Cordoba Initiative

In recent years, one of the major undertakings for Rauf and his ASMA has been a project known as the Cordoba Initiative, whose mission is “to achieve a tipping point in Muslim-West relations within the next decade, bringing back the atmosphere of interfaith tolerance and respect that we have longed for since Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in harmony and prosperity eight hundred years ago.” As Alyssa A. Lappen points out: “Cordoba (also the name for Chautauqua’s proposed new Muslim house) was the seat of the Islamic Caliphate that ruled most of Spain from Tariq ibn Zayid’s 711 invasion through 1248, and controlled parts of Spain until its full liberation in 1492.”

The Cordoba Initiative has been funded by Malaysia and many other nations that are members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a coalition that aims to outlaw, everywhere in the world, any and all criticism of Islamic people, practices, legal codes, and governments.

In April 2009, Rauf incorporated the Cordoba Initiative in New York. Three months later, he spent $4.58 million in cash to purchase Manhattan real estate at 45 Park Place, just 600 feet from Ground Zero, from the heirs to New York’s Pomerantz family. Rauf now plans to build a 13-story, $100 million mosque on that site – for the stated purpose of proving to the world that Islam is a peaceful faith.

Rauf claims that New York Muslims furnished him with the money he used to purchase this real estate. But financial records show that in fiscal year 2009, his ASMA received large international donations totaling at least $1.3 million. The largest donation, $576,312, came from Qatar, whose government stands accused of funding international terrorism in Somalia, Ethiopia, and other parts of the Horn of Africa. For decades, Qatar has hosted Muslim Brotherhood spiritual chief Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a founding shareholder in the terror-financing al-Taqwa Bank, which is believed to have ties to al Qaeda and other Islamic terror networks. ASMA also received $481,942 from Holland’s Millennial Development Goals Fund; $144,752 from New York’s Carnegie Corporation; $53,664 from the United Nations Population Fund; plus additional donations from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and a number of the other foundations listed earlier in this report.