Jasser has said that he and his family have helped build a number of small mosques in different cities using locally raised funds , and at times encountering , but always overcoming local opposition . In 2010 Jasser strongly opposed the building of the Park51 project , a 13-story Islamic community center and mosque two blocks from the World Trade Center site , which is also known as Ground Zero . He said he was concerned that the funding of the $ 100 million project might be coming from foreign Islamist sources , and also said : " Ground Zero is purely about being American . It can never be about being Muslim . " Jasser believes acts of Islamic terrorism are rooted in the ideology of political Islam or Islamism . He has expressed the opinion that the 2009 Christmas Day attempted airplane bombing , the 2009 Fort Hood shooting , and the 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt have not prodded the United States into the appropriate action , but rather have resulted in politically correct denial by U.S. government authorities , and inaction by most American Muslims . He believes that even the Bush administration took inadequate measures against Islamism in America . He says the U.S. needs to provide alternatives for Muslim youth and promote reformist groups . In his television appearances , Jasser has claimed that 3 to 5 percent of U.S. Muslims are militant and 30 to 40 percent do not believe in separation of mosque and state . He also states that he believes many Western Muslim imams are too timid in their response to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant seemingly both criticizing but also sympathizing with its goal of a caliphate stating " Clearly , the majority of the mosques in the United States are led by imams who are Islamists — who believe that in Muslim-majority countries that the state should be identified as an Islamic state . " Jasser is an outspoken supporter of Israel and believes that Muslim organizations and leaders need to be held to a litmus test to see whether they recognize Israel as a state . Jasser and a group of American Muslims founded the nonprofit American Islamic Forum for Democracy ( AIFD ) in 2003 with the goal of demonstrating the compatibility of Islam with democracy and American values . Jasser is the group 's president and chief spokesman . The AIFD supports separation of religion and state , religious pluralism , equality of the sexes , the unconditional recognition of Israel , and the creation of an independent Palestine " on the current ' occupied territories . ' " The organization rejects terrorism and any justification for it
2009 Fort Hood shooting
2009 Fort Hood shooting
Zuhdi Jasser