ADL: Fareed Zakaria returns award over WTC mosque

Top US senator opposes mosque near Ground Zero afp.com – VIDEO: The proposed construction of a 100-million-dollar, 13-story mosque and Islamic center near Ground …

NEW YORK – Columnist and TV host Fareed Zakaria has returned a First Amendment award and $10,000 stipend to the Anti-Defamation League in protest of the organization's opposition to a proposed mosque near ground zero.

The ADL said in a statement Friday that it was "saddened" and "stunned" by Zakaria's decision.

Zakaria, a Newsweek and Washington Post columnist and CNN host, said in a piece published Friday on Newsweek's website that he can't in good conscience keep the league's Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize that he was awarded in 2005.

In a letter to the ADL, Zakaria says: "You are choosing to use your immense prestige to take a side that is utterly opposed to the animating purpose of your organization."

The ADL is the leading Jewish civil rights group in the U.S. It has said the location of the planned mosque is "counterproductive to the healing process."

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183 Comments

  • 0 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 0 users disliked this comment
    Spartacus 478 Sun Aug 15, 2010 03:56 am PDT Report Abuse
    To those, including Mr. Obama who champion the 1st amendment of the US Constitution, insisting that a Mosque is proper at the WTC site, let me make a point here and see if you still agree. Martin Luther King was murdered in Memphis, TN. and I believe there is a memorial to him in that city. Now, let's say I'm part of a group, "Ancestors of the Confederacy" and I want to build a museum to honor Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forest. In case you may not know the name, he was responsible for the massacre of black Union troops at Ft. Pillow who had already surrendered. He went on to form the Klu Klux Klan. So, I buy a building right next to the M.L. King Memorial to have as my Forest Museum. Would those on the left who are praising the 1st amendment for this Mosque rally to my support? Would Obama say allowing my museum to be placed next to the King memorial is a excellent example of freedom of speech? I very much doubt it.
  • 0 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 0 users disliked this comment
    mbt shoe in yeahsm.com Wed Aug 11, 2010 01:51 am PDT Report Abuse
    Muslims always talk about other religions cultures showing respect to them. Yet they continuously disrespect the rest of us. For once let Muslims show more respect to the rest of us especially as they are the ones emigrating to the west and not the other way around. This move is provocative and is an affront to the innocent victims of Muslim terrorists and will lead to more anti Muslim sentiment.
  • 0 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 0 users disliked this comment
    mbt shoe in yeahsm.com Wed Aug 11, 2010 01:51 am PDT Report Abuse
    Muslims always talk about other religions cultures showing respect to them. Yet they continuously disrespect the rest of us. For once let Muslims show more respect to the rest of us especially as they are the ones emigrating to the west and not the other way around. This move is provocative and is an affront to the innocent victims of Muslim terrorists and will lead to more anti Muslim sentiment.
  • 0 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 0 users disliked this comment
    mbt shoe in yeahsm.com Wed Aug 11, 2010 01:51 am PDT Report Abuse
    Muslims always talk about other religions cultures showing respect to them. Yet they continuously disrespect the rest of us. For once let Muslims show more respect to the rest of us especially as they are the ones emigrating to the west and not the other way around. This move is provocative and is an affront to the innocent victims of Muslim terrorists and will lead to more anti Muslim sentiment.
  • 0 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 0 users disliked this comment
    T Q Tue Aug 10, 2010 02:41 pm PDT Report Abuse
    A second victory for those terrorists would be a mosque at ground zero. The "good" muslims
    don't get this.
  • 0 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 0 users disliked this comment
    R Sun Aug 08, 2010 02:53 pm PDT Report Abuse
    Joo mean license to fraud
  • 0 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 1 users disliked this comment
    David Sun Aug 08, 2010 06:28 am PDT Report Abuse
    By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN

    You would think that most Jewish leaders in America would have a special sensitivity to the vitriol pouring out against Muslims concerning the proposed Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero.

    You would think they would hear eerie echoes of 1930s Germany in the shouting down and silencing of an eleven-year-old girl at one of the hearings of the commission charged with determining whether the building in question deserved landmark status. You would think they would rush to the defense of a minority religion attacked for, among other things, conspiring to take over their country through the imposition of religious law.

    If so, you would be wrong.
  • 0 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 2 users disliked this comment
    Heff Sat Aug 07, 2010 11:19 pm PDT Report Abuse
    Fareed Zakaria needs to move back to the land where they kill people who speak up.
  • 0 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 0 users disliked this comment
    David Sat Aug 07, 2010 08:55 pm PDT Report Abuse
    CNN host returns award from Jewish group over Islamic center stance
    Fareed Zakaria, the CNN host and Newsweek columnist, has returned a prestigious prize to the Anti-Defamation League, another rebuke for the esteemed civil rights group's opposition to an Islamic center near ground zero.

    Zakaria, who received the ADL's Hubert Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize five years ago, gave back the honor to ADL for publicly siding "with those urging the relocation" of the center, which would be located near the site of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

    "I cannot in good conscience hold onto the award or the honorarium that came with it and am returning both," he said.
  • 0 users liked this comment Please sign in to rate this comment up. Please sign in to rate this comment down. 1 users disliked this comment
    Don Pine Sat Aug 07, 2010 07:52 pm PDT Report Abuse
    my take on the mosque to be built at ground zero. So the Iman says to the mayor, " I want to build
    a 13 story Masque and cultural center very close to grouind zero.Says the mayor to the Iman,"the
    city of New York is planning on issue 2 billion worth of NY City munies and i wonder if you might be of
    some assitance to the city of NY to help in selling these bonds. You draw your own conclusion.

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