Sunday, September 12, 2010

Stunt preachers

You could almost believe that Pastor Terry Jones and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf are in cahoots over the controversial Park51/Cordoba House project.

The former is an ex-hotel manager whose sister church cut ties after allegations of his financial impropriety, and who preaches to a congregation of maybe 50 people. His I'll-burn-the-Koran stunt has made a nobody into a somebody.

The latter has allegedly "dedicated his life to building bridges between Muslims and the West and is a leader in the effort to build religious pluralism and integrate Islam into modern society", but his company Cordoba Initiative has a stake in the Park51 project and the recent publicity, athough temporarily polarizing opinion, may ultimately turn out to have been financially useful. Donald Trump reckons so - and he's looking to buy in without getting squeezed for too much extra cash.

It's enough to make a cat laugh.

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