organization seeking better relations between the Islamic community and
other faiths. Plans for the center include a 500-seat auditorium, swimming
pool, restaurants, bookstores and space for art exhibitions, according to the
organization’s website.
“I’m pleased with the decision,” said Rabbi Robert Levine, who leads
Congregation Rodeph Shalom on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “That
mosque could serve, as their program director made clear, as an example
of respect for all people and a model of interfaith cooperation and that’s
something that this city and this country needs desperately.”
More than 2,600 people died at the World Trade Center during the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which were planned by al- Qaeda, an
Islamist terrorist group headed by Osama bin Laden, according to
the U.S. 9/11 commission.
“Let us not forget that Muslims were among those murdered on
9/11 and that our Muslim neighbors grieved with us as New Yorkers
and as Americans,” Bloomberg said. “We would betray our values
and play into our enemies’ hands if we were to treat Muslims
different than anyone else.”
ADL Opposition
Last week, Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, an
organization created to fight anti-Semitism and bigotry, said the city “would
be better served if an alternative location could be found.”
other faiths. Plans for the center include a 500-seat auditorium, swimming
pool, restaurants, bookstores and space for art exhibitions, according to the
organization’s website.
“I’m pleased with the decision,” said Rabbi Robert Levine, who leads
Congregation Rodeph Shalom on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “That
mosque could serve, as their program director made clear, as an example
of respect for all people and a model of interfaith cooperation and that’s
something that this city and this country needs desperately.”
More than 2,600 people died at the World Trade Center during the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which were planned by al- Qaeda, an
Islamist terrorist group headed by Osama bin Laden, according to
the U.S. 9/11 commission.
“Let us not forget that Muslims were among those murdered on
9/11 and that our Muslim neighbors grieved with us as New Yorkers
and as Americans,” Bloomberg said. “We would betray our values
and play into our enemies’ hands if we were to treat Muslims
different than anyone else.”
ADL Opposition
Last week, Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, an
organization created to fight anti-Semitism and bigotry, said the city “would
be better served if an alternative location could be found.”
| . |
| . |
www.ambiente.us AUGUST |AGOSTO 2010
Ground Zero Mosque Plans Move Forward After Key Vote
By Henry Goldman
Aug. 3, 2010 - Plans to build an Islamic cultural center near the World Trade Center
site moved forward after New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted
to allow the demolition of a building that would be replaced by a mosque.
The panel denied landmark status to a long-vacant 152-year- old lower Manhattan
building on Park Place, formerly a Burlington Coat Factory department store. The
unanimous vote cleared a hurdle for the site to be torn down and the mosque,
recreation and cultural center to be built.
The proposed mosque has drawn opposition from former Alaska Governor Sarah
Palin and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who have called its proposed
presence near the site of the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history inappropriate.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn have supported
the project.
“To cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists,”
Bloomberg said at a news conference today on Governors Island in New York Harbor,
within view of the Statue of Liberty, where he was joined by Christian, Jewish and
Muslim clergy. “No neighborhood in our city is off limits to God’s love and mercy.”
Auditorium, Pool
The Cordoba Initiative, the project’s sponsor, describes itself as a pluralistic
Ground Zero Mosque Plans Move Forward After Key Vote
By Henry Goldman
Aug. 3, 2010 - Plans to build an Islamic cultural center near the World Trade Center
site moved forward after New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted
to allow the demolition of a building that would be replaced by a mosque.
The panel denied landmark status to a long-vacant 152-year- old lower Manhattan
building on Park Place, formerly a Burlington Coat Factory department store. The
unanimous vote cleared a hurdle for the site to be torn down and the mosque,
recreation and cultural center to be built.
The proposed mosque has drawn opposition from former Alaska Governor Sarah
Palin and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who have called its proposed
presence near the site of the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history inappropriate.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn have supported
the project.
“To cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists,”
Bloomberg said at a news conference today on Governors Island in New York Harbor,
within view of the Statue of Liberty, where he was joined by Christian, Jewish and
Muslim clergy. “No neighborhood in our city is off limits to God’s love and mercy.”
Auditorium, Pool
The Cordoba Initiative, the project’s sponsor, describes itself as a pluralistic
LGBT/Latino/Hispanic Civil Rights unitycoalition.org |
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Foxman said the project would cause 9/11 victims’ families “more pain --
unnecessarily,” and that “questions have been raised about who is providing the
funding to build it, and what connections, if any, its leaders might have with groups
whose ideologies stand in contradiction to our shared values.”
In an e-mail statement after the vote today, Foxman said it was time to “move
forward in a positive way to work toward healing, understanding and
reconciliation.”
Palin, in a July 22 Facebook entry, described the proposed mosque as “a stab in the
heart” of the attack victims’ families. She also said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf,
chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, suggested that U.S. policies in the Middle East
helped create attitudes that led to “the crime that happened.”
