Feisal Abdul Rauf Quotes

Quotes about:

Country Islam Terrorism Tradition

The truth is that killing innocent people is always wrong - and no argument or excuse, no matter how deeply believed, can ever make it right. No religion on earth condones the killing of innocent people; no faith tradition tolerates the random killing of our brothers and sisters on this earth.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Brother, Truth, People

"What's Right with Islam: A New Vision for Muslims and the West". Book by Feisal Abdul Rauf, www.nytimes.com. May 11, 2004.

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Our enemy is not Islam. Islam is not the enemy of America; Americans are not the enemy of Islam. Our real enemy is extremism and radicalism.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Real, America, Enemy

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Koran says whoever believes in God in the last day shall be saved. It is a religion whose very name, Islam, comes from the word Shalom, which means peace. It's about establishing peace. We greet each other with peace be upon you, which the Jews do in greeting each other.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Believe, Mean, Names

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There are moderates in Israel. There are moderates in Iran, there are moderates in the Republican Party, moderates in the Democratic Party. What we need to do is we need link all of these moderates together and to figure out a way by which this particular coalition can speak to important issues to marginalize the voice of the extremists.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Party, Voice, Issues

"Creating A New Vision Of Islam In America". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. May 09, 2012.

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Bigotry toward any faith community cannot have any place in civilized society anywhere in the world.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Community, World, Civilized Society

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'Jihad' can mean holy war to extremists, but it means struggle to the average Muslim.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

War, Struggle, Mean

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Any organization or any individual that targets civilians and kills them for political agenda is a terrorist organization.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Organization, Political, Target

"Ground Zero mosque' imam sets the record straight on 'Hannity". "The Sean Hannity Show", www.foxnews.com. May 23, 2012.

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God says in the Quran that there is only one true religion, God's religion. It's the same theme that God revealed to all of the prophets, even before Muhammad.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Quran, Muhammad, Prophet

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The world wants to like America. The guiding values that Thomas Jefferson articulated so eloquently - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - resonate strongly around the world, transcending countless superficial and cultural differences, not because these are American values, but because they are universal values, embedded in the human heart.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

America, World, Want

"Imam Rauf: What's right with Islam". "TEDTalk Tuesdays", www.cnn.com. September 12, 2010.

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Sufis teach that we first must battle and destroy the evil within ourselves by shining upon it the good within, and then we learn to battle the evil in others by helping their higher selves gain control of their lower selves.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Self, Evil Within, Shining

"Imam Rauf: What's right with Islam" by Feisal Abdul Rauf, www.cnn.com. September 12, 2010.

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The fundamental idea which defines a human being as a Muslim is the declaration of faith: that there is a creator, whom we call God - or Allah, in Arabic - and that the creator is one and single. And we declare this faith by the declaration of faith, where we... bear witness that there is no God but God.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Ideas, Fundamentals, Bears

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Religion is defined by the relationship between God and man. And Islam is the submission and the acknowledgment of the human being to the creator.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Men, Islam, Submission

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My life has been devoted to peacemaking.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Peacemaking, Has Beens, Devoted

"Larry King Live" with Soledad O'Brien, transcripts.cnn.com. September 8, 2010.

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There are individuals who are working very hard to promote fear and antagonism towards Islam and Muslims in this country. It's fueled, in part, by the first African-American president that we have. Obama's father was a Muslim and people have used this to arouse hostility against him.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Country, Father, Working Very Hard

"Q&A with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf". Religion News Service Interview, www.washingtonpost.com. August 29, 2012.

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Americans must outgrow the unbecoming arrogance that leads us to assert that America somehow owns a monopoly on goodness and truth - a belief that leads some to view the world as but a stage on which to play out the great historical drama: the United States of America versus the Powers of Evil.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Drama, Views, Play

"Imam Rauf: What's right with Islam" by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, www.cnn.com. September 12, 2010.

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One of the misperceptions that exists in the Muslim world, which needs to be fixed, is the perception that Muslims in America are - are - are living in - in very, very, very bad circumstances. They cannot practice religion freely. It is not the truth at all. The fact is, we are practicing. We fast, we pray, we do our prayers.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Prayer, Practice, America

"This week" with Christiane Amanpour, abcnews.go.com. September 12, 2010.

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I as a Muslim want you, as a Christian, to really be a perfect Christian. I want my Jewish friends to be perfect Jews, to live according to the highest principles of what it means to be a Jew, to be a Christian, to be a Muslim.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Christian, Mean, Perfect

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Islamic law is clearly against terrorism, against any kind of deliberate killing of civilians or similar 'collateral damage.'

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Islamic, Law, Damage

"What's Right With Islam Is What's Right With America". Book by Feisal Abdul Rauf, www.nytimes.com. May 11, 2004.

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Staying chaste until marriage, a commandment of my faith, was one of the most difficult challenges of my young life. I had a powerful sense that if I did not get a grip on my identity, my ethics, and my religion, I would go off the rails.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Powerful, Challenges, Identity

Feisal Abdul Rauf (2012). “Moving the Mountain: Beyond Ground Zero to a New Vision of Islam in America”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

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The sources of human problems have to do with egotism, ‘I.’

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Problem, Source, Egotism

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What's brilliant about the United States system of government is separation of power. Not only the executive, legislative, judicial branches, but also the independence of the military from civilians, an independent media and press, an independent central bank.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Military, Independent, Media

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There are always people who will - who will do peculiar things and think that they are doing things in the name of their religion.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Thinking, Names, People

60 Minutes, www.nytimes.com. September 30, 2001.

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I was completely surrounded by religion from a young time. I was taught by my father. I engaged in discussions with him and many of these scholars who visited and came around the dining table, the lunch table, and attended many lectures with my dad. And so I learned the apprentice way.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Dad, Father, Lunch

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I read, read enormously on all different fields of Islamic thought, from philosophy to Islamic literature, poetry, exegeses, knowledge of the Hadith, the teachings of the prophet. That's how I trained myself. And then I was appointed imam by a Sufi master from Istanbul, Turkey.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Philosophy, Islamic, Teaching

"Creating A New Vision Of Islam In America". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. May 9, 2012.

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When I arrived in America, I experienced serious culture shock. For someone with a religious upbringing, the 1960s were an extremely difficult time. Even though religion was a big part of the civil rights and peace movements, in my college religion was treated as irrelevant, hopelessly stodgy, and behind the times.

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Religious, College, Rights

Feisal Abdul Rauf (2012). “Moving the Mountain: Beyond Ground Zero to a New Vision of Islam in America”, p.6, Simon and Schuster

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Born: 1948
Occupation: Imam
Cite this Page: Citation

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