Who's paying for the ground zero Islamic center? - CNN.com

Who's paying for the ground zero Islamic center? - CNN.com: "(CNN) -- In June, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man behind the proposed ground zero mosque, was asked on live radio if he believed Hamas is a terrorist organization.

This isn't a difficult question: Hamas employs suicide bombers and fires incendiary rockets at civilian targets within Israel. It calls for the destruction of the Jewish state followed by the establishment of a potentially fundamentalist and repressive regime.

Governments all over the world, including the United States and the European Union, rightfully consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization that willfully and indiscriminately targets innocent civilians. Yet Imam Rauf, after being asked this simple, straightforward question, refused to state whether or not he believed Hamas to be a terrorist organization. He said: 'I will not allow anybody to put me in a position where I am seen by any party in the world as an adversary or as an enemy.'

Now Imam Rauf wants to build and lead a $100 million, 13-story community center and mosque. It would be constructed on property currently occupied by a historic 150-year-old building that was seriously damaged by the landing gear of one of the hijacked jetliners that flew into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and he wants to unveil it on September 11, 2011.