Career
After his studies, Rauf focused on his religious aspirations, and became a popular leader of a New York City mosque. He also held jobs in teaching, as a salesman and in real estate.
Rauf has written three books on Islam and its place in contemporary Western society, including What's Right with Islam, which was later printed in paperback with the changed title What's Right with Islam is What's Right with America. Rauf served as imam of Masjid al-Farah at 245 West Broadway in New York City's Tribeca district between the years 1983 and 2009.
Rauf worked to build bridges between American society, the American Muslim community and the wider Muslim world. In 1997, he founded the American Society for Muslim Advancement (originally named the American Sufi Muslim Association), a civil society organization aimed at promoting positive engagement between American society and American Muslims. The organization is now headed by his wife. He is a member of the Council of 100 Leaders (C-100) on West-Islamic World Dialogue at the World Economic Forum (WEF) and has received both the Alliance for International Conflict Prevention and Resolution’s annual Alliance Peacebuilder Award and The Interfaith Center of New York’s annual James Parks Morton Interfaith Award (2006). He was a major speaker at the 2009 Parliament of the World's Religions in Melbourne, Australia.
In 2003, Rauf founded the Cordoba Initiative, another registered nonprofit organization with offices in both New York and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As CEO of Cordoba Initiative, Rauf coordinates projects that emphasize the bonds that connect the Muslim world and the West.
Rauf is a friend of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order, and in 1983 was appointed prayer leader at their New York City mosque, Masjid al-Farah. In 1997 he founded the American Sufi Muslim Society (ASMA), which has since been renamed the American Society for Muslim Advancement.
British author Karen Armstrong said in the introduction to Rauf's book:
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf ... is a bridge figure because he has deep roots in both worlds. He was educated in Egypt, England, Malaysia and the United States, and his mosque in New York City is only a few blocks away from the World Trade Center. After September 11, people often asked me, "Where are the moderate Muslims? Why are they not speaking out?" In Imam Rauf, we have a Muslim who can speak to Western people in a way they understand."
Fareed Zakaria praised Rauf for speaking of "the need for Muslims to live peacefully with all other religions", for emphasizing the commonalities among all faiths, for advocating equal rights for women and opposing laws that in any way punish non-Muslims.
Walter Isaacson, head of The Aspen Institute, says Rauf "has participated at the Aspen Institute in Muslim-Christian-Jewish working groups looking at ways to promote greater religious tolerance. He has consistently denounced radical Islam and terrorism, and promoted a moderate and tolerant Islam."
Read more about this topic: Feisal Abdul Rauf
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