Park51: Difference between revisions

Cordoba House, also referred to as the "Ground Zero Mosque" and "Park51", is a proposed $100 million, 13-story, glass and steel Islamic cultural center and mosque that is in the planning stage.^[4][5] The plan is to raze an existing 1850s Italianate building that was severely damaged in the September 11 attacks, and build the mosque in its place. It is to be built in New York City on Park Place, between West Broadway and Church Street, two blocks away from Ground Zero. Groundbreaking is planned for late 2010.^[6] Construction is due to begin on September 11, 2011.^[5] It is anticipated that once built, 1,000 to 2,000 Muslims will pray at the mosque every Friday.

It has been the subject of a national controversy including protests by people and organizations upset by the prospect of an Islamic center being built so close to Ground Zero, where Islamist terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people.^{[7][8][9][10][11][12][4][4][13]} Families of 9/11 victims, politicians, Muslims, and organizations from across the United States have come out both against and in support of the mosque being built in the Ground Zero vicinity. Polls of Americans and of New Yorkers indicate that a majority oppose the mosque being built in that location.^[14][15]

Some of the families of 9/11 victims have argued that the project is insensitive, while others have said that it is a chance for Muslims to show that there are moderates among them. Some politicians such as Newt Gingrich have assailed the name of the proposal, which harks back to Muslims conquering Western lands, and others such as Rick Lazio have questioned the financing of the project and positions of the project's leader on issues such as 9/11 and terrorism. Other politicians, such as Mayor Bloomberg of New York, have welcomed the mosque as an expression of freedom of religion. Muslims have split over whether the project is an act of friendship, or an unnecessary ostentatious provocation.

The project's name refers to Córdoba, Spain, the capital of Caliphate of Córdoba during the period of Muslim rule in Spain, where Muslim conquerors defeated Spanish Christians in the Eighth Century.^[16][13] Naming the project after the seat of power of the centuries-long Islamic occupation of Spain proved to be inflammatory, and the project investors subsequently renamed the project "Park51".^[17]

During the September 11 attacks, the then-five-story building leased to the Burlington Coat Factory, which is located two blocks north of the former World Trade Center site, was severely damaged.^[18][19] Part of the landing gear and fuselage of one of the hijacked planes used in the attack, either from American Airlines Flight 11 crashing into the north tower at 8:46 a.m. or United Airlines Flight 175 crashing into the south tower at 9:03, crashed through the building's roof and two of its floors.^{[7][20][6][19]}

Kukiko Mitani, the wife of Stephen Pomerantz, who owned the building, attempted to sell it for years, at one point asking for $18 million.^[19] Until its 2009 purchase, however, the building lay abandoned.^[19]

In July 2009, the Muslim-run real estate company Soho Properties, whose Chairman and chief executive officer is a real estate developer named Sharif El-Gamal, purchased the building.^[21][22][23] Soho Properties paid the owner $4.85 million in cash for the property.^[24][25]

One investor in the transaction was a tax-exempt foundation named the Cordoba Initiative, with assets of $20,000.^[24] In the first five years of the foundation, from 2004–08, it raised under $100,000.^[24] American Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is founder, CEO, and Executive Director of Cordoba Initiative, and the project is his brainchild.^[26][27][28][1] Abdul Rauf's wife, Daisy Kahn, is a board member of the Cordoba Initiative.^[29]

The other investor was another foundation, a non-profit organization known as the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA).^[24][2] Abdul Rauf is also the founder and CEO of ASMA, and it is run by Abdul Rauf and his wife out of the same New York office as the Cordoba Initiative.^[24][23][3] Abdul Rauf's wife is the Executive Director of ASMA.^[29]

The two foundations sponsoring the project later proposed to use the property as the site for a $100 million Islamic center and mosque.^[24][16] The foundations are working on the project with El-Gamal, the co-developer of the center.^[24][21] The specific location of the planned mosque, 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.^[19] Abdul Rauf said it: “sends the opposite statement to what happened on 9/11.”^[19]

