Whatever Happened to Steve Emerson’s “13 Hours” of Rauf Audio?

A couple of weeks ago, it was announced that Steven Emerson had “unearthed” thirteen hours of “audio tape” of Faisel Rauf, containing material that was both “shocking” and “explosive”:

Among the shocking revelations Emerson’s team will reveal next week — they found Rauf:

Defending wahhabism – a puritanical version of Islam that governs Saudi Arabia

Calling for the elimination of Israel by claiming a one-nation state, meaning no more Jewish State.

Defending Bin Laden’s violence

Although this caused much excitement, some of us were able to cast our minds back a whole six weeks or so to the previous time a conservative pundit had released an “explosive” recording of someone speaking; the results had not been encouraging.

And indeed, Emerson’s “discoveries” failed to deliver the goods. Most of the “exposé” turned out to be a public lecture which Rauf gave in Australia in 2005, which was freely available anyway as an mp3 from a university website; the only new material was a 2006 13-minute talk with a journalist named Mark Sommers, made when Rauf thought he was off-mic,  but there was nothing there which exposed him as  being a secret extremist. Overall, Emerson’s “revelations” turned out  to be nothing more than his own extrapolations from Rauf’s public political views – views which we all knew anyway – to an extremist motivation.

However, various sites, having hyped Emerson, struggled to make the best of it: at WND the shameless Aaron Klein seized on Emerson’s gloss on Rauf’s one-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict to give the impression that Rauf had used the word “eradication” in relation to Israel (incidentally, it should be recalled that Klein and other conservatives who affect outrage at Rauf’s one-state preference themselves object to a two-state solution, for other reasons). In one quote from the 2005 lecture, Rauf discusses prejudice, observing that “If gender is not what distinguishes us we’ll look at skin colouring and say: niggers or whities, or whatever”; clutching at straws, this was headlined around the net as “Imam Rauf Drops The N Word”.

The off-mic discussion even included a point that Pamela Geller, who was Emerson’s primary conduit, was forced to contradict: that Rauf doesn’t “want a demographic Islamic state”.  Geller assured her readers that this was a lie and an example of “stealth jihad”, but a secret recording in which Rauf continues to present himself as a moderate in private is somewhat lame as an exposé. Geller, as expected, milked the subject of Emerson’s audios more than anyone, but even she’s moved onto other subjects and the topic has failed to gain momentum.

Meanwhile, Walid Shoebat has tried to get in on the act, with awful disclosures of his own taken from Rauf’s statements in Arabic. His first attempt at this was in June, and he appeared on Fox in mid-August, warning that Rauf’s

…support of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic jihad movement has been expressed by him in the Arabic language. His manifesto ha s been expressed by – in Al-Ghad newspaper, and hadielislam.com, in several news media. In fact, Americans should listen to this. He says that the trend toward Islamic law and justice begins by religious movements like Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic resistance. This is a straight support for terrorism.

Media Matters has some background on this:

We asked Ahmad Moussalli, a widely quoted expert on Islamic movements and professor of Political Science and Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut, to read the Arabic sources Shoebat cited on August 18 (they can be found here and here) and to evaluate his claim that they show “a straight support for terrorism” and for “Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic jihad movement.” Moussalli responded that Shoebat’s remarks are a “blatant misrepresentation of the denotation and connotation of Mr. Rauf’s statements in Hadielislam and Al-Ghad newspaper. Rauf never expressed his support for the three organizations.”

Omid Safi, professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina and expert on Sufism, also reviewed the Arabic articles and concluded that “they do not show any support for terrorism.” Safi added that “the accusation of ‘Muslim double-speak’ is one of the common accusations used by Islamaphobes like Shoebat” and said: “I would simply suggest dismissing what comes out of his mouth as much as I would dismiss anything David Duke would have to say about the essential nature of Judaism.”

Of course, Rauf has made statements and holds positions that are controversial and arguable. But if his opponents are so convinced of his essential malice, why the constant recourse to distorted quotes and sensationalised stunts?

25 Responses

  1. WAHHABISM – I thought most of the 9/11 terrorists
    were influenced by wahhabism.
    Not an expert on the Muslim religions but I always thought “Wahhabism” was the most extreme in being
    unable to compromise with any other religion and whose aims are a totally Islamic world and Sharia law
    – some of which is based on the Laws of Moses.

