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

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, told TheDC that despite American efforts to reach out to Muslims around the world, a recent Zogby poll found that in the Muslim world, the percentage of the population which views America favorably still hovers around 18%.

“We have always felt this type of outreach is completely ineffective and that ultimately we have to approach it like the Cold War where we are fighting an ideology and we have to be poignantly open about what part of political Islam we are trying to change and modify,” Jasser said. “If we are going to have this long war of ideas we cannot fund these religious institutions. We can fund anti-Islamist institutions based in liberty.”

Herbert London, president of Hudson Institute, told TheDC that he is extremely troubled by the use of government funds for religious purposes. “I wouldn’t be okay with it if these were synagogues that they were funding,” he said.

According to the State Department’s disclosure to Sen. Lugar’s office, there are zero construction efforts occurring on historic Jewish synagogues, though there is funding of some Jewish related projects such as the “preservation of the Main Gate and Tombstones in the Jewish Cemetery in Sarajevo [Bosnia-Herzegovina].” The disclosure also shows examples of the State Department funding churches, cathedrals and Buddhist and Hindu temples abroad.

E-mail Caroline May and follow her on Twitter

DUELING PROTESTS OVER GROUND ZERO MOSQUES