What Role is the US Gov't Playing in Building the Groud Zero Mosque?

Meredith Jessup | July 18, 2010 6:19 PM

From a story posted at IslamOnline, it looks like the U.S. State Department--or at least employees thereof--are playing significant roles in building a mosque at the site of NYC's most infamous terrorist attacks:

CAIRO – Sitting firmly in his seat with a determined look in his eyes, American Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf appears resolved to bridge the gap between the West and the Muslim world. “My purpose is to spread harmony and peace between the West and the Muslim world,” Imam Abdul-Rauf, chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, told IslamOnline.net in an exclusive interview. “My role is to see how can my work help improve this relationship.” ...

Imam Abdul-Rauf is currently on a State Department-sponsored tour to build bridges. “This is part of it as the work is huge and can’t be done by one person or one organization,” he said. “It is also to share people like yourself the work that we do. We need people in the media and we need people to talk to understand what we do.”

He defended the U.S. government's support for his organization.
"If I don't have the ears of people in the political power, I would not engage in the issues of today," he said.

As the good people over at Pajamas Media have pointed out, Rauf isn't the nicest dude--more specifically, he's a "wolf in sheeps' clothing" whose roots rest in the radical Muslim Brotherhood (who we've also reported on extensively in Townhall Magazine). And now the U.S. State Department is employing the sharia-compliant imam to "build bridges" to the Muslim world--an act which apparently includes building a Cordoba House overlooking Ground Zero?

And while we're on the subject, where are all the crazies complaining about the "separation of church & state"? Or does that rule only apply to select churches?