Claudia Rosett, a journalist with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who writes a weekly column on foreign affairs for Forbes, devoted a column to raising questions as to the source of the funding for the effort.^[24] Some U.S. politicians such as Republicans Peter T. King and Rick Lazio 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."^[20][30][31] Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, also said:

There should be transparency about who those investors are, whether that money is coming from domestic interest 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.^[23]

Abdul Rauf, a Kuwait-born Muslim Sufi of Egyptian origin, is the chief proponent of the mosque project.^[20][6][3][4] Some U.S. politicians voiced concerns about his views.^[20][6][3] On September 30, 2001, shorty after the 9/11 attacks, he told CBS’s 60 Minutes: “I wouldn’t say that the United States deserved what happened. But the United States’ policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.”^[31][16] King raised the remarks when discussing Abdul Rauf as the driving force behind the mosque.^[31][32] Congressman Rick Lazio has raised questions as to Abdul Rauf's connections with Islamist extremists, which Abdul Rauf strongly denied.^[30] In June 2010, when asked in an interview whether he agreed with the U.S. State Department that Hamas consists of terrorists, Abdul Rauf said "The issue of terrorism is a very complex question."^[6][32] He also disputed a rumor that he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.^[6][32]

For several months after its purchase, since September 2009, the building was used as a makeshift Muslim prayer space for hundreds of Muslims, with services led by Abdul Rauf.^{[33][34][6][35]} 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."^[36]

New York Magazine, in a July 2010 article entitled "Ground Zero Mosque Gets Less Muslim-Invasion-Sounding Name", referred to its name change to "Park51", after its address at 51 Park Place, observing that it made "it sound like a luxury apartment development. The old name, Cordoba House, alluded to the Moorish ... conquest of Spain—not exactly the most helpful imagery...."^[37]

While the media widely described the center as a mosque, the Initiative's official blog portrayed it as a community center with prayer space, making comparisons to the YMCA or Jewish Community Center.^[38] The plan is for it to have a Muslim prayer room, 500-seat auditorium, theater, performing arts center, fitness center, swimming pool, basketball court, childcare services, art exhibitions, bookstore, a culinary school, and a food court serving halal dishes.^{[7][20][4][31][14][5]}

El-Gamal said he wanted the building to be energy-efficient and transparent, most likely with a glass façade.^[39] Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement and Cordoba Initiative board member, as well as Abdul Rauf's wife, said that it was anticipated that once built, 1,000 to 2,000 Muslims would pray at the mosque every Friday.^[40][18][41]

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.^[42][43] 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."^[43] 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."^[43]

The vote by the Lower Manhattan Community Board 1 was 29-to-1, with 10 abstentions.^{[44][40][20][18][45][43]} The vote did not have any binding effect.^[46]

One remaining obstacle to construction is the potential for conferment of landmark status on the building, which was constructed between 1857 and 1858 in the Italian Renaissance palazzo style, to be voted on on August 3, 2010, at in the main theater of the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University by the City's Landmarks Preservation Commission.^[15][44][35] Mayor Bloomberg, a supporter of the mosque, appoints the Commission's members.^[35]

The building was originally constructed for a shipping firm of a prominent New York shipping magnate.^[47] Its Italian palazzo style was a throwback to a prior time of European grandeur, and was intended to evoke images of economic might.^[47] 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.^[48][35] It is an example of the store and loft structures that were prevalent in the dry goods warehouse districts of Lower Manhattan.^[35] In 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.^[48][35]

Cordoba House said that if the Commission were to landmark the existing building, the community center would be "worked into" that status. Presumably, this would involve integrating a landmarked facade into the new construction, as has commonly occurred in the neighborhood, where unremarkable and decrepit interiors are often excluded from landmark status. The Commission plans to vote on the issue in August 2010.^[20]

New York's Daily News reported the day prior to the vote that the Commission intended to vote unanimously against granting the building protected landmark status.^[49]

Polls show that a majority of Americans oppose building the mosque near Ground Zero, The New York Times reported in July 2010.^[14]

