Defining Radical

Imam Rauf was once again in front of the media--the friendly fire media at least--defending his veiled threat that moving his Cordoba Center will cause an 'explosion' of bad will, or maybe literal explosions, across the Islamic world:

RAUF: I have never made a threat. I've never made a threat, never expressed a threat, never -- I've never -- I would never threaten violence ever, because I am a man of peace, dedicated to peace.

We have two audiences. We have the American audience and we have the Muslim audience. And this issue has riveted the attention of the whole Muslim world. And whatever we do and whatever say and how we move and the discourse about it is being watched very, very closely. And if we make the wrong move, it will only expand and strengthen the voice of the radicals and the extremists.

Simple solution--since he's already a State Dept Ambassador to the Moslem world just send him back out on a tour to explain why it was moved (a tidbit of wisdom from the mostly disinterested but better half of the McCloud ranch sitting across the room). He can explain that he originally never thought it would cause problems and was later shocked, shocked at the outcry, and would not have proposed a mosque in such a location had he known it beforehand, and in retrospect cannot erect a facility to build bridges if it's just being built to appease Islamic radicals who might erupt in flame.

But hey, before wasting more taxpayer money it would be nice if he'd just explain why 'Cordoba House' is an appropriate symbol for a Ground Zero Islamic center mosque rabat, since the facility at Cordoba Spain was the westernmost point of Islam's middle ages conquest and represented the first European capital seized.

Of course we're still waiting for an explanation of how Mikey Moore's movie worked its way into one of his lectures when discussing American complicity in 9/11, or where he comes down on the Gaza flotillas and what he thinks about Obama's friend Rashid Khalidi's participation in another vessel called "The Audacity of Hope".

Or how we created bin Laden by helping liberate Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Kuwait. Then further inflamed things by re-liberating Afghanistan and removing the scotch drinking dictator of Babylon. Again, maybe he's saving those replies for his appearance on cable's number one commentary show on cable's number one news network.

Or maybe he considers that network, along with the 9/11 families not in support and a majority of New Yorkers and Americans against his project, as part of the "radicals" exploiting this for the November elections (but certainly not Captain Strawman!) and not worthy of any peace building efforts. It's hard for the average radical American to know based on selected interviews with the likes of Soledad O'Brien and Christiane Amanour.

Blessed are the true peacemakers and it's a hard job, but every good peacemaker has to convince everyone they are truly interested in peace. Dialogue is helpful, such as having the imam participate in a televised panel discussion with real questioners. If he continues to use select mainstream media hamsters with their eyes on helping their favored party maintain power in November (which might include labeling Sarah Palin as an Islamophobe) the only peace bridges will be those between himself and the true radicals.