Zakaria Returns ADL Award

by the way Fareed is a cousin of Mush Mullah, one of our friends who lives in Plano, Texas

http://bit.ly/aFVRkE
August 6, 2010, 9:06 pm
Zakaria Returns ADL Award Over Mosque Opposition
By BRIAN STELTER

In an apparent protest this week, the CNN host and Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria returned a five-year-old first amendment award presented to him by the Anti-Defamation League in light of the Jewish group’s opposition to a mosque that may be built near Ground Zero.

In a letter to the ADL, Mr. Zakaria said he could not “in good conscience hold onto the award” given the group’s stance.

Last week the group said its opposition to the proposed site of the mosque was rooted in the fact that some families of victims of Sept.11 find the proposal offensive. The group suggested that its backers find a different location.

In response, Mr. Zakaria returned the group’s Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize, which was presented to him in 2005.

Mr. Zakaria, who is Muslim, hosts a weekend CNN show called “GPS” and writes a column for Newsweek. His letter to the ADL has yet to be released in full, but the group quoted an excerpt from it in a response letter. A CNN spokeswoman said his decision “will be addressed in Sunday’s broadcast and his Newsweek column.”

Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the ADL, said in the response letter to Mr. Zakaria that “I am not only saddened but stunned and somewhat speechless by your decision.”
Mr. Foxman added, “ADL is the same agency you held in esteem then; we have never wavered from our mission since its inception in 1913. I know you know well the work we do to fight prejudice and discrimination and promote respect and understanding among all people.”