U.S. government funds mosque renovation and rehabilitation around the world

USAID press officer Annette Aulton told TheDC that the code did not apply to the mosque construction and the imam computer projects as they were done for ostensibly secular concerns.

“Historic and cultural preservation activities have a clearly secular purpose as do activities to promote tourism,” Aulton wrote in an e-mail. “With respect to the computer center in the mosque in Tajikistan, this activity seems to be part of a larger program aimed at reducing social conflict.”

She continued, “[W]ith respect to the computer equipment provided to the Imam in Mali, there really isn’t enough information to do an analysis. There are references to promotion of the town’s historical, cultural and religious heritage, which sounds like a secular purpose.”

“I think it is disastrously wrongheaded and unconstitutional,” Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, told TheDC in reference to the federal government’s funding of mosque renovation and rehabilitation abroad. “It is not going to accomplish what they hope it will. They are not going to win hearts and minds. It is not as if they are going to say ’the Americans built this mosque for us so we shouldn’t wage jihad on them.’”

Spencer went on to say that the State Department will often explain that it provides funds for cultural reasons, “but a mosque is a mosque is a mosque. It is where prayer happens. That is a religious instillation.”

Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) disagreed, telling TheDC that such projects can help improve relations with the Muslim world.

“Anytime the United States is seen as being on the side of Muslims, of their aspirations and their needs and goals, that can only help our image and interests around the world,” he said.

Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, national director of the Islamic Society of North America Office of Interfaith and Community Alliances, echoed Hooper’s sentiments, telling TheDC that it is worthwhile to preserve centuries old historical and cultural structures and funding these projects could help America build bridges in the Muslim world.

“It is an erroneous image that America is singling Muslims out as their target,” he said. “So to some extent this could help.”

But Michael Rubin, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, noted to TheDC that such initiatives are problematic because they often lack oversight and “quality control.”

“Part of the problem is the State Department really has no definition of what radical means and they also have no coherent strategy when it comes to dealing with extremist Islam,” Rubin said. “As a result you have young junior officers who are adjudicating grants and are basically approving them on the basis of what the grantee says rather than doing a deeper check behind who they are affiliated with or what their mission is.”

He continued, “Unfortunately Muslim Brotherhood type groups are the ones which are the slickest when it comes to PR and have the greatest ability to reach out.”