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Cordoba House is a proposed Islamic cultural center and mosque planned to be built in New York City on Park Place between West Broadway and Church Street, two blocks away from Ground Zero,[1][2] despite protests.[3]
In July 2009, the Muslim-run real estate company Soho Properties purchased a five-story building located two blocks north of the former World Trade Center site. During the September 11 attacks, the building, then a Burlington Coat Factory, was severely damaged and until its 2009 purchase, lay abandoned. Soho Properties paid the owner $4.85 million in cash for the property. One of the investors in the transaction, the Cordoba Initiative, along with the American Society for Muslim Advancement, later proposed to use the property as the site for a $100 million Islamic center and mosque. For several months after its July purchase, the building was used as a makeshift Muslim prayer space, with services led by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.[4]
On May 6, 2010, neighborhood authorities approved plans for Cordoba House, a $100-million Islamic center and mosque to be built on the site.[5] The project was unanimously endorsed by the 12-member Community Board 1's financial district committee. Committee Chairman Ro Sheffe said "it will be a wonderful asset to the community." While nobody at the board meeting protested the mosque plans, some 9/11 families found the proposal deeply offensive because the terrorists who committed the September 11 attacks were Muslim.[6]
The project, a collaboration between the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative, is intended to foster better relations between Islam and the West.[6][7] In an interview, Daisy Kahn, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, stated, "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."[8] Pointing to the fact that ordinary Muslims have been killed by Muslim extremists all over the world, Kahn also stated 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."[9]
American Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is the chief exponent of the mosque project.
References
- ^ "EDITORIAL: The 9/11 mosque". The Washington Times. Retrieved 30 May 2010.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=36666
- ^ Despite Protests, Mosque Plan Near 9/11 Site Wins Key Vote
- ^ Ralph Blumenthal and Sharaf Mowjood (9 December 2009). "Muslim Prayers and Renewal Near Ground Zero". The New York Times.
- ^ Mark Memmott (6 May 2010). "Plan For Mosque Next To Ground Zero In NYC Moves Forward". NPR.
- ^ a b Joe Jackson and Bill Hutchinson (6 May 2010). "Plan for mosque near World Trade Center site moves ahead". New York Daily News.
- ^ Nicole Bliman (7 May 2010). "Mosque to go up near New York's ground zero". CNN.
- ^ Aaron Rutkoff (5 May 2010). "Near Ground Zero, a Mosque Moves In and Meets the Neighbors". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Proposed Muslim Community Center Near Ground Zero: 'A Slap in the Face' or 'Repairing the Breach?'
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