Ground Zero mosque modeled after notorious 9/11 mosque?

The New York imam behind the Ground Zero mosque has struck a partnership with the founder of the so-called 9/11 mosque in the Washington suburbs that gave aid and comfort to some of the 9/11 hijackers, WND has learned.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf counts the lead trustee of the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center among partners in his Cordoba Initiative, which features a 13-story mosque and a "cultural center" for his project to bring shariah, or Islamic law, to America.

Families of 9/11 victims oppose construction of the proposed site so close to Ground Zero.

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Jamal Barzinji, one of the founders of the radical Muslim Brotherhood in America, also founded Dar al-Hijrah in Falls Church, Va., which is run by the pro-jihad Brotherhood. The mosque has been tied to numerous terrorism plots, including the 9/11 attacks.

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In December 2008, the Brotherhood's U.S. think tank -- the International Institute of Islamic Thought, or IIIT – hosted Rauf. During their meeting, IIIT's leadership, including Barzinji, "pledged cooperation and support" for Rauf's project, according to this screenshot of the description of the event from IIIT's scrubbed Web archives.

Rauf's partner Barzinji is a founder and director of IIIT, which is under active federal investigation for funneling funds to Palestinian terrorists. Its Herndon, Va., offices were raided by federal agents after 9/11.

The U.S. government has accused Barzinji of being "closely associated" with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and other terrorist organizations. He has not been charged with a crime, however.

Barzinji personally authorized the development of Dar al-Hijrah, according to Fairfax County, Va., property records obtained by investigative journalist Paul Sperry, author of "Infiltration" and "Muslim Mafia."

Records also show the North American Islamic Trust, a recently named unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror-financing case in U.S. history, holds the deed to the radical mosque. Barzinji is listed as a NAIT trustee on the document, and his signature appears on the deed.

In November 2008, Barzinji personally chaired a meeting at IIIT's Herndon headquarters to launch an abridged edition of Rauf's book, "What's Right with Islam Is What's Right with America," in which he calls for the establishment of a parallel system of justice in America run by Islamic jurists. Barzinji's brother's printing company published the digest.

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Rauf's partnership with Barzinji and IIIT worries critics of the Ground Zero mosque in New York, who fear it will attract the kind of dubious foreign sponsorship and terrorist elements associated with Dar al-Hijrah.

Built in 1991 with $5 million from the Saudi Embassy, Dar al-Hijrah employed Imam Anwar Awlaki as its prayer leader from 2000 to 2002. Awlaki, aka Aulaqi, counseled two of the 9/11 hijackers in closed-door meetings, and is believed to have played a central role in the plot. The fugitive al-Qaida leader is now hiding in Yemen.

He also radicalized Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, Christmas Day airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and, most recently, Times Square car bomber Faisal Shahzad.

The U.S. last month designated Awlaki a "key leader of al-Qaida" and froze his assets.

"Anwar al-Aulaqi is extraordinarily dangerous," said Stuart Levey, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. "He has involved himself in every aspect of the supply chain of terrorism -- fundraising for terrorist groups, recruiting and training operatives, and planning and ordering attacks on innocents."

Dar al-Hijrah's leadership is closely tied to the radical Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide jihadist movement.

The mosque is directly affiliated with the Muslim American Society, or MAS, a group formed as "the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States."

MAS last week held a press conference at the National Press Club to support Rauf and his Manhattan mega-mosque.

Former MAS President Esam Omeish served on Dar al-Hijrah's board of directors. Omeish had to resign from a Virginia immigration board in 2007 after he was caught on videotape praising Palestinians who chose "the jihad way" to liberation.

Dar al-Hijrah's current imam, Shaker Elsayed, is a former MAS secretary-general. In a 2004 profile on the Muslim Brotherhood in America, Elsayed praised Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan Al-Banna, saying his ideas are "the closest reflection of how Islam should be in this life."

