Park51

Park51
Building now occupying half the site of the proposed Islamic community center
Religion
Affiliation	Islam
Leadership	Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf
Status	Planned; 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2)
Location
Location	45–51 Park Place, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Geographic coordinates	40°42′49″N 74°00′36″W
Architecture
General contractor	Soho Properties; Sharif El-Gamal (Chairman & CEO)
Groundbreaking	Late 2010 (est.)
Construction cost	$100 million
Specifications
Capacity	Over 2,000
Height (max)	13 stories
Materials	Glass and steel
Website
Official website

Park51, originally named Cordoba House and sometimes incorrectly referred to as the "Ground Zero mosque", is a planned $100 million, 13-story, glass and steel Islamic community center which will include a prayer space, a 500-seat auditorium, and a swimming pool. The facility intends to provide space for Friday prayers for 1,000–2,000 Muslims. The proposed Cordoba House would replace an existing 1850s Italianate building that was damaged in the September 11 attacks, located two blocks (about 600 feet, or 180 meters) from Ground Zero in Manhattan, New York City.

The proposed location of the project triggered an intense nation-wide controversy. Polls showed that a majority of Americans (a margin of 54%–20%) opposed building a mosque on that site, as did most people from New York State (61%–26%) and New York City (52%–31%); in Manhattan, 46% supported the project while 36% were opposed. A Marist poll dated August 2010 showed 53% support in the borough of Manhattan.

Those who opposed the proposed center cited its proximity to Ground Zero, where members of Al-Qaeda, a militant Islamist group, killed 2,750 people on September 11, 2001. Some opponents also criticized its original name, Cordoba, considering it a reference to Islamic conquest because the Christian Iberian city of Córdoba was conquered by the Islamic Moors and became the capital of a Muslim caliphate; however, the sponsors said the name was meant to invoke 8th–11th century Córdoba, where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in co-existed in relative peace.

Across the United States, families of 9/11 victims, as well as politicians, Muslims, and organizations, came out both for and against the project being built in the vicinity of Ground Zero. Some relatives of 9/11 victims argued that the project's choice of location was insensitive, while others said that the project would be an opportunity for Muslims to demonstrate peaceful Islamic values. Former U.S. Representative Rick Lazio (NY) questioned the project's source of funding, as well as the project leader's views on 9/11 and terrorism, whereas New York City Mayor Bloomberg welcomed Cordoba House as an expression of freedom of religion. Some Muslim American leaders and organizations supported the project as an act of friendship, while some Muslims opposed it as an unnecessary provocation.

History

Diagram showing how plane parts from United Airlines Flight 175 fell on 45 Park Place during 9/11 attacks

During the September 11 attacks, the then-five-story building at 45–47 Park Place, between West Broadway and Church Street, was severely damaged. The building is located two blocks (less than 600 feet (180 meters)) north of the former World Trade Center.

That morning, the terrorists hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 as part of their attack on the World Trade Center Twin Towers. They crashed the plane into the South Tower at 9:03 a.m, triggering the destruction of the tower hours later. The plane penetrated through the tower, and part of the plane's landing gear and fuselage came out the north side of the tower and crashed through the roof of 45–47 Park Place, and through two of its floors. The plane parts destroyed three floor beams, and severely compromised the building's internal structure.

At the time, the building was leased to the Burlington Coat Factory. Stephen Pomerantz owned the building, and his wife Kukiko Mitani, subsequently attempted to sell it for years, at one point asking for $18 million. Until its 2009 purchase, however, the building lay abandoned.

Purchase and investors

Ground Zero, 12 days after the 9/11 attacks. The location of the proposed Cordoba House is circled in red. Viewed at full size, a blue tarpaulin is visible covering a damaged section of the building's roof.

In July 2009, the Muslim-run real estate company and developer Soho Properties purchased the building and property at 45–47 Park Place for $4.85 million in cash.

Soho Properties' Chairman & CEO is real estate developer Sharif El-Gamal. His partner is Nour Mousa, the nephew of Amr Moussa, the Secretary General of the Arab League.

One investor in the transaction was the Cordoba Initiative, a tax-exempt foundation with assets of $20,000. In the foundation's first five years, from 2004–08, it raised less than $100,000. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is founder, CEO, and Executive Director of Cordoba Initiative, and the project is his brainchild. His wife, Daisy Khan, is a board member.

The project's other investor was the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), another non-profit foundation. Abdul Rauf is also the founder and CEO of ASMA, and his wife is its Executive Director. They run it out of the same New York office as the Cordoba Initiative.

The two foundations proposed to use the property as the site for a $100 million Islamic center and mosque. They are working on the project with El-Gamal, their co-developer.

