Govt Promotion of Islam? State Dept. Pressed For Imam Book Explanation

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee wants the State Department to explain its use of taxpayer funds to purchase and distribute Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s book What’s Right With Islam.

“Certainly Senate Foreign Relations Committee members will want some briefing from the State Department,” Andy Fisher, the spokesman for Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations told HUMAN EVENTS. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass), the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had no immediate reaction to the controversy.

On the House side, Rep. Ilena Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), ranking Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, is “looking into the matter.” Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) would not comment as of press time.

The State Department spent $10,000 of taxpayer funds to buy 2,000 copies of the book written by Ground Zero mosque promoter Feisal Abdul Rauf. U.S. embassy employees are distributing the book during the imam’s taxpayer-funded tour to Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

But the arrangement calls into question whether the U.S. government’s funding of a book which promotes the Muslim religion is in violation of the 1st Amendment’s separation of church and state.

The State Department defends the right to distribute this book by saying the book is not “religious.” An official told HUMAN EVENTS that “we would consider a religious book to be something like the Koran and the Bible. We look at those as book on religion or books about religious.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)—which litigates against Christian symbols such as the cross and Ten Commandments in public places—refused to comment on the Islamic book controversy.

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