The developers of the Ground Zero mosque are refusing to flat out reject cash for the project from Holocaust-denying Iranian nuke nut Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“I can’t comment on that” was the reply of mosque spokesman Oz Sultan yesterday when asked specifically if the fund-raising would extend to Iran and Saudi Arabia. “We’ll look at all available options within the United States to start.”
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the leader of the project known as Park51, has said at meetings with downtown officials that he would raise money for the 13-story mosque from local Muslims, foundations and the sale of bonds.
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But in an interview with a London-based Arab newspaper earlier this year, he admitted his fund-raising would also extend to Muslim nations around the world.
The possibility of tapping the radical rogue Islamic state of Iran for funds comes as the United States is stepping up sanctions on the regime in retaliation for its support of terrorism and what is feared to be an illegal nuclear-weapons development program.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday weighed in on the controversy, saying she wants to know about the funding for the mosque — but also calling for a probe into funding for the project’s opponents.
During an interview with a San Francisco radio station, Pelosi said opponents are trying to politicize the project. She told the station she wants to know: “How is this being ginned up?”
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The demand infuriated mosque opponent Debra Burlingame, whose brother was a pilot aboard one of the hijacked airliners on 9/11.
“This is all out of our pockets. Nobody is funding us a dime,” Burlingame said of herself and other 9/11 families opposing the mosque.
Bipartisan opposition grew yesterday when Howard Dean — former head of the Democratic National Committee — called the mosque near Ground Zero “a real affront to people who’ve lost their lives, including Muslims.”
Yesterday, the mosque’s developers said they are “committed to maintaining the current planned location,” according to a statement on their blog.
The statement came as Rauf began a Mideast tour on behalf of the State Department.
Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the trip to Bahrain, Qatar and Abu Dhabi will cost taxpayers $16,000. He said that Rauf isn’t going to use the time in the Mideast to raise funds for his mosque.
Despite political fallout, President Obama yesterday said he has “no regrets” over the comments he made Friday about the right of Muslims to build a mosque near Ground Zero.
But his voice of support during a White House dinner for Muslim leaders hasn’t done anything to convince some Americans he isn’t a Muslim himself.
A Time Magazine poll of 1,002 Americans, taken after the speech, found that 24 percent believe Obama is Muslim and only 47 percent believe he is Christian. Nearly a quarter didn’t know either way. He is, in fact, a Christian.