WASHINGTON - Amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the planned mosque near New Yorks Ground Zero, right wing media reports point out that the United States is funding the construction and renovation of mosques in Pakistan and several other countries. The State Departments US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) is spending millions of dollars on at least 29 mosque-related projects in 18 countries, including Pakistan, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, and Albania, the reports said. State Department spokeswoman Nicole Thompson was quoted as saying in The Daily Caller website that the AFCP is a type of diplomatic effort and outreach. She said, It is helping to preserve our cultural heritage. It is not just to preserve religious structures. It is not to preserve a religion. It is to help us as global inhabitants preserve cultures. The State Department recently provided Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, Ranking Republican on the Committee on Foreign Relations, with a document explaining that the funding of mosques was given a green light in 2003. At that time the Justice Department said the Constitution did not bar using federal funds to preserve religious structures if they had cultural significance. But Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, told The Daily Caller that funding mosque renovation and rehabilitation is disastrously wrongheaded and unconstitutional. They are not going to win hearts and minds. It is not as if they are going to say, 'the Americans built this mosque for us so we shouldnt wage jihad on them. A mosque is a mosque. It is where prayers happen. That is a religious installation.