The late Al-Banna preached that "jihad is an obligation from Allah on every Muslim," and praised "martyrs" who die fighting infidels in the cause of Allah.

Elsayed himself has said that Muslims have the right to use violence: "We do have license to respond with all force necessary to our attackers."

Another cleric at the mosque, associate imam Johari Abdul Malik, has preached to American Muslims that they are within Islamic law to "blow up bridges" and other infrastructure. "You can do all forms of sabotage," he said in a 2001 Hamas conference.

Al-Banna also taught that "Islam wishes to do away with all states and governments anywhere which are opposed to this ideology and program of Islam. Islam requires the earth – not just a portion, but the entire planet."

Johari, likewise, has called for Islamic supremacy in America.

"We will see the day when Islam, by the grace of Allah, will become the dominant way of life," Malik told his flock at Dar al-Hirjah in 2004. "You will see Islam move from being the second largest religion in America to being the first religion in America."

Federal investigators say Dar al-Hijrah – known by law enforcement as the "Row Street mosque" – is a dangerous breeding ground for terrorists. Former members include:

• Fugitive Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook, a former mosque leader.

• Ismail Elbarasse, a founding mosque member, Saudi government employee, and Muslim Brotherhood leader who was arrested for allegedly casing the Chesapeake Bay bridge for attack.

• Abdelhaleem Ashqar, mosque leader and suspected Hamas operative recently convicted for obstruction of justice.

• Mohammed al-Hanooti, a longtime mosque leader and unindicted co-conspirator in both the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and recent Holy Land Foundation terror-finance case.

• Top al-Qaida fundraiser Abdurahman Alamoudi, now serving 23 years in federal prison for terrorism. Alamoudi's brothers live in Saudi Arabia.

• Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, the would-be al-Qaida presidential assassin whose father worked for the Saudi Embassy.

• Abdullah bin Laden, Saudi nephew of the al-Qaida kingpin whose name appears on the federal terrorist watch-list.

• Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, accused of murdering 13 and injuring 30 others in a jihad-inspired shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas.

• Hani Hanjour, 9/11 hijacker and Saudi national who flew the jumbo jet into the Pentagon.

• Nawaf al-Hazmi, 9/11 hijacker and Saudi national who joined Hanjour on the Pentagon flight and acted as second in command of the entire al-Qaida operation behind hijacking ringleader Mohamed Atta.

The mosque, in fact, helped Hanjour and al-Hazmi obtain housing in the area.

After 9/11, investigators found the phone number for Dar al-Hijrah in the Hamburg, Germany, apartment of one of the planners of the 9/11 attacks – Ramzi Binalshibh, now a Gitmo detainee.

Rauf's 2004 book was originally published in Malaysia under the title, "A Call to Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa in the Heart of America Post-9/11."

Dawa is Islamic proselytizing. Current Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi has asserted: "We will conquer America, not through the sword but through dawa." This Brotherhood strategy involves mass conversion, immigration and political infiltration.

Rauf quotes Qaradawi in the back of his book.

Also in his book, he calls for a "subsidiary entity within the judiciary" in America that adjudicates on shariah compliance. Sharia is the Quranic legal code practiced by Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest shrines and its spiritual headquarters.

"It would provide the United States with a moral rudder and guidance to ensure that its policies are in keeping with religious ethical values," Rauf writes in "What's Right With Islam."

Concerning shariah law, he says the Quran makes it clear that "Muslims have to uphold the Law, to make the Law dwell among us."

Unlike Christians, he adds, Muslims are commanded to "shape history," and that requires merging the mosque with the state. Rauf, who opposes Muslim nations adopting Western values, rebukes Ataturk for secularizing Turkey.

Muslims must "redeem [Muhammadan] history, to integrate temporal righteousness in the world," Rauf writes.

"To Muslims, this is what is meant by building the kingdom of heaven on earth," he continues, "and this is their aspiration for America."

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