The State Department is apparently sending Imam Faisal Rauf to Muslim nations abroad to lecture on how "Islam is perceived in America." Cue Republican outrage:
“It is unacceptable that US taxpayers are being forced to fund Feisal Abdul Rauf's trip to the Middle East,” say Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) of Florida and Peter King (R) of New York in a statement issued Tuesday. “This radical is a terrible choice to be one of the faces or our country overseas. The USA should be using public diplomacy programs to combat extremism,” they add, “not to endorse it.”
Rauf's "extremism" is an invention. Of course, before he planned to build an Islamic community center near Ground Zero, Republicans didn't have any problem with him going on such missions:
“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,” State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley said Tuesday. He added that the department’s public-diplomacy offices “have a long-term relationship with” Rauf – including during the past Bush administration, when the religious leader undertook a similar speaking tour.
Of course, after spending the last few months being smeared as a terrorist sympathizer, I can kind of understand why some people might be worried about what he might have to say about how "Islam is perceived in America."