The 49–51 Park Place half of the "45–51" parcel is still owned by the utility Con Edison (Con Ed). Soho Properties paid an additional $700,000 to assume a $33,000-a-year lease with Con Ed, for its adjacent attached former sub-station. The plan is to build the facility on the site of the two buildings. The lease for 49–51 Park Place expires in 2071. The two buildings are connected internally, with common walls having been taken down. El-Gamal informed Con Ed in February 2010 that he wanted to exercise his purchase option on the lease. Con Ed is now conducting an appraisal to determine the property's value. Once the property has been valued, El-Gamal will have the option of accepting the price, which was reportedly estimated at $10–$20 million. El-Gamal said the cost "is not an issue". The sale would be reviewed by the New York Public Service Commission, where it might face a vote by a five-member board controlled by New York Governor Paterson.

The specific location of the planned facility, so close to the World Trade Center “where a piece of the wreckage fell,” was a primary selling point for the Muslims who bought the building. Abdul Rauf said it “sends the opposite statement to what happened on 9/11.” and “We want to push back against the extremists”.

Questions as to source of funding

Joe Lieberman

Claudia Rosett, a journalist with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a weekly columnist for Forbes, devoted two columns to questioning the source of the funding for the project. Some U.S. politicians such as Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, who is an Independent Democrat, and Republicans Peter King and Rick Lazio (NY-2), asked for an investigation of the group’s finances, especially its foreign funding. King said: "The people who are involved in the construction of the mosque are refusing to say where their [$100 million] funding is going to come from." Lazio said: “Let’s have transparency. If they’re foreign governments, we ought to know about it. If they’re radical organizations, we ought to know about it.”

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, noted:

There should be transparency about who those investors are, whether that money is coming from domestic interests or not, and if it's coming from foreign interests we need to know, because I think that's a liability, and it shows that there is another agenda rather than domestic security and tranquility.

Abdul Rauf said he would raise money solely from the Muslim American community. However, NBC and The New York Post reported that in contrast he also told a London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat that he would seek funding from Muslim and Arab nations.

Mayor Bloomberg said: "Where does [the money] come from?' I don't know. Do you really want every time they pass the basket in your church, and you throw a buck in, they run over and say, '... where do you come from? ... Where did you get this money?' No." Rick Sanchez said: "if you start going into who is giving money to whom ... you have to go to my church. You have got to go to Rome and start asking where the money is going into Rome. And you have to go the Mormons and ask them, well, what are they doing with their money?"

Planned facilities

While the media widely described the center as a mosque, and the protests were against the mosque, the Initiative's official blog portrayed it as a community center with prayer space, making comparisons to the YMCA or Jewish Community Center. The Initiative said that some services planned for the Cordoba House, such as the restaurant and performance center, disqualify it from being a mosque. The official website for the facility said it would include "a mosque, intended to be run separately from Park51 but open to and accessible to all members, visitors and our New York community".

Besides the Muslim prayer space or mosque, the Initiative's plan includes a 500-seat auditorium, theater, performing arts center, fitness center, swimming pool, basketball court, childcare services, art exhibitions, bookstore, culinary school, and a food court serving halal dishes.

El-Gamal said he wanted the building to be energy-efficient and transparent, most likely with a glass façade. The project envisions the demolition of two buildings at 45–47 Park Place and Broadway which were damaged on 9/11. They would be replaced by a glass and steel 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m²) structure with a new address, 45–51 Park Place. A number of commentators said that the builders planned various construction milestones, such as groundbreaking and the start of construction, to coincide with anniversaries of the September 11 attacks. Khan was reported as saying in July 2010, however, that such assertions were "absolutely false" and that the construction timeline had not been determined.

Khan also said that it was anticipated that 1,000 to 2,000 Muslims would pray at the mosque every Friday, once it was completed.

Interim use and name-change

For several months after its purchase, since September 2009, the building was used as a makeshift Muslim prayer space for up to 450 Muslims, with services led by Abdul Rauf. Remarking on the observation that it was just a stone's throw away from Ground Zero, Abdul Rauf's wife said: "Only in New York City is this possible."

Cordoba Initiative, the sponsors of Cordoba House, said that their name is meant to invoke 8th–11th century Córdoba, Spain, a time and a place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews co-existed peacefully. The project's name raised issues for former U.S. Representative and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (GA-6), who said that it was a "a deliberately insulting term" saying that Córdoba was the name of a mosque built atop a Christian cathedral in the capital of the Caliphate of Córdoba during the period of Muslim rule in Spain, following the Umayyad defeat of the Visigoths in the 8th century. Subsequently, Cordoba Initiative renamed the structure "Park51," after the location's address at 51 Park Place, although it continues to refer to the project itself as Cordoba House.

