Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, an American-Muslim leader at the forefront of debate over construction of a Muslim community center near Ground Zero, will visit the Hilltop this spring to address controversy.
Rauf, one of the most influential Muslim leaders in the United States, became one of the public faces of the nonprofit group Park51 after the organization announced its controversial plan to build an Islamic community center near the site of the World Trade Center. He will be visiting a number of cities and college campuses across the United States to speak about the Cordoba Initiative’s — a group he heads dedicated to improving relations between the West and the Islamic world — mission and advocate for the Park51 center in downtown Manhattan.
“The major purpose [of this tour] is to make people aware of what America means as a country that protects the right to freedom of religion,” Rauf said in a statement given to the Associated Press on Dec. 24.
Rauf’s visit to Georgetown later this spring will not be his first interaction with the university. On Aug. 24, Rauf visited the School of Foreign Service campus in Doha, Qatar, where he spoke about the Park51 building plans and the importance of interfaith dialogue and Western-Muslim relations.
Park51 promoted Rauf’s speaking tour in a press release published on Jan. 15. The group stated that they believe the campaign “will have a profound and positive impact on the dialogue between different faiths,” but also added that the Cordoba Initiative, which the imam is making the tour for, is distinct from Park51.
The tour, which began with a visit to Detroit on Jan. 15, will consist of speeches given in several major cities across the country, including Chicago, Washington, D.C., and San Antonio. Rauf will also speak at a number of college campuses besides Georgetown, including Harvard, Yale and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to his statement.
Students said that they were excited about the impending visit.
“I actually had the good fortune to meet him,” New York native Sam Haass (SFS ’14) said. “He struck me as a very smart individual who has a great vision for Islam. His whole mission is to build up a moderate branch of Islam to compete with the Wahhabis’ intolerant approach … I think we should support him in whatever way we can.”
