Anyone that has followed the antics of less vitriolic Muslim groups will not be surprised to learn that one such group has been caught whitewashing their website. A more humourous example occurred in 2005 when CAIR was caught with their rhetorical pants down after having photoshopped hijabs onto several women in a photo that appeared on their site.
In this particular case, the group in question is Cordoba House. What they tried to expunge is their association with influential Iranians at a conference for the "Shariah Index Project".
As I mentioned here, I am a bit skeptical about Faisal Abdul Rauf and his ideas regarding Islam, shariah, and whether/how those concepts need to be integrated into western cultures. Specifically, I suspect that Mr. Rauf is the sort of Muslim that supports the idea of government mandated obeisance towards Islam and shariah based laws. That isn't to suggest that he's the sort to cut off someone's head, or stone a pregnant rape victim for adultery, or chase young girls back into burning buildings rather than risk having them be in public sight while not being covered from head to toe.
Similarly, I don't think Pat Robertson is likely to kill gynecologists that perform abortions with a sniper rifle. That doesn't mean I want either man having any greater control over our government.
Attempting to whitewash his relationship with dictatorial and terrorist supporting Iranian government apparatchiks suggests that Mr. Rauf is perfectly comfortable with accepting that rather limited Islamic world view as an appropriate 'interpretation' of Islam. He is apparently uncomfortable about his fellow Americans knowing of his acceptance of the sort of brutality that the Iranian government visits on the Iranian people under the guise of fostering an 'Islamic' state.
What really bothers me is that he had any involvement with the "Shariah Index Project" and measuring Islamicity in the first place.
Imagine a group that was dedicated to measuring the relative 'Christianicity' of various countries. How loud would the screaming and wailing be if people discovered that Fred Phelps was a participant? How quickly would we be in demanding that other participants explain their affiliation with such a group?
What Mr. Rauf apparently lacks is a core belief that governments should not impose religion on citizens. That is not a concept that requires a lot of meetings to codify levels of imposition. It is a concept that simply requires clear and concise opposition.
Not a whitewash job.
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