Community board advisory vote

On May 25, 2010, neighborhood authorities in a non-binding advisory vote backed part of the plans for Cordoba House to be built on the site. The endorsement related only to "the important community facilities [the project] will provide," and the resolution indicated that the board "takes no position regarding the religious aspects or any religious facilities associated with either the Cordoba Initiative or the Cordoba House Project." The board's chairwoman, Julie Menin, supported deletion of references to the building as a mosque and interfaith center that were in an earlier draft of the resolution, saying: "I personally was uncomfortable with the language that talked about the religious institution. I believe it's not the purview of a city agency to be weighing in on the siting of any religious institution, be it a mosque, synagogue, or church."

The vote by the Lower Manhattan Community Board 1 was 29-to-1, with 10 abstentions. The vote did not have any binding effect.

Landmark status declined; lawsuit

The former Burlington Coat Factory on 45–51 Park Place, in 2010

One obstacle to construction was the potential conferment of landmark status on the building. It had been constructed between 1857 and 1858, in the Italian Renaissance palazzo style.

The stone-faced building, designed by Daniel Badger, was originally constructed for a shipping firm of a prominent New York shipping magnate. Its Italian palazzo style was a throwback to a prior time of European grandeur, and was intended to evoke images of economic might. The building is an example of the "store and loft" structures that were prevalent in the dry goods warehouse districts of Lower Manhattan.

The building was one of only a few stand-alone structures in southern Tribeca that were nominated—but never designated—as individual landmarks, during an effort in the 1980s to create a Tribeca historic district. In September 1989, the Commission had held public hearings and considered the building for landmark status. But it never acted on the matter, and the building was “calendared” ever since. The New York Post reported that city building records reflected that out of a group of 29 buildings, including 45–47 Park Place, that were proposed for historic landmark designation in 1989, 23 had been deemed landmarks and 6 (including 45–47) were pending as of August 2010. New York City has more than 11,000 landmarked buildings.

On August 3, 2010, however, New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 9–0 against granting landmark status and historic protection to the building. That cleared the way for it to be razed, and the new Cordoba House to be built in its place. The Commission's members had been appointed by Mayor Bloomberg, a supporter of the new structure.

The following day, Timothy Brown, a firefighter who survived 9/11, filed a suit in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan asking the court to nullify the Commission’s decision. He praised 45–47 Park Place, quoting the Commission's own description of it as "a fine example of the Italian Renaissance-inspired palazzi" that flourished in the mid-1800s in the area. The suit was filed on his behalf by the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative public interest firm.

Opposition to location

Polls

Polls showed that the majority of Americans, New York State residents, and New York City residents opposed building the mosque near Ground Zero.

The majority of Americans were opposed to it, The New York Times reported in July 2010. By a margin of 54%–20%, American adults were opposed to a mosque being built near Ground Zero, a national Rasmussen Reports poll found that month. Furthermore, according to an August 10–11 Fox News poll, 64% of Americans (a majority of each of Democrats (56-38%), Republicans (76-17%), and Independents (53-41%) thought it would be wrong to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center so close to Ground Zero, and 30% felt it would be appropriate. At the same time, 61% felt that the Muslim group had a right to build a mosque there (a majority of Democrats (63-32%), Republicans (57-36%), and Independents (69-29%). A CNN poll conducted August 6–10 found that by a margins of 68%-29%, Americans opposed it.[3][4] A majority of each of Democrats (54-34%), Republicans (82-17%), and Independents (70-24%) were opposed.[5]

In addition, by a margin of 52%–31% New York City voters opposed the construction, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll carried out in June 2010. At the same time, 46% of Manhattanites supported it, while 36% opposed it. Opposition was strongest in Staten Island, where 73% opposed it while only 14% supported it. A higher percentage of Republicans (82%) than Democrats (45%) opposed the plan. A Marist Poll showed a similar city-wide margin (53%-34%), of those polled July 28-August 5.[6][7]

State-wide, by a margin of 61%–26% New Yorkers opposed the mosque's construction at that location, according to another poll in August 2010, by Siena Research Institute, whose poll question wording was criticized by a writer at Slate magazine. A majority of both Republicans (81%) and Democrats (55%) were opposed to it, as were conservatives (85%), moderates (55%), and liberals (52%). Among New York City residents, a margin of 56%–33% opposed it.

9/11 families

Many relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks said they found the proposal offensive because the radical Muslim terrorists who committed the attacks did so in the name of Islam. A number said that it was not an issue of freedom of religion, property rights, or racism, but rather one of sensitivity to the families of those killed, in choosing the specific location of the mosque.

A group of victims' relatives, 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America, called the proposal "a gross insult to the memory of those who were killed on that terrible day." Debra Burlingame, a co-founder of the group whose brother died in the attacks, said:

This is a place which is 600 feet from where almost 3,000 people were torn to pieces by Islamic extremists.... it is incredibly insensitive and audacious ... for them to build a mosque ... so that they could be in proximity to where that atrocity happened... The idea that you would establish a religious institution that embraces the very shariah law that terrorists point to as their justification for what they did ... to build that where almost 3,000 people died, that is an obscenity to me.

