Should we as tax payers fund a trip?

[Heretic]

Feisal Abdul Rauf is going a trip funded by the US taxpayers to promote greater understanding about Islam and Muslim communities in the United States. Where is he going? Well, where else the middle east with stops in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Qatar.

Should the US taxpayers fund any trip with any type of religious subject matter?

it is to foster a greater understanding about the region

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manh ... z0wEDw8C00

[Spidey]

Nah, we should just keep fighting the endless war…it’s cheaper.

[null0010]

Imam of the Ground Zero Mosque/Park51/Cordoba Community Center was hired by George W. Bush to promote moderate Islam and Middle Eastern outreach:

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.c ... ?ref=fpblg

Tuesday, Reps. Peter King (R-NY) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) called Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf -- best known for his work with multicultural Cordoba Initiative to build a mosque and community center in Lower Manhattan -- a "radical" and criticized the Obama Administration for including him on a Middle East speaking tour. That tour, which includes stops in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, is designed by the public diplomacy office to explain to Muslims abroad what it's like to be a Muslim in America.

Outside of how getting constantly called a radical by American politicians busy flacking the proposed "Ground Zero mosque" for political purposes might affect Rauf's view of what it's like to be a Muslim in America, there's one other big problem with King's and Ros-Lehtinen's accusation: Rauf already represented America in this way, under the Bush Administration.

[Xamindar]

Who cares about religion. I wouldn't want this man doing anything in the name of the USA. He seems to blame all the terrorist problems on the USA and justifies their actions.

[null0010]

Who cares about religion. I wouldn't want this man doing anything in the name of the USA. He seems to blame all the terrorist problems on the USA and justifies their actions.

I would not call that justification, but explanation. It is likely that some of the terrorist activity against the USA is because of our intervention in the Middle East over the last 100 years.

I do not see a sentence in that article that looks like "justification," so kindly point it out to me.