    However this is also true about Christianity since Jesus said he was the ONLY WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE and his Passion on the cross will be shared by no one else. Who else went through this torture to pay for our sins as a sin free man except the son of God .

    So it depends who you believe can give you eternal life
    – who is telling the truth Jesus or Mohammed.

    Jesus said his conquest would be achieved by miracles , peaceful means , love and self sacrifice – which mainly happened with people like St Patrick and St Francis – however self defence seemed to be allowable.

    • which mainly happened with people like St Patrick and St Francis

      Ummm… what?

      • St Patrick and St Francis did not have an army – they were preaching and teaching monks who showed
        the power of God by performing miracles such as
        healing etc.
        St Francis gave up his position of wealth in his Father’s
        business to preach the gospel.

      • I know who they were. But there were no miracles.

        Even if miracles did exist (along with unicorns and fairy dust) not enough is known about Patrick to make any judgements about miracles. The miracles of Francis didn’t get thougt up until after his death and canonization.

    • The reason that Latin America, from the Rio Grande to Patagonia, is mainly Catholic has little to do with peaceful means.

  2. The reason that Latin America, from the Rio Grande to Patagonia, is mainly Catholic has little to do with peaceful means.

    I had no idea St Patrick and St Francis were conquistadors.

    Spanish Catholicism is indeed a bloody affair compared to other strains of Christianity , strains such as those that were responsable for the christianisation of Scandinavia and Russia.

    But then Spain spent centuries with the islamist boot on its neck, and so it isn’t surprising to learn that Cortés’ bloody methods and violent tactics were lifted straight from the jihadist’s playbook.

  3. I NEVER SAID THAT
    St Patrick or St Frances were conquistadors – dont
    know where you got that from. Neither were ever in
    South America ????????

    • Charles, its not always easy to know what you’re saying, but I interpreted “Jesus said his conquest would be achieved by miracles , peaceful means , love and self sacrifice – which mainly happened with people like St Patrick and St Francis – however self defence seemed to be allowable” as an assertion that Christianity was mostly spread by peaceful means. I was pointing out that this was not true. (Francis is irrelevant anyway, as he wasn’t a missionary).

      • Francis not a missionary ? – news to me – he was – in Europe. Anyway what is the “human resources” definition and job description of a missionary.

        As I said if the Christians had not stopped the Muslim
        Advance on Vienna and Spain by violent means – the
        world would be a very different place.

        And if Christian American and Britain had not deafeated the Axis of Hitler and Japan by violent self defence – the world would be an extremely different place – oh you liberals .

        Although there were lots of Christian Germans the Third Reich was mainly run by occultists and Japan by
        Buddists.

  4. Just to address the issue of the audio tapes: enough damning evidence of Rauf’s deceit and duplicity is already available for those willing to take a look at it, and so what’s the point of the tapes? We have a whole chorus of idiots mouthing platitudes and ignoring the obvious.

    Yet another article exposing this whole corrupt enterprise…but who cares?

    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/mosque_was_steal_FpzwdRCdb5MdehzkDDWY3H

  5. Cortez – how do you stop a massive army who intends
    to wipe you out with only 300 men. Think of the thousands they saved from human sacrifice.

  6. @June

    I love people who post links to inflammatory articles from the NY Post about suspicious Muslim links. Especially when Murdoch does so little to explain how much involvement bin Talal has with his empire:

    http://www.resistnet.com/profiles/blogs/fox-news-saudi-arabia-bin

    Guilt by association can be so infomative, can’t it June?

  7. Sorry June – misread your comment .

  8. Dogsbody – what if you need a miracle some day.
    There is plenty of evidence if you care to reasearch.

    • @charles allan

      “There is plenty of evidence if you care to reasearch.”

      Cite a few scientific journal articles that clearly point to supernatural events, please.

  9. Marv – You have a overconfidence in scientific journals
    – look at the number of dodgy drugs and foods which have been passed. This kind of research is about money. Double blind is an apt name for it .

    You have to look at individual miracles- The Doctor
    Renfro one where you have (his wife’s) video of massive untreatable tumours disappearing – google up.

    Or another one is Don Piper – flattened by a 20 ton truck.

    The “700 club” has a website with a pile of miracles.

    Why does God make not make things absolutely irrefutable as my own father asked me ?

    Pascal ” God leaves enough light for those who want to believe and enough darkness for those who want to believe in darkness”

    Remember the Pharisees actually saw Jesus’s miracles and still disbelieved and even wanted to kill
    Lazarus after Jesus had brought him back to life.