Sally Regenhard, whose son died and who has testified before Congress on 9/11, said that the center would be “sacrilege on sacred ground”, and that “People are being accused of being anti-Muslim and racist, but this is simply a matter of sensitivity.” Former NY Fire Department Deputy Chief Jim Riches, whose son Jim was killed, said: "I don't want to have to go down to a memorial where my son died on 9/11, and look at a mosque", adding "this is all about location, location, location. It's not about religious freedom ... be sensitive to the families." Michael Burke, whose brother died, wrote: "Freedom of religion or expression and private property rights are not the issues.... Decency is; right and wrong is... [M]any believe that their “rights” supersede all other considerations, like what is respectful, considerate, and decent. A mosque ... steps from Ground Zero in a building damaged in the attacks is ... astoundingly insensitive".

C. Lee Hanson, whose son, daughter-in-law, and baby granddaughter were killed, felt that building a tribute to Islam so close to the World Trade Center site would be insensitive: "The pain never goes away. When I look over there and I see a mosque, it’s going to hurt. Build it someplace else." Hanson and his wife wrote, further:

It has the trappings of a victory mosque, given its location.... The refusal of ... Abdul Rauf to be specific about who the donors were for the $5 million to buy the building, and will be for the $100 million for construction, is worrisome.... The imam argues that America bears much of the responsibility for 9/11. Even so, Councilwoman Margaret Chin praised the imam ... and accused opponents of being prejudiced or anti-immigrant. We are neither. One of us is the child of Greek immigrants, with a sister married to a Muslim. Our son married the daughter of Korean immigrants. Councilwoman Chin and others need a new argument.

Rosemary Cain, whose son was killed, called the project a "slap in the face", and said "I think it's despicable. That's sacred ground", and "I don't want a mosque on my son's grave". Nancy Nee, whose brother was killed, said: "It's almost like a trophy. The whole thing just reeks of arrogance at this point."

Evelyn Pettigano, who lost a sister, said: "I don't like it. I'm not prejudiced.... It's too close to the area where our family members were murdered." Dov Shefi, whose son Haggai was killed, said: "the establishment of a mosque in this place ... is like bringing a pig into the Holy Temple. It is inconceivable that in all the city of New York, this site was specifically chosen." Cindy McGinty, whose husband was killed, said she hoped that officials would keep an eye on the funding source for the mosque, adding: “Why did they pick this spot? Why aren’t they being more sensitive? I don’t trust it." Barry Zelman, whose brother was killed, said: "We can say all Muslims did not do this, which is true. But they [terrorists] did it in the name of that religion. You wouldn't have a German cultural center on top of a death camp."

Rosaleen Tallon-DaRos, whose brother died, urged that the mosque not be put on that site, as did Tim Brown, a New York City firefighter who survived the attack. He said: "The families lost their loved ones to terrorists, Islamic, Muslim terrorists who do not believe in religious freedom."

Muslims

The building of the mosque near Ground Zero was criticized by some other Muslims.

One was Sufi Muslim mysticist Suleiman Schwartz, Executive Director of a Washington, DC non-profit organization, the Center for Islamic Pluralism. He said that building the mosque barely two blocks from Ground Zero is inconsistent with the Sufi philosophy of simplicity of faith and sensitivity towards others, and "grossly insensitive."

Another founding member of the Center for Islamic Pluralism, Zuhdi Jasser, who is also the founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a group of Muslim professionals in the Phoenix Valley of Arizona, strongly opposed the mosque, saying:

For us, a mosque was always a place to pray...—not a way to make an ostentatious architectural statement. Ground Zero shouldn’t be about promoting Islam. It’s the place where war was declared on us as Americans." Neda Bolourchi, a Muslim whose mother died in 9/11, said: "I fear it would become a symbol of victory for militant Muslims around the world."

Authors Raheel Raza and Tarek Fatah, board members of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said:

We Muslims know the ... mosque is meant to be a deliberate provocation, to thumb our noses at the infidel. The proposal has been made in bad faith, ... as "Fitna," meaning "mischief-making" that is clearly forbidden in the Koran.... As Muslims we are dismayed that our co-religionists have such little consideration for their fellow citizens, and wish to rub salt in their wounds and pretend they are applying a balm to sooth the pain.

Hossein Kamaly, Term Assistant Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures at Barnard College, Columbia University, observed:

After all, it was 19 Egyptian and Saudi Arabian thugs calling themselves Muslims who perpetrated this heinous crime on September 11th. They want to send a message of friendship, but building a mosque where there wasn't one before, is not the most nuanced way of doing that.

Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, while noting that blaming all Muslims for 9/11 was "ridiculous", said:

I don't think the Muslim leadership has fully appreciated the impact of 9/11 on America. They assume Americans have forgotten 9/11 and even, in a profound way, forgiven 9/11, and that has not happened. The wounds remain largely open [...] and when wounds are raw, an episode like constructing a house of worship—even one protected by the Constitution, protected by law—becomes like salt in the wounds.

He goes on to say that, in his opinion, if the center is constructed as well as a mosque it should contain a memorial and an ecumenical house of worship.

Politicians

A number of politicians across the United States spoke out against the mosque being constructed next to Ground Zero.

Among them have been Republicans Senator John McCain (AZ, 2008 presidential nominee; "would harm relations, rather than help"); Sarah Palin (AK, 2008 vice presidential nominee; called on moderate Muslims to "refudiate" the project as an "unnecessary provocation"), Mitt Romney (former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate), Senator Johnny Isakson (GA; "could be totally insensitive"), Senator Olympia Snowe (Maine; "insensitive to the families"), Idaho Senators Jim Risch and Mike Crapo (not "proper"), Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson ("inappropriate and insensitive"), Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, and North Carolina congressional candidate Ilario Pantano ("It is about ... territorial conquest. This mosque is a Martyr–Marker honoring the terrorists").

Newt Gingrich

Former House Speaker Republican Newt Gingrich said: "It’s not about religion, and is clearly an aggressive act that is offensive". Commenting on the project's name, he wrote:

“Cordoba House” is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba, Spain–the capital of Muslim conquerors, who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex... every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest.

Gingrich also decried the proposed Islamic center as a symbol of Muslim "triumphalism", and said that building the mosque near the site of the 9/11 attacks "would be like putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Museum."

William Bennett, Republican former Reagan Education Secretary and Drug Czar under George H.W. Bush, suggested that Muslims should "learn" from the events of the late 20th century at the Auschwitz concentration camp. At that time, a group of Carmelite nuns opened a convent just outside of Auschwitz, to pray for the souls of all who had died. When Jews protested, and Pope John Paul II ordered the nuns to relocate, they closed the doors of the convent and moved it.

Rick Lazio

New York Republicans who criticized the plan included former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (a “desecration”; "Nobody would allow something like that at Pearl Harbor ... Let's have some respect for who died there and why they died there."), former NY Governor George Pataki, Congressman Peter King (R-NY; ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee; "offensive to so many people"), and former NY Congressman and current NY gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio. NY gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino (R) noted: "The vast majority of New Yorkers and Americans have rejected their idea. If a bridge was their intent, why jam it down our throats? Why does it have to be right there?"; he said that if he were elected Governor of New York, he would use the power of eminent domain to stop construction of the mosque, and instead build a war memorial in its place.

New York Republican Congressional candidate George Demos also objected. He said that the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, the only religious structure destroyed in the 9/11 attacks, should be rebuilt before moving forward on building a mosque in the area, and called for an investigation into the mosque's financing.

Paul Sipos, a member of NYC Community Board 1, said:

If the Japanese decided to open a cultural centre across from Pearl Harbour, that would be insensitive. If the Germans opened a Bach choral society across from Auschwitz, even after all these years, that would be an insensitive setting. I have absolutely nothing against Islam. I just think: Why there?

A Republican political action committee, the National Republican Trust Political Action Committee, a Washington-based organization, created a television commercial attacking the proposal, saying "we Americans will be heard". Tea Party activist Mark Williams called it a monument to the terror attacks.

Democratic Independent Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman indicated that he felt the project should be halted, pending further evaluation of its impact on the families and friends of 9/11 victims, project’s sponsors' intentions, and their sources of funding.

New York Democratic Assemblyman and Attorney-General-candidate Richard Brodsky said it was: "offensive to me...raises concerns and bad memories, and needs to be dealt with on a human level. The murder wasn't an Islamic crime, but it was a crime committed in the name of Islam by people most Muslims reject."

Outside the U.S., Dutch member of Parliament Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV), said he plans to speak against building the mosque next to Ground Zero at a rally on September 11, organised by Stop Islamization of America.

On August 13, 2010, Pamela Geller confirmed the list of speakers joining Rob Spencer and her at the FDI/SIOA demonstration on September 11: "911 WTC families", John Bolton, Newt Gingrich, Geert Wilders, Gary Berntsen, Jordan Sekulow, Pete King (invited), Michael Grimm, Andrew Breitbart, and Ilario Pantano

A spokesman for Gingrich, Joe DeSantis, denied Gingrich was scheduled.