Rauf also “refuses to recognize that Hamas is a terrorist organization,” or provide
information about financing of the complex, Palin said.
Rauf and other Cordoba Initiative representatives didn’t respond to telephone
calls seeking comment.
‘Right to Say’
“This is about giving those people the right to say what they want to say,”
Bloomberg said in response to calls for an investigation of the mosque’s financing.
“I do not think we should be investigating who puts money in the basket when it’s
passed around, who writes checks at Yom Kippur or any other way a religious
organization raises money.”
The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
New York City voters, by 52 percent to 31 percent, opposed the mosque proposal
in a poll released July 1 by Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. The
survey of 1,183 registered voters, conducted June 21-28, has a margin of error of
2.9 percentage points.
unnecessarily,” and that “questions have been raised about who is providing the
funding to build it, and what connections, if any, its leaders might have with groups
whose ideologies stand in contradiction to our shared values.”
In an e-mail statement after the vote today, Foxman said it was time to “move
forward in a positive way to work toward healing, understanding and
reconciliation.”
Palin, in a July 22 Facebook entry, described the proposed mosque as “a stab in the
heart” of the attack victims’ families. She also said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf,
chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, suggested that U.S. policies in the Middle East
helped create attitudes that led to “the crime that happened.”
Rauf also “refuses to recognize that Hamas is a terrorist organization,” or provide
information about financing of the complex, Palin said.
Rauf and other Cordoba Initiative representatives didn’t respond to telephone
calls seeking comment.
‘Right to Say’
“This is about giving those people the right to say what they want to say,”
Bloomberg said in response to calls for an investigation of the mosque’s financing.
“I do not think we should be investigating who puts money in the basket when it’s
passed around, who writes checks at Yom Kippur or any other way a religious
organization raises money.”
The mayor is founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.
New York City voters, by 52 percent to 31 percent, opposed the mosque proposal
in a poll released July 1 by Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. The
survey of 1,183 registered voters, conducted June 21-28, has a margin of error of
2.9 percentage points.
Staten Island
Opposition was strongest on Staten Island, where another mosque construction project
has been proposed. Respondents there were against the Ground Zero mosque plan by 73
percent to 14 percent in favor. In Manhattan, 46 percent supported the project and 36
percent were opposed, Quinnipiac found.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said in a statement that he supports the
commission’s decision.
“New Yorkers need to be consulted as this project moves forward, and that includes
families who lost their loved ones on 9/11,” Stringer said. “It is my hope that we can all
come together to fight for what’s really important -- finding a bipartisan solution to fund
health benefits for 9/11 first responders, securing federal anti-terrorism dollars to keep our
city safe and promoting religious tolerance and freedom.”
Local Decision
Robert Gibbs, spokesman for President Barack Obama, told reporters at a White House
press briefing today that the mosque plan “is rightly a matter for New York City and the
local community to decide.”
While saying the Obama and Bush administrations have emphasized that the U.S. is “not at
war with a religion,” Gibbs said the White House is “not going to get involved in a local
decision.”
Robert Tierney, chairman of the landmarks commission, said at the public meeting today
that other designated historic districts and nearby buildings contain better examples of
the store-and-loft style of architecture.
“I’ve carefully considered also the other architectural, social, historical and cultural
reasons that have been put forth in favor of designation and ultimately find them
unpersuasive in terms of this decision,” he said.
Copyright © Bloomberg & AMBIENTE MAGAZINE. Do not reproduce without citing this source
Opposition was strongest on Staten Island, where another mosque construction project
has been proposed. Respondents there were against the Ground Zero mosque plan by 73
percent to 14 percent in favor. In Manhattan, 46 percent supported the project and 36
percent were opposed, Quinnipiac found.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said in a statement that he supports the
commission’s decision.
“New Yorkers need to be consulted as this project moves forward, and that includes
families who lost their loved ones on 9/11,” Stringer said. “It is my hope that we can all
come together to fight for what’s really important -- finding a bipartisan solution to fund
health benefits for 9/11 first responders, securing federal anti-terrorism dollars to keep our
city safe and promoting religious tolerance and freedom.”
Local Decision
Robert Gibbs, spokesman for President Barack Obama, told reporters at a White House
press briefing today that the mosque plan “is rightly a matter for New York City and the
local community to decide.”
While saying the Obama and Bush administrations have emphasized that the U.S. is “not at
war with a religion,” Gibbs said the White House is “not going to get involved in a local
decision.”
Robert Tierney, chairman of the landmarks commission, said at the public meeting today
that other designated historic districts and nearby buildings contain better examples of
the store-and-loft style of architecture.
“I’ve carefully considered also the other architectural, social, historical and cultural
reasons that have been put forth in favor of designation and ultimately find them
unpersuasive in terms of this decision,” he said.
Copyright © Bloomberg & AMBIENTE MAGAZINE. Do not reproduce without citing this source