Ground Zero Mosque Imam: Slumlord?

[웃 910]

HOUSE OF PAIN: Tenants, including Francisco Nuñez, say controversial Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (above) hasn't taken care of bedbugs and other problems at this Union City apartment building.

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He's the religious leader of the planned, controversial Ground Zero mosque -- but across the Hudson, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is known as an alleged slumlord.

At buildings in Union City and Palisades Park, where Rauf reportedly got tax dollars to renovate low-income apartments, tenants yesterday said their gripes about their lousy housing conditions have been ignored.

"Why doesn't he help the tenants he has before he builds a new place, claiming he wants to help people?" said a disgusted Jamie Barillas, who lives in a Rauf-owned apartment at 2206 Central Ave. in Union City.

"Nothing gets done. We have to go through City Hall to get things done. . . . He doesn't care about his tenants," she said.

Barillas said that bedbugs plague the building -- but that when she tried to get building managers to respond, they claimed they didn't have the money to hire an exterminator.

Tenant Vilma Then chided Rauf as greedy.

"All he likes is money," she said. "Nothing ever gets fixed. I complain to the super, and all he says is that he has the same problem."

Vilma Then said she lived at Rauf's building around the corner until a fire forced her to move to 2206 Central Ave. She said her current situation is similar to her old digs, where she had a stove that was more like "a roach den."

She also complained that Rauf's wife, Daisy Khan -- who has been the imam's spokesperson while he is touring overseas -- "listens to what you have to say and writes things down and leaves -- and nothing gets done."

"She gives nothing but false promises," the resident said.

The Record newspaper of Hackensack reported that Rauf won taxpayer-funded support for his New Jersey buildings from powerful politicians in the state, including Sen. Bob Menendez when he was the mayor of Union City.

The projects were plagued by financial problems as well as tenant complaints, the paper said.

A spokesman for Menendez said the senator did not have a close working relationship with Rauf.

"There's a lot of people with real-estate projects in a given town, and a lot of communications go through the mayor's office," he told The Post.

Khan did not immediately return calls to her home or workplace.

She had told The Record that all of the tenants' complaints had been addressed.

Francisco Nuñez, 46, who lives in one of the imam's Union City apartment houses, told The Post that Rauf "needs to pay more attention to this building because human beings live here -- we're not living here for free."

"We pay rent, which is the only time people come around -- to collect money."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/mosque_slumlord_K7LEYxaJRDmD3IhbhkhtXL

[nab 74]

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Vilma Then said she lived at Rauf's building around the corner until a fire forced her to move to 2206 Central Ave. She said her current situation is similar to her old digs, where she had a stove that was more like "a roach den."

{snipped}

had to laugh at this roaches are because the house is DIRTY, not from anything the landlord is (or is not) doing. gotta love when others blame their problems on others. bedbugs isnt anythng he is doing either, people bring them in and from what i've read about them they are almost impossible to get rid of and a nigthmare to live with... the chemicals used to kill them in the past (and is only thing that really works i've read!) is banned now.

[Ban Hammer 13,656]

had to laugh at this roaches are because the house is DIRTY, not from anything the landlord is (or is not) doing. gotta love when others blame their problems on others. bedbugs isnt anythng he is doing either, people bring them in and from what i've read about them they are almost impossible to get rid of and a nigthmare to live with... the chemicals used to kill them in the past (and is only thing that really works i've read!) is banned now.

actually, if you live in an apartment and your neighbor has roaches - odds are, you will too.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

had to laugh at this roaches are because the house is DIRTY, not from anything the landlord is (or is not) doing. gotta love when others blame their problems on others. bedbugs isnt anythng he is doing either, people bring them in and from what i've read about them they are almost impossible to get rid of and a nigthmare to live with... the chemicals used to kill them in the past (and is only thing that really works i've read!) is banned now.

Actually they can be baked. The entire apartment needs to be sealed and all plastic objects removed. Then turn the heat up to oven temps and they literally bake. No chemicals needed.

[nab 74]

actually, if you live in an apartment and your neighbor has roaches - odds are, you will too.

possible you may see them and have to fight them BUT... your stove wont look like "a roach den"

[IncorrectPolitics 26]

The apartments I live has Orkin come out monthly to spray for insects. Our apartment is clean because my wife is an obsessive compulsive clean freak, but there are some nasty ones who live in some of the other units in our building. Luckily they haven't given us any roach problems.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Post containing inappropriate comment violating TOS has been removed, along with post quoting same

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Roaches are all too common in the boroughs, and you don't have to be dirty to attract them. Roaches eat pretty much anything and they love human company. They will be here after we're all gone.