Organizations

New York City fireman Tim Brown opposed the mosque, saying: "A mosque ... that's using foreign money from countries with shariah law is unacceptable, especially in this neighborhood". Brown allied with the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), a conservative law firm founded by Pat Robertson that champions the rights of Christians to build and worship freely. Brown sought to pressure Abdul Rauf to disclose fully the project's funding sources. Peter Ferrara, General Counsel of the American Civil Rights Union, observed: "The Cordoba Mosque was the third largest mosque complex in the world ... built on the site of a former Christian church, to commemorate the Muslim conquest of Spain. This perpetuated a cultural Muslim practice of building mosques on the sites of historic conquests."

Pamela Geller, executive director of Stop Islamization of America, said: "It's an insult. It's demeaning to non-Muslims to build a shrine dedicated to the very ideology that inspired 9/11." More than 20,000 people signed an online petition for the Committee to Stop the Ground Zero Mosque, and unsuccessfully lobbied the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission to give the location landmark status, which would have added a major hurdle to construction.

Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said "putting a mosque ... very close to Ground Zero is unacceptable.... Even though the vast majority of Muslims ... condemned their actions on Sept. 11, 2001, it still remains a fact that the people who perpetrated the 9/11 attack were Muslims and proclaimed they were doing what they were doing in the name of Islam." Bill Rench, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church which is located near the proposed mosque site, also spoke out against its construction.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a U.S. Jewish civil rights group that had spoken out against anti-Muslim bigotry, denounced what it saw as bigoted attacks on the mosque. Its head opined that some of those who oppose the mosque are "bigots", and that the plan's proponents may have every right to build the mosque at that location. Nevertheless, he appealed to the builders to consider the sensitivities of the victims' families, saying that building the mosque at that site would unnecessarily cause more pain for families of some victims of 9/11.

The Zionist Organization of America opposes the construction of Park51 due to its location, and questions about Imam Abdul Rauf. The Simon Wiesenthal Center also opposes the location of the planned Park51.

Criticism of Abdul Rauf's views

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Abdul Rauf, a Kuwait-born Muslim Sufi of Egyptian origin, is the chief proponent of the mosque project. Some U.S. politicians and others voiced concerns about his views.

Columnist Jonathan Rauch wrote that Abdul Rauf gave a "mixed, muddled, muttered" message after 9/11. Nineteen days after the attacks, he told CBS’s 60 Minutes that fanaticism and terrorism have no place in Islam, but Rauch considered his message "muddled" because when asked if the U.S. deserved to be attacked, Rauf answered, "I wouldn’t say that the United States deserved what happened, but the United States’ policies were an accessory to the crime that happened." Rauch commented: "Note the verb. The crime "happened"?" King and Sarah Palin also expressed concern about his remark.

Rudy Giuliani

Lazio criticized him because he "refuses to recognize that Hamas is a terrorist organization"; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani also claimed that Abdul Rauf "has a record of support for causes that were sympathetic with terrorism." In June 2010, when asked in an interview whether he agreed with the U.S. State Department's assessment of Hamas as a terrorist organization, Abdul Rauf said: "I'm not a politician. The issue of terrorism is a very complex question." Adding "I am a peace builder. I will not allow anybody to put me in a position where I am seen by any party in the world as an adversary or as an enemy,"

Lazio also said that Abdul Rauf played a leading role in an organization (the Perdana Global Peace Organization) that calls itself a "principal partner” of the flotilla that tried to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. Lazio and Gingrich also said that Abdul Rauf has connections with Islamist extremists, which Abdul Rauf strongly denied.

Support

Politicians

Michael Bloomberg

On August 13, 2010, in a speech at the annual White House Iftar dinner celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, President Barack Obama expressed support for the right of Muslims to build the Islamic center. Obama said, "Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg strongly endorsed the project, saying that Ground Zero was a "very appropriate place" for a mosque, because it "tells the world" that the U.S. has freedom of religion for everyone. Responding to opposition, he said:

The government should never, never be in the business of telling people how they should pray, or where they can pray. We want to make sure that everybody from around the world feels comfortable coming here, living here, and praying the way they want to pray.

"Democracy is stronger than this," he added. Remarking on opposition to the mosques' location, he said: "To cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists. We should not stand for that." Responding to a question about the pain the mosque plan is causing some family members, he said:

I don't see an enormous number of people. I was at a fundraiser ... maybe 50 ... people who had lost [family] members. 100% in that room kept saying, 'please keep it up, keep it up'.... our relatives would have wanted this country, and this city, to follow and actually practice what we preach.

Mayor Bloomberg was asked if he was satisfied that "he is indeed a man of peace given his background where he's supposedly supported Hamas, blamed the U.S. for 9/11 attacks?" The mayor responded: "My job is not to vet clergy in this city.... Everybody has a right to their opinions. You don't have to worship there.... this country is not built around ... only those ... clergy people that we agree with..... It's built around freedom. That's the wonderful thing about the First Amendment – you can say anything you want."

