A Canadian Muslim woman says she felt threatened by a telephone call critical of her opposition to the proposed Ground Zero mosque in New York. Raheel Raza, a founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, says the caller identified himself as Sharif El Gamal, one of the developers involved in the mosque effort.
Raza attended a meeting last week with Gamal and another mosque advocate and had asked for details about the financing behind the $100 million project, including whether it would come from sources outside the U.S. According to a Toronto Sun report, Raza felt threatened when the caller reached her on her cell phone and "accused me of 'jumping into' the meeting he called and then said 'May Allah protect you.' I was shocked and hung up."
If it wasn't a threat, "Why would I need Allah's protection?" she asked. Gamal denied making the call, but the Sun report indicates the number captured in Raza's phone matches Gamal's New York office.
Raza and fellow Muslim Canadian Council member Tarek Fatah detailed their opposition to the mosque earlier this month in a column published by the Ottawa Citizen. Choosing a site so close to the site of the 9/11 attack is a "deliberate provocation to thumb our noses at the infidel," they wrote.
It violates the sentiment of Quranic instruction to "'Be considerate when you debate with the People of the Book'-- i.e., Jews and Christians. Building an exclusive place of worship for Muslims at the place where Muslims killed thousands of New Yorkers is not being considerate or sensitive, it is undoubtedly an act of 'fitna')," they wrote.