Interview with Imam Abdul Rauf on Larry King

[Alyia72]

Did anyone watch this interview last night? What did you think about the interview in general?  How did you feel when he kept bringing up our national security being at risk?  Reading some other articles about the interview a lot of people are viewing his statements as a threat?
http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1009/08/lkl.01.html

RAUF: There is no doubt that this has become such a situation. And I'm deeply sensitive to that and very concerned about that. And, you know, had I known this would happen, we certainly would never have done this.

O'BRIEN: You would never have picked that spot?

RAUF: We would not have done something that would create more divisiveness.

O'BRIEN: Then why is it hard to back up and say, and now that we've done it, let's undo it, let's just say we won't. Let's pick another spot that's been offered?

RAUF: As I just mentioned, our national security now hinges on how we negotiate this, how we speak about it, and what we do. It is important for us now to raise the bar on our conversation--

O'BRIEN: What's the risk? When you say "national security," what's the risk?

RAUF: As I mentioned, because if we move, that means the radicals have shaped the discourse. The radicals will shape the discourse on both sides. And those of us who are moderates on both sides -- you see Soledad, the battle front is not between Muslims and non-Muslims. The real battle front is between moderates on all sides of all the faith traditions and the radicals on all sides. The radicals actually feed off each other. And in some kind of existential way, need each other. And the more that the radicals are able to control the discourse on one side, it strengthens the radicals on the other side and vice versa. We have to turn this around.  

Later in the conversation he also said:

O'BRIEN: --though, right, isn't that causing to some degree an instability and a risk, a risk of safety? I mean, there's an address now that has become the flash point for a lot of anger. Isn't that a risk to Muslims and Americans?

RAUF: There is a certain anger here, no doubt. But if you don't do this right, anger will explode in the Muslim world. If this is not handled correctly, this crisis could become much bigger than the Danish cartoon crisis, which resulted in attacks on Danish embassies in various parts of the Muslim world. And we have a much larger footprint in the Muslim world. If we don't handle this crisis correctly, it could become something which could really become very, very, very dangerous indeed.