Muslim Center on Ground Zero APPROVED By Board.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/nyregion/26muslim.html?src=mv

After a raucous hearing, a Manhattan community board backed a proposal on Tuesday evening to build a Muslim community center near the World Trade Center.

The 29-to-1 vote, with 10 abstentions, followed a four-hour back-and-forth between those who said the community center would be a monument to tolerance and those who believed it would be an affront to victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The board’s vote was advisory — it did not have the power to scrap plans for a center — but it was seen as an important barometer of community sentiment.

Middle school students and rabbis were among the more than 100 people who testified at the hearing, which was held a short distance from ground zero. Some carried pictures of family members killed in the attacks; others brandished signs reading “Show respect for 9/11. No mosque!”

C. Lee Hanson, 77, whose son Peter was killed in the attacks, said he opposed the center not because he was intolerant, but because he believed that building a tribute to Islam so close to the World Trade Center would be insensitive.

“The pain never goes away,” Mr. Hanson said. “When I look over there and I see a mosque, it’s going to hurt. Build it someplace else.”

Jean Grillo, 65, a writer from TriBeCa, said shutting out any faith undermined American values. “What better place to teach tolerance than at the very area where hate tried to kill tolerance?” she said.

The proposed center, called the Cordoba House, would rise as many as 15 stories two blocks north of where the twin towers stood. It would include a prayer space, as well as a 500-seat performing arts center, a culinary school, a swimming pool, a restaurant and other amenities.

The group behind the project, the Cordoba Initiative, is seeking to make major structural changes to the five-story building at 45 Park Place, which was built in the late 1850s in the Italian Renaissance palazzo style.

The group needs the approval of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which could decide as early as July if the building merits historic protection.

In addition, the center faces intense opposition in the United States and abroad. Over the past few days, Community Board No. 1, which represents Lower Manhattan, was flooded with hundreds of calls and e-mail messages about the proposal, most of them from outside New York, according to Julie Menin, the board’s chairwoman.

Some of the board members who abstained said they wanted time to learn more about the Cordoba Initiative, but the board rejected a motion to delay the vote a month.

The days leading up to the vote were marked by a feverish exchange of words, culminating in remarks about Muslims from a leader of the Tea Party, Mark Williams, that were widely dismissed as racist.

But Mr. Williams was not the only critic. Many families of Sept. 11 victims fervently opposed the proposal, saying they were offended by the idea of building a prayer space so near the site.

“That should be a serene site,” Bill Doyle, a leader of a group of 9/11 families, said in a telephone interview. “Now you’re going to see protests and demonstrations there all the time.”

City officials, including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn; and the Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer, have rallied behind the proposal.

The City Council has the power to overturn decisions on landmarks, but Ms. Quinn pledged on Tuesday to help shepherd the center to completion.

“I’m very confident we could find a way for both the landmark concept and the development of the mosque to move forward,” she said.

The center is estimated to cost $100 million, but exactly how the Cordoba Initiative will finance the project remains unclear.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who has led services in TriBeCa since 1983, told the board the center would help “bridge and heal a divide” among Muslims and other religious groups.

“We have condemned the actions of 9/11,” he said. “We have condemned terrorism in the most unequivocal terms.”

The center is expected to create more than 150 full-time and 500 part-time jobs, and it would offer a range of cultural events, modeled on the 92nd Street Y.

[Peikko 1,575]

It's only a slap in the face if you see a mosque and think that's where terrorists hang out.

[IndigoSkies 168]

It's a slap in the face if you really think all Muslims are terrorists. In that case, what are nearly 7 million Muslims doing in America? Detain, concentrate, and deport 'em all.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

It's only a slap in the face if you see a mosque and think that's where terrorists hang out.

oh come on, even you have to see how this is a bad idea and not sensitive to those whose family members were killed on that day.

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

oh come on, even you have to see how this is a bad idea and not sensitive to those whose family members were killed on that day.

what if those who died were also muslims?

[Peikko 1,575]

oh come on, even you have to see how this is a bad idea and not sensitive to those whose family members were killed on that day.

Even me? How so? I don't care for the specifics of religion, but I do understand and have respect for the culture of religion. A mosque is not a suicide bomber, it's not a symbol of terrorism and it's not objectionable in any way, shape or form.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

what if those who died were also muslims?

that's fine and dandy, but still to most it doesn't take away from who the perpetrators of the events that day were.

[Peikko 1,575]

that's fine and dandy, but still to most it doesn't take away from who the perpetrators of the events that day were.

How is a mosque symbolic of terrorists?

[Obama 2012 1,714]

How is a mosque symbolic of terrorists?

Didn't say it was. Just saying the religion of those terrorists and what they believed/supported (as in most cases of modern day terrorism) are all of the Muslim faith.

I'm just saying it's insensitive to the victims.

Usually people care about that sort of thing...

[Nina~ 431]

Didn't say it was. Just saying the religion of those terrorists and what they believed/supported (as in most cases of modern day terrorism) are all of the Muslim faith.

I'm just saying it's insensitive to the victims.

Usually people care about that sort of thing...

Why? Because all Muslims are terrorists?

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

I understand Paul actually. In the end the mosque should be allowed to go there but I get Paul on this.

The area is like a memorial. Now lets say your daughter is killed by a member of GreenPeace. Greenpeace may not have anything to do with the situation but you might be a little upset if Greenpeace puts flowers on her grave with the greenpeace logo.

[Jenn! 918]

"That should be a serene site," Bill Doyle, a leader of a group of 9/11 families, said in a telephone interview. "Now you're going to see protests and demonstrations there all the time."

People protesting against the building of the mosque? That's a fair point.

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

that's fine and dandy, but still to most it doesn't take away from who the perpetrators of the events that day were.

so if the weirdos from topeka - aka Westboro Baptist Church - committed some form of domestic terrorism, like say the oklahoma city event, you'd be against having a baptist church built at that site just because the perpetrators were "baptists" in name?

[Peikko 1,575]

Didn't say it was. Just saying the religion of those terrorists and what they believed/supported (as in most cases of modern day terrorism) are all of the Muslim faith.

I'm just saying it's insensitive to the victims.

Usually people care about that sort of thing...

You are talking rubbish, presumably because it supports your very misguided view of the world. Terrorists are terrorists and it really does not matter one iota which religion they purport to belong to, or indeed whether they purport to belong to any religion at all. A mosque is perfectly acceptable anywhere, not least close to ground zero.

Edited May 26, 2010 by Madame Cleo

[GabiandVi 34]

I haven't kept up with this. Are there going to be centers dedicated to other religions at Ground Zero? If not, then this is not just insensitive to the victims' families, it is insensitive to Muslims. Are they so backwards, handicapped, fragile, etc., that they have to be treated "special"? That would be the sort of "tolerance" that turns my stomach.

If there are going to be a number of centers dedicated to other religions, then I don't have much of a problem with there being one to Islam except how many little centers are we going to have and who is going to be left out? If my religion is left out, well, that's discrimination.