Fareed Zakaria Returns Anti-Defamation League Award Over Ground Zero Mosque

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

Newsweek writer and CNN host Fareed Zakaria has returned an award he received in 2005 from the Anti-Defamation League over the Jewish group's opposition towards the Ground Zero mosque.

"Five years ago, the ADL honored me with its Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize," Zakaria writes in next week's Newsweek. "I was thrilled to get the award from an organization that I had long admired. But I cannot in good conscience keep it anymore. I have returned both the handsome plaque and the $10,000 honorarium that came with it. I urge the ADL to reverse its decision. Admitting an error is a small price to pay to regain a reputation."

In the column, Zakaria argues in favor of building the Ground Zero mosque, writing:

'If there is going to be a reformist movement in Islam, it is going to emerge from places like the proposed institute. We should be encouraging groups like the one behind this project, not demonizing them. Were this mosque being built in a foreign city, chances are that the U.S. government would be funding it.'

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/06/fareed-zakaria-returns-an_n_674099.html

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On edit... STOP CALLING IT 'Ground Zero Mosque!'