In an August 19 editorial, The Washington Times stated of the planned Islamic community center in New York City: “The Ground Zero Mosque is not healing a rift but deepening a wound. If the mosque is constructed, the terrorists win.”

Further, the Times again referred to Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf as the “mastermind” behind the center and questioned Rauf's “self-identification as a 'moderate' Muslim.” As Media Matters has noted, Rauf has widely been described as moderate and has repeatedly condemned terrorism.

From the Times' editorial:

That the mosque will be funded from abroad reinforces the view that the proposed mosque is not an effort to serve a Muslim community in Lower Manhattan and is instead a symbolic effort to claim the area near Ground Zero for Islam. It is pertinent that Mr. Rauf, the mosque mastermind, has refused to admit Muslims had anything to do with the Sept. 11 attacks, and he quipped, “Osama bin Laden was made in the USA.” This calls into question his self-identification as a “moderate” Muslim.

[...]

Trying to defend the mosque, [Park51 spokesman Oz Sultan] said, “if you build moderate Muslim communities, that's what's going to fight extremism.” But if this is the case, the Cordoba Initiative should be focusing its efforts on countries that have more active and dangerous Muslim extremist problems, like Saudi Arabia, Yemen or Iran. It's counterproductive to court a handful of moderate Muslims while alienating millions of moderate Americans. The Ground Zero Mosque is not healing a rift but deepening a wound. If the mosque is constructed, the terrorists win.