Imam Rauf Reduces Mosque Role, Partner El-Gamal Takes Front Stage

This should be interesting: The New York Times reports Islamic Center Near Ground Zero Has New Imam. The article read like a press release. 

But who exactly is Sharif El-Gamal? A cursory Google search reveals a past that is not very pristine. The Times mentions nothing of his criminal past, or his worrisome connections.

In August NBC named El-Gamal one of their people of the year (???). But Fox 5 News in NYC [via Mediaite] gives us plenty of reasons why this was a curious choice to say the least:

The Times mentions none of the things mentioned in this expose. I wonder how they'd treat him if he was a conservative woman from Alaska whose name rhymes with "parasailin' ".

'M just sayin'.