[twowls 217]

I'm admiring everyone's insistence on discussing pest problems instead of taking the bait of the intent behind this being posted at all, as the Imam in question is one of the most progressive and unassailable in the country, and as such would require one to range far and wide (into cockroach territory) to find a way to impugn him. Nicely done.

Diatomaceous earth for ants.

[Danno 1,228]

I'm admiring everyone's insistence on discussing pest problems instead of taking the bait of the intent behind this being posted at all, as the Imam in question is one of the most progressive and unassailable in the country, and as such would require one to range far and wide (into cockroach territory) to find a way to impugn him. Nicely done.

Diatomaceous earth for ants.

Wow, that says a lot if he is the best we can hope for.... as Imams go.

[Dakine10 5,452]

Actually they can be baked. The entire apartment needs to be sealed and all plastic objects removed. Then turn the heat up to oven temps and they literally bake. No chemicals needed.

This sounds like another one of those things that CAN be done, but the real question is should it. Could end up on the 6 o clock news if it's not done right.

[twowls 217]

Wow, that says a lot if he is the best we can hope for.... as Imams go.

Um, he's exactly what we hope for, and more. Please direct me to the evidence of his being any other than a respectable figure. And by please, I mean back up your baseless rhetoric before you post one more b*llshit attack.

From Time magazine, that bastion of nutcase leftwing propaganda:

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his wife Daisy Khan, are actually the kind of Muslim leaders right-wing commentators fantasize about: modernists and moderates who openly condemn the death cult of al-Qaeda and its adherents — ironically, just the kind of "peaceful Muslims" whom Sarah Palin, in her now infamous tweet, asked to "refudiate" the mosque. Rauf is a Sufi, which is Islam's most mystical and accommodating denomination.

The Kuwaiti-born Rauf, 52, is the imam of a mosque in New York City's Tribeca district, has written extensively on Islam and its place in modern society and often argues that American democracy is the embodiment of Islam's ideal society. (One of his books is titled What's Right with Islam Is What's Right with America.) He is a contributor to the Washington Post's On Faith blog, and the stated aim of his organization, the Cordoba Initiative, is "to achieve a tipping point in Muslim-West relations within the next decade, steering the world back to the course of mutual recognition and respect and away from heightened tensions." His Indian-born wife is an architect and a recipient of the Interfaith Center Award for Promoting Peace and Interfaith Understanding.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2008432,00.html#ixzz0y9AUdlVa

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

As if anyone here really cares. This is one oif those "bring out the idiots" topics.

The pro-lifers who are so against this guy doing what he wants with his own life and property would have baby cows if the government came along and told them where they can have a Christian church or laid down regulations to insure cleanliness and roach free apartments. They would argue that tenants can simply move out if they are unhappy with their living quarters...they can. They would argue that the free market would determine if a person can make a business renting roach infested apartments. It does.

The pro-choicers would be more believeable f they applied their logic to other topics. They don't.

Bottom line, the property he wants to build the Mosque on is PRIVATE PROPERTY. Deal with it. You don't like it? Then take up a collection from all those people that want to protect the integrity of ground zero and BUY the property from this guy. make him an offer he can't refuse. Double or triple the market value and he will sell.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

This sounds like another one of those things that CAN be done, but the real question is should it. Could end up on the 6 o clock news if it's not done right.

It is a job for professionals, not a home remedy, but it is quite effective at destroying bed bugs!

[Danno 1,228]

As if anyone here really cares. This is one oif those "bring out the idiots" topics.

The pro-lifers who are so against this guy doing what he wants with his own life and property would have baby cows if the government came along and told them where they can have a Christian church or laid down regulations to insure cleanliness and roach free apartments. They would argue that tenants can simply move out if they are unhappy with their living quarters...they can. They would argue that the free market would determine if a person can make a business renting roach infested apartments. It does.

The pro-choicers would be more believeable f they applied their logic to other topics. They don't.

Bottom line, the property he wants to build the Mosque on is PRIVATE PROPERTY. Deal with it. You don't like it? Then take up a collection from all those people that want to protect the integrity of ground zero and BUY the property from this guy. make him an offer he can't refuse. Double or triple the market value and he will sell.

G/A are you actually under the assumption Churches have some "automatic right to build"?

I personally know of one where I used to live who spent a fortune fighting to get a permit to build but some neighbors did not want it and kept legal challenges going.

A couple hundred yards from my house an ophthalmologist wants to build an office (on his land) some people are fighting it.

Ever tried to build something in an "HISTORICAL DISTRICT"?

THey will even tell you the limits of the colors you may paint your house!

Welcome to the real world of "private property rights".

Edited August 31, 2010 by Danno