Community Board 1 Financial Committee Chairman Edward "Ro" Sheffe opined: "it will be a wonderful asset to the community." New York City Councilwoman Margaret Chin said: "The center is something the community needs".

Additional New York politicians supported the proposal. They included Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer ("I'll do everything I can to make sure this mosque does get opened"), U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler ("the government has no business deciding"), NY State Senator Daniel Squadron (NYC Comptroller John Liu , NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

Rep. Nadler remarked that the mosque in the Pentagon hasn’t drawn any criticism, despite the Pentagon also being a target of the 9/11 attacks. There are no known opponents of the Park51 project who are on record claiming that Muslim services have not been held regularly on site at the Pentagon; this is a generally conceded point. In addition, on one occasion, over 100 people observed Ramadan at religious facilities on site at the Pentagon.

Keith Ellison

Representative Keith Ellison, the U.S.'s first Muslim congressman, supported the mosque's location on the basis of the First Amendment and religious tolerance, and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick also voiced support, saying: "The sooner we separate the peaceful teaching of Islam from the behavior of terrorists, the better for all of us."

Mark McKinnon, a former advisor to Republican President George W. Bush, criticized Republican opposition to the project: "And here we are, reinforcing al Qaeda’s message that we’re at war with Muslims." Another former Bush aide, speechwriter and policy advisor Michael Gerson, agreed that prohibiting the mosque would "undermine the war on terrorism":

The militants hope, above all else, to provoke conflict between the West and Islam -- to graft their totalitarian political manias onto a broader movement of Muslim solidarity. America hopes to draw a line that isolates the politically violent and those who tolerate political violence -- creating solidarity with Muslim opponents and victims of radicalism.

File:Al Zahar.jpg

Mahmoud al-Zahar

Mahmoud al-Zahar, who is Hamas chief of the Gaza Strip, said of the planned Cordoba House: "We have to build everywhere," and "In every area we have, (as) Muslim(s), we have to pray, and this mosque is the only site of prayer." Zahar said that Muslims around the world, including those who live in the USA, are united in a common cause. "First of all, we have to address that we are different as people, as a nation, totally different," he said. "We already are living under the tradition of Islam... Islam is controlling every source of our life as regard to marriage, divorce, our commercial relationships... Even the Islamic people or the Muslims in your country, they are living now in the tradition of Islam. They are fasting; they are praying.".

Organizations

September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, billed as "committed to resolving conflict in non-violent ways," voiced support for the project.

Ibrahim Hooper, Communications Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), charged that the controversy was "manufactured" by "bigots". He also asserted that only a vocal minority was complaining. And Nihad Awad, CAIR's Executive Director, said that the opinion of Republican Congressman Peter King "should not be considered, because his ideas are extreme." Talat Hamdani, a Muslim whose son died in 9/11, co-wrote an article supporting the center in the interest of pluralism. Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek journalist and CNN host, also strongly supported the mosque, and returned a prestigious award he received in 2005 from the Anti-Defamation League, saying he was "personally and deeply saddened" by their opposition towards the subject mosque. He wrote: "Abdul Rauf, is a moderate Muslim clergyman. He has said one or two things about American foreign policy that strike me as overly critical—but it’s stuff you could read on The Huffington Post any day. On Islam, his main subject, Rauf’s views are clear: he routinely denounces all terrorism—as he did again last week, publicly."

The Muslim Public Affairs Council also supported the project.

Ishaan Tharoor argued in a TIME article that opposition to the Mosque is caused by Islamophobia, irrational fear of Islam.

The Jewish political group J Street also supported the construction. Its President, Jeremy Ben-Ami, released a statement saying:

The principle at stake ... goes to the heart of American democracy, and the value we place on freedom of religion. Should one religious group in this country be treated differently than another? We believe the answer is no.... proposing a church or a synagogue for that site would raise no questions. The Muslim community has an equal right to build a community center wherever it is legal to do so.

The New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union supported it as well, citing principles of religious freedom. The Interfaith Alliance also supported the mosque, while indicating that it agreed with the need for transparency as to who is funding the project.

9/11 families

Some relatives of victims of the 9/11 attacks expressed support for the project.

Herb Ouida, whose son Todd died, said: "To say that we're going to condemn a religion and castigate a billion people in the world because they're Muslims, to say that they shouldn't have the ability to pray near the World Trade Center—I don't think that's going to bring people together and cross the divide."

Marvin Bethea, a former EMS worker who was forced to retire in 2004 because of breathing problems caused by working at the 9/11 site, believes racism is a factor in the controversy, He said "even though my life has changed, I don't hate the Muslims. Especially being a black man, I know what it's like to be discriminated against. I've lived with that."

Donna O'Connor, whose pregnant daughter died on 9/11, expressed the opinion that "This building will serve as an emblem for the rest of the world that Americans ... recognize that the evil acts of a few must never damn the innocent."

