Report: Fox News Co-Owner Funded 'Ground Zero mosque' Imam

[FrankRep]

Conclusion: The Ground Zero Mosque is just Manufactured Controversy, a distraction from the Real issues.


Report: Fox News Co-Owner Funded 'Ground Zero mosque' Imam (http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0821/fox-shareholder-funded-mosque-imam/)


Raw Story
August 21st, 2010



The second largest shareholder in News Corp. -- the parent company of Fox News -- has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to causes linked to the imam planning to build a Muslim community center and mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan, says a report from Yahoo!News.

According to the report from Yahoo!'s John Cook (http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100820/bs_yblog_upshot/news-corps-number-two-shareholder-funded-terror-mosque-planner), Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who owns seven percent of News Corp., "has directly funded [Imam Feisal Abdul] Rauf's projects to the tune of more than $300,000."

Cook reports that Prince Al-Waleed's personal charity, the Kingdom Foundation, donated $305,000 to Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow, a project sponsored by two of Rauf's initiatives, the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative, which is building the Manhattan mosque.

That Fox News' second-largest shareholder, after Rupert Murdoch, has financial links to the "Ground Zero mosque" will be seen as ironic by critics of the news network, who have watched with chagrin as the network's talking heads attempt to link the mosque to radical Islamism.

Last week, Daily Show host Jon Stewart lambasted Fox panelist Eric Bolling's attempt to link the Cordoba Initiative to Hamas and Iran. Stewart used News Corp.'s connections to Prince Al-Waleed, and the prince's connections to the Carlyle Group and Osama bin Laden to make a tongue-in-cheek argument that Fox News may be a "terrorist command center (http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0820/stewart-fox-terrorist-command-center/)."

"Stewart didn't need to take all those steps to make the connection," Cook writes.

Cook also reports that Prince Al-Waleed has in the past funded a number of Islamic organizations that have been maligned by Fox News commentators:


Al-Waleed donated $500,000 to the Council on American-Islamic Relations — which has been repeatedly denounced on Fox News's air by Geller and others as a terror group — in 2002. Indeed, Rauf's "numerous ties to CAIR" alone have been cited by the mosque's opponents as a justification for imputing terrorist sympathies to him, yet few people seem to be asking whether Murdoch's extensive multi-billion business collaboration with the man who funds both Rauf and CAIR merits investigation or concern.

Other beneficiaries of Al-Waleed's largess include the Islamic Development Bank, a project designed to "foster the economic development and social progress of [Muslims] in accordance with the principles of Shari'ah." The IDB funds the construction of mosques around the world, and has been implicated by frequent Fox News guest Stephen Schwartz in an attempt to spread radical Wahhabism (a fundamentalist branch of Islam) throughout the United States.

Cook notes that it was none other than News Corp.'s New York Post that reported (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/short_on_3UhQftAjXfFZq1fNURK3BM) on Prince Al-Waleed's donation to Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow. He reports that Fox News had no comment for his article, and emails to the prince's Kingdom Foundation were not returned.

Prince Al-Waleed owns an estimated $2.5-billion-worth of News Corp. Majority shareholder Rupert Murdoch recently took a stake (http://rawstory.com/2009/12/murdochs-news-corp-cements-ties-saudi-prince/) in the prince's Middle East-based media conglomerate, Rotana Group. Murdoch and Prince Al-Waleed are reportedly working on launching (http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0709/murdochs-news-corp-launch-arabic-fox-news/) an Arabic news network that will compete with existing pan-Arabic networks Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.


SOURCE:
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0821/fox-shareholder-funded-mosque-imam/

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Related:


Ground Zero Mosque Imam is Globalist Stooge; Council on Foreign Relations Member
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=257849

[Vessol]

The whole Islam versus The West is a game to them.

[Immortal Technique]

Distractions...........

[FrankRep]

Distractions...........

Exactly.

The Ground Zero Mosque is just Manufactured Controversy, a distraction from the Real issues.

[CoreyBowen999]

And this story means..? absolutely nothing.

[FrankRep]

And this story means..? absolutely nothing.

It means this whole thing is a big game. A mere Distraction.

[BlackTerrel]

Glen Beck criticizes FoxNews ownership

YouTube - Will This Get Glenn Beck Fired From Fox News? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN1MR99_kSE)

[Cowlesy]

I was going to go to the big protest and counter-protest at the Burlington Coat Factory today at 11am at the site of the Mosque, but then I decided to do nothing instead, which was much more productive than going to the protest or counter-protest.

[Zippyjuan]

Exactly.

The Ground Zero Mosque is just Manufactured Controversy, a distraction from the Real issues.

But you still keep posting thread on it. Hmm.

[FrankRep]

But you still keep posting thread on it. Hmm.
As long as people keep posting -- Build!! vs. Don't Build!! -- I will continue.

[dannno]

But you still keep posting thread on it. Hmm.

He's posting stories about how the entire thing is manufactured bullshit. That's pretty important to know, much more important than listening to the mind numbing god damn stupid contrived controversy.



And this story means..? absolutely nothing.


You don't think that fox news funding the Mosque, and then reporting 24/7 about how it shouldn't be built is NOTHING?! The biggest arm of the propaganda wing is manufacturing entire weeks worth of bullshit news, we expose it and you think it means NOTHING? Are you insane?

