Faisal Abdul Rauf
| Feisal Abdul Rauf | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1948 (age 68–69) Kuwait |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Imam, author, landlord |
| Known for | Sponsor and director of Park51 |
Feisal Abdul Rauf (Arabic: فيصل عبد الرؤوف, born 1948) is a Kuwaiti American Sufiimam, author, and activist whose stated goal is to improve relations between the Muslim world and the West. From 1983 to 2009, he served as Imam of Masjid al-Farah, a mosque in New York City. He has written three books on Islam and its place in contemporary Western society, including What's Right with Islam Is What's Right with America, and founded two non-profit organizations whose stated missions are to enhance the discourse on Islam in society.
He has condemned the 9/11 attacks as un-Islamic and called on the U.S. government to reduce the threat of terrorism by altering its Middle Eastern foreign policy. Author Karen Armstrong, among others, has praised him for his attempts to build bridges between the West and the Muslim world. In 2010, Sufi Imam Rauf received national attention for his plans to build Park51, an Islamic Community Center, two blocks from Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan.
Rauf was born in Kuwait. His father, Egyptian Imam and Sunni scholar Muhammad Abdul Rauf (1917–2004), moved with the younger Rauf to New York City in the 1960s. The elder Rauf assisted with efforts to create the multimillion dollar Islamic Cultural Center of New York, the first building designed as a mosque in New York City, which took 25 years to complete and opened in 1991. His father, Abdul Rauf, was actively involved in the Civil Rights Movement with Malcolm X. Rauf studied physics at Columbia University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in nuclear engineering in 1969, before earning a master's degree in plasma physics at Stevens Institute in Hoboken, New Jersey.
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