Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf Part 1

For some, a lightning rod. For others, an international voice of reason and reconciliation. For us, a fascinating conversation about the face of Islam in contemporary international politics, and the vital need for hospitality and honest conversation between Islam and the west. We present the first half of David Dault's in-depth conversation with Imam Rauf, where we discuss misconceptions about Islam and the core of religious identity.

Also on the show, Katy Scrogin discusses The Man Who Quit Money by Mark Sundeen

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is founder and chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, a multi-national, multi faith organization dedicated to improving Muslim-West relations.  In 1997, he also co- founded the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA); the first Muslim organization committed to building bridges between Muslims and the American public by elevating the discourse on Islam through educational outreach, interfaith collaboration, culture and arts.

Imam Rauf is the author of several books, most recently What's Right with Islam is What's Right with America: A New Vision for Muslims and the West. He is also the highly visible face of Park51, a thirteen-story Islamic center in Lower Manhattan that, for a time, was the focus of negative media attention when it was misidentified as the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque."

Despite the criticism he endured around the Park51 controversy, Imam Rauf has been seen more often as a voice calling for moderation in global religious disputes. He has characterized the threat to modern culture as coming not from a particular religion, but rather from the vein of extremism that can be found across the spectrum of faiths. As he wrote in Moving the Mountain: Beyond Ground Zero to a New Vision of Islam in America, "The real fault line in global religion and politics is not that between the Muslim world and the West, but rather between political and religious moderates of all faiths and persuasions and extremists of all faiths and persuasions."

Also on the Show

Katy Scrogin reviews Mark Sundeen's The Man Who Quit Money.

From the publisher's website :

"A Walden for the 21st century, the true story of a man who has radically reinvented 'the good life.' 

In 2000, Daniel Suelo left his life savings-all thirty dollars of it-in a phone booth. He has lived without money-and with a newfound sense of freedom and security-ever since. 

The Man Who Quit Money is an account of how one man learned to live, sanely and happily, without earning, receiving, or spending a single cent. Suelo doesn't pay taxes, or accept food stamps or welfare. He lives in caves in the Utah canyonlands, forages wild foods and gourmet discards. He no longer even carries an I.D. Yet he manages to amply fulfill not only the basic human needs-for shelter, food, and warmth-but, to an enviable degree, the universal desires for companionship, purpose, and spiritual engagement. In retracing the surprising path and guiding philosophy that led Suelo into this way of life, Sundeen raises provocative and riveting questions about the decisions we all make, by default or by design, about how we live-and how we might live better."