[angelatc]

It means this whole thing is a big game. A mere Distraction.

But it is an effective distraction. The GOP has managed to take away the momentum of small government conservatives.

[BlackTerrel]

You don't think that fox news funding the Mosque, and then reporting 24/7 about how it shouldn't be built is NOTHING?! The biggest arm of the propaganda wing is manufacturing entire weeks worth of bullshit news, we expose it and you think it means NOTHING? Are you insane?

It's a bit of a stretch to say that "FoxNews is funding the Mosque".

Assuming I believe the original post. Let's break it down.

1. Saudi Prince Al-Waleed is one of the richest people in the world. He is an investor in NewsCorp (Parent company of FoxNews) and owns 7% of it.

2. Saudi Prince Al-Waleed also funds a number of charities. One of his personal charities is called the Kingdom Foundation.

3. The Kingdom Foundation charity donates to a number of causes. One of those causes was a $305,000 check to a group called Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow.

4. Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow is sponsored by a number of initiatives including the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative.

5. Imam Rauf (the guy building the Mosque) runs (or is affiliated?) with the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative.

It's almost like that game 7 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Except more fun. It's the kind of "guilt by association" logic that FoxNews (and conspiracy theorists) love to do. It's also worthless.

If you take enough steps you can connect anyone to anything. Especially in the relatively small US Muslim community, if you are a prominent Muslim chances are you will be connected in some way to other prominent Muslims Anyone who has the resources to fund a $100 million dollar Mosque is going to be a prominent Muslim.

[dannno]

It's a bit of a stretch to say that "FoxNews is funding the Mosque".

Assuming I believe the original post. Let's break it down.

1. Saudi Prince Al-Waleed is one of the richest people in the world. He is an investor in NewsCorp (Parent company of FoxNews) and owns 7% of it.

2. Saudi Prince Al-Waleed also funds a number of charities. One of his personal charities is called the Kingdom Foundation.

3. The Kingdom Foundation charity donates to a number of causes. One of those causes was a $305,000 check to a group called Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow.

4. Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow is sponsored by a number of initiatives including the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative.

5. Imam Rauf (the guy building the Mosque) runs (or is affiliated?) with the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative.

It's almost like that game 7 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Except more fun. It's the kind of "guilt by association" logic that FoxNews (and conspiracy theorists) love to do. It's also worthless.

If you take enough steps you can connect anyone to anything. Especially in the relatively small US Muslim community, if you are a prominent Muslim chances are you will be connected in some way to other prominent Muslims Anyone who has the resources to fund a $100 million dollar Mosque is going to be a prominent Muslim.

I'm sorry you can't see the bigger picture.

[paulitics]

It's a bit of a stretch to say that "FoxNews is funding the Mosque".

Assuming I believe the original post. Let's break it down.

1. Saudi Prince Al-Waleed is one of the richest people in the world. He is an investor in NewsCorp (Parent company of FoxNews) and owns 7% of it.

2. Saudi Prince Al-Waleed also funds a number of charities. One of his personal charities is called the Kingdom Foundation.

3. The Kingdom Foundation charity donates to a number of causes. One of those causes was a $305,000 check to a group called Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow.

4. Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow is sponsored by a number of initiatives including the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative.

5. Imam Rauf (the guy building the Mosque) runs (or is affiliated?) with the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative.

It's almost like that game 7 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Except more fun. It's the kind of "guilt by association" logic that FoxNews (and conspiracy theorists) love to do. It's also worthless.

If you take enough steps you can connect anyone to anything. Especially in the relatively small US Muslim community, if you are a prominent Muslim chances are you will be connected in some way to other prominent Muslims Anyone who has the resources to fund a $100 million dollar Mosque is going to be a prominent Muslim.

The problem is the entire right wing establishment has portrayed an image of this mosque being built by Muslims (implying that is a large collective group) who are doing it to spit in the faces of the 911 victims families.

Then the narrative even takes an uglier turn by teaming "the Muslims", up with Obama, Pelosi, etc to make it sound like this is part of some grand anti-american agenda. Fox News, Beck, Limbaugh, are guilty of this. Since there may be a modicum of truth to the motivations of some liberals, then it becomes effective.

Then the left wing media gets to call white Christian racists, and have an element of truth to it by pointing at a few intolerant a-holes on cable news.

3 weeks of this nonstory, about pitting one collective against another, when average people have NO say whatsoever is just deplorable.

It's not about deals being made in smoke filled rooms, who cares, nobody knows for sure. But why should the story not be about this Iman and his motivations, instead of groups of people who have no say in this whatsoever?

[Brian4Liberty]

But it is an effective distraction. The GOP has managed to take away the momentum of small government conservatives.

Let's take our Red Herring test:

- Emotional? Check.
- Dedicated and vocal opposing forces, split approximately 50/50? Check.
- Utterly meaningless to the Oligarchy (except as a Red Herring)? Check.
- Religious, racial or ethnic undertones? Check.
- Mostly meaningless in fiscal government terms? Check.

Gentlemen (and Ladies), we have a Red Herring...

http://www.guitarsandaudio.com/extras/shite/red_herring3.jpg