    If you want to have a sleepness night google up
    former athiest Dr Maurice Rawlings website .
    He is a heart surgeon who brings people back to life.

    Also look at “23 minutes in Hell” I find it hard to reread his book – it is terrifying .

    Sorry Richard for going off thread a bit but I know as a liberal you will tolerate this .

    Your site is popular because you allow a lot of leeway
    unlike many other websites.

  10. @charles allen

    “@Marv – You have a overconfidence in scientific journals
    – look at the number of dodgy drugs and foods which have been passed. This kind of research is about money. Double blind is an apt name for it .”

    I knew you wouldn’t provide the journal cites. That’s because they don’t exist. Thank you for reinforcing my point.

    And the number of scientifc advances that have come from Biblical passages equals how many, Charles? You can expound on them here, if you like.

    Also, please cite the chapter and verse from the Bible that describes the phenomenon known as quantum confinement (it can be measured as well as manipulated). How about the Biblical passage that provides the measure of the speed of light?

    If the Bible is the well spring of knowledge, it should at least have descriptions of such fundamental knowledge as this.

  11. The problem with supposed “miracles” is that, when asked for evidence for proof of their occurrance, proponents tend to rely on two tracks of support:

    1) everyday occurrances that they label “miracles” (a baby’s birth, random events that could have gone either way), or

    2) anecdotal evidence from pre-history (events that cannot be corroborated without referring to one source of information – usually the tome of the religious believer).

    The problem with the first “evidence” is that if it occurs thousands of times a day (such as child birth), then it hardly qualifies as a supernatural event. In fact, child birth is so common that by 2050 the population of the Earth will increase by 50%. This process hardly qualifies as a “miracle”.

    Also, for every person who “miraculously”survives an auto accident, earthquake, gunshot wound, etc., there are thousands who don’t. That means statistics could also account for their survival (plain old random variation). Sorry, no proof of miracle here either. In other words, you can explain their survival just as easily without invoking God as you could by chosing to invoke God.

    Anectodes are not objective evidence. There are stories of miracles found in every religion that all religious people would find hard to accept. The fact that no universal truth can be accepted by every religion (such as a universal description of God) makes anectodatal evidence from Biblical stories the hardest to find reliable.

  12. Marv – a scientific journal with double blind published
    miracles ????? Your having me on ?
    The Catholic Church has its own method of verifying miracles – ie the Devil’s Advocate – refined throughout the centuries.

    They use the evidence of doctors etc before agreeing
    one has happened and its a lot stricter than companies using scientists phoney double blinds to make money – Eg I mean statins are now supposed to cure just about everything – but I would not touch them with a bargepole.

    All the great scientists were fundamentalist Christians
    through and through – like Pascal , Boyle , Newton
    Pasteur , Maxwell , Faraday , Linus Pauling , Brahe , Versalus . Max Planck , Gauss etc etc etc – even the NAZI rocket scientist Wernher Von Braun knew that the universe was designed. .
    Plus there were and are many great Muslim creationists scientists such as Adnan Oktar ( Harun Yah Ya )
    I was not talking about childbirth – although even an idiot could see that any birth is a miracle – how would a chicken know how to make an egg – and which came first ??????

    All science must start on an anecdote of sorts .

    I am asking you to look at recent verifiable miracles such as those on the 700 club – I think we are off thread a bit.

    If you look at the book of Job in the UK daily mail “letters column ” today Job describes light which is really a radio wave – He said it could become a language eg radio , TV -how could he possibly know this without God telling him.

    Did you know that light has been stopped , slowed down , re started recently. And in the last 4 hundred years has been slowing down .

    Sorry Richard we should be on another site discussing his .

    Marv – I suppose you think light said to itself – I am a good idea – I will make myself together with all other
    radio waves – and we will make UP laws of behavior (physics) for ourselves. Could you manage to do this .

    You obviously have not looked at the websites I am
    telling you about .

  13. I would never trust Media Matters as a source of information.

    Pure spin and propaganda, just as bad as the propaganda stories they claim to “expose”.

  14. […] the works of Feisal Abdel Rauf and exposed him throughout the nation [I blogged this claim here – RB] . I was the first to translate Rashad Hussein’s intent to interfere with the Nuclear […]

  15. […] claimed to have “shocking revelations” about Faisel Rauf  – that turned out to be a dud, […]

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