing Muslim in the United States," Crowley said.
Rauf will not be allowed to raise funds for the proposed
center during the trip, Crowley said.
Two Republican members of Congress, Reps. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen and Peter King, called government sponsorship of Rauf's trip
"unacceptable" in a joint statement. They said he had suggested in at
least one interview that the United States was to blame for the 2001 attacks
and that taxpayer money should not be used to fund the tour.
"The State Department's selection of Feisal Abdul
Rauf to represent the American people through this program further calls into
question the administration's policy and funding priorities," Ros-Lehtinen
and King, who are the ranking members of the Foreign Affairs and Homeland
Security committees, said in their statement.
The mosque, to be located two blocks from ground zero,
would be part of a 13-story, $100 million Islamic center that would feature a
500-seat auditorium, a swimming pool and a gym. It's a project of the Cordoba
Initiative, an advocacy group that promotes improved relations between Islam
and the West.
The mosque has drawn vocal opposition from many relatives
of Sept. 11 victims and local and national Republican leaders. The
Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group, is also opposed.
Crowley said the Obama administration has no position on
Rauf's plans, which he termed a local zoning matter for New York. But he acknowledged
that the State Department had posted a transcript of New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberg's Aug. 3 speech defending the project on a website that it runs for
foreign audiences.
"We posted it because we thought it was useful for
people overseas to understand perspectives on this issue," Crowley said.
"We certainly support what the mayor was underscoring, which is the
history of religious diversity and religious tolerance in his city."
In addition to the original English language version of
Bloomberg's speech, the department has posted Arabic and Farsi translations of
the remarks in which the mayor adamantly rejected opposition to the mosque.
New York Gov. David Paterson on Tuesday offered state
assistance if developers agree to move the project farther from the Sept. 11
site. While saying he doesn't oppose the project as planned, the governor
indicated that he understands the views of its opponents and said he was
willing to intervene to seek other suitable state property.
"I think it's rather clear that building a center
there meets all the requirements, but it does seem to ignite an immense amount
of anxiety among the citizens of New York and people everywhere, and I think
not without cause," Paterson said during a news conference in Manhattan.
"I am very sensitive to the desire of those who are
adamant against it to see something else worked out," he said.
The developers declined to comment on Paterson's
suggestion. Bloomberg declined to comment through a spokesman.