Some of the families have organized a group named September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, which supports the center and has said it would be "an emblem for the rest of the world that Americans stand against violence, intolerance, and overt acts of racism and that we recognize that the evil acts of a few must never damn the innocent".

Terry Rockefeller, whose sister was killed, said: "this doesn’t insult her at all.This celebrates the city she loved living in. It is what makes America what we are."

Academia

Mark R. Cohen, Professor of Jewish Civilization in the Near East in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, opined that "The presence of ... mosques like the one planned near Ground Zero, which will be an educational center as well as a place of prayer, is one good way of transcending ... ignorance." Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis, of the University of North Texas Jewish Studies Program said that when it comes to the issue of freedom to practice religion in a private sphere, such as on a piece of private property in Lower Manhattan, freedom of religion is virtually inviolate.

Boston University Department of Religion professor Stephen Prothero spoke out against the arguments that Cordoba House should not be built near Ground Zero. As did Padraic O'Hare, Professor of Religious and Theological Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations at Merrimack College, arguing that prayer leads to peace: "Build a Muslim house of prayer near Ground Zero? ... Hand me the shovel."

Sponsors

Those behind the project, the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative, claim it is intended to foster better relations between Islam and the West. In an interview, Daisy Khan said: "We decided we wanted to look at the legacy of 9/11 and do something positive." She added that her group represents moderate Muslims who want "to reverse the trend of extremism and the kind of ideology that the extremists are spreading." Pointing to the fact that ordinary Muslims have been killed by Muslim extremists all over the world, Khan also said about the mosque, "For us it is a symbol... that will give voice to the silent majority of Muslims who suffer at the hands of extremists. A center will show that Muslims will be part of rebuilding Lower Manhattan."

See also

• Islamic Cultural Center of New York

External links

• Cordoba House
• Coalition to Honor Ground Zero
• "Hey, That's Sacred Ground: Let's Talk About Where to Build that Mosque", The Huffington Post, Rabbi Justus N. Baird, May 28, 2010
• "New York City Voters Oppose Mosque Near Ground Zero, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Does Mosque Foster Understanding Or Insult 9/11 Victims?", Quinnipiac University, July 1, 2010
• "Ground Zero Mosque Property Developer Comes Out; Sharif El-Gamal speaks to CNN", Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard, July 20, 2010
• "A mosque to be built on our principles", Leonard Pitts, The Miami Herald, July 21, 2010
• "Statement on the Proposed “Cordoba House” Mosque near Ground Zero", Newt Gingrich, Newt.org, July 21, 2010
• "Boychuk and Mathis: Should a mosque be built near Ground Zero?", Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis, Daily News Tribune, August 1, 2010
• "Newt Gingrich, pushing prejudice at Ground Zero", Richard Cohen, The Washington Post, August 3, 2010
• "Conservatives for a More Capricious Landmarks Bureaucracy", Josh Barro, National Review, August 3, 2010
• "An Open Letter on the Ground Zero Mosque; The location undermines the goal of interfaith understanding", Dan Senor, The Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2010
• "Opposition to 'Ground Zero Mosque' Is a Victory for Al Qaeda", John Aloysius Farrell, U.S. News & World Report, August 3, 2010
• "A Monument to Tolerance", Editorial, The New York Times, August 3, 2010
• "WTC Mosque, Meet the Auschwitz Nuns; Pope John Paul offers a model of tolerance for a heated controversy", William McGurn, The Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2010
• "If He Could, Bin Laden Would Bomb the Cordoba Initiative", Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic, August 3, 2010
• "Broadway and the Mosque", Thomas Friedman, The New York Times, August 3, 2010
• "Not at Ground Zero", Editors, National Review, August 4, 2010
• "Should the Mosque Be Built? – Follow the Money", Gabe Pressman, NBC, August 4, 2010
• "Liberal Piety and the Memory of 9/11; The enlightened class can't understand why the public is uneasy about the Ground Zero mosque", Dorothy Rabinowitz, The Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2010
• "Ground Zero mosque protected by First Amendment—but it's still Salt in a Wound", Susan Jacoby, The Washington Post, August 4, 2010
• "A Mosque that Wrecks Bridges", Christopher Caldwell, the Financial Times, August 6, 2010
• "Build the Ground Zero Mosque", Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek, August 6, 2010
• "Why Jews should Support Mosque near Ground Zero", Robert Levine and David Ellenson, The Washington Post, August 6, 2010
• "A Strange Way to Promote 'Understanding'", George Jonas, National Post, August 7, 2010
• "The Mosque at Ground Zero", Pat Buchanan, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 8, 2010
• "Not so Fast", Stuart Varney, The Wall Street Journal, August 9, 2010
• "Shut Up, He Explained; Mayor Michael Bloomberg to New Yorkers", William Kristol, The Weekly Standard, August 16, 2010