A majority of 52% of New York voters oppose the construction, while only 31% supported it, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll carried out in June 2010.^[15] At the same time, 46% of Manhattanites supported it, while 36% opposed it; in Staten Island, 73% opposed it.^[15] A higher percentage of Republicans (82%) than Democrats (45%) opposed the plan.^[50]

Some relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks found the proposal offensive, because the radical Muslim terrorists who committed the attacks did so in the name of Islam.^[40] A group of families of 9/11 victims, called 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America, calls the proposal "a gross insult to the memory of those who were killed on that terrible day."^[41] Debra Burlingame, a co-founder of the group whose brother died in the attacks, said:

This is a place which is 600 feet (180 m) from where almost 3,000 people were torn to pieces by Islamic extremists. I think that 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.^[23]

Sally Regenhard, mother of 28-year-old firefighter Christian, who died on September 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.”^[20] Former Fire Department of New York Deputy Chief Jim Riches, whose firefighter son Jim was killed on September 11, 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", and added "I think this is all about location, location, location. It's not about religious freedom ... be sensitive to the families."^[40][17]

Rosemary Cain, mother of firefighter George Cain, who was killed on 9/11, calling the project a "slap in the face", said "I think it's despicable. That's sacred ground", and "I don't want a mosque on my son's grave".^[40][48] C. Lee Hanson, father of Peter who was killed in the attacks, said he opposed the center because he 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."^[18] Evelyn Pettigano, who lost a sister in the attacks, said: "I don't like it. I'm not prejudiced.... It's too close to the area where our family members were murdered."^[29] Tim Brown, a New York City firefighter who survived the attack, protesting the building of the mosque said: "The families lost their loved ones to terrorists, Islamic, Muslim terrorists who do not believe in religious freedom."^[51]

The building of the mosque, as well as the initiative itself, was criticized by other Muslims, such as Sufi Muslim mysticist Suleiman Schwartz, director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism, who said that a building built by Abdul Rauf barely two blocks from Ground Zero, is inconsistent with Sufi philosophy of simplicity of faith and sensitivity towards others and "grossly insensitive".^[41]

Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, strongly opposed the mosque, saying:

For us, a mosque was always a place to pray, to be together on holidays—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.^[41]

Hossein Kamaly, a professor of Middle Eastern culture 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.^[52]

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

Among them have been Republican 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin (who called on moderate Muslims to oppose the project, which she called an "unnecessary provocation"), former Massachusetts governor and GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich ("It’s not about religion, and is clearly an aggressive act that is offensive"), Congressman Peter King (R-NY; ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee; "it is offensive to so many people"), Republican North Carolina congressional candidate Ilario Pantano ("It is about ... territorial conquest. This mosque is a Martyr-Marker honoring the terrorists"), NY gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino ("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?"), former Congressman and NY gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio, and NY Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (“offensive to me ... raises concerns and bad memories, and needs to be dealt with on a human level”).^{[53][54][55][12][30][31][14][32][56][13]}

Paladino 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.^[57] 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".^[14][58][13] Tea Party activist Mark Williams called it a monument to the terror attacks.^[44]

Gingrich 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.^[59]

Paul Sipos, a member of 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?^[25]

New York City fireman Tim Brown opposes 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.^[7] Brown is seeking to pressure Abdul Rauf to fully disclose the project's funding sources.^[7] Pamela Geller, executive director of Stop Islamization of America, said: "We think its 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 have lobbied the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to give the location landmark status, which would add a major hurdle to construction.^[7]

The head of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group in the United States that had denounced what it saw as bigoted attacks on the mosque, also opposed the construction of the mosque, saying that while some of those who oppose the mosque are "bigots", the mosque at that site will nevertheless cause more pain for some victims of 9/11.^[60][14]

Valerie Lucznikowska, aunt of Adam Arias, who died in the September 11 attack, said: “I want tolerance. I want inclusion, and there is no better embodiment.”^[20] Bruce Wallace, who lost a nephew in the attack, said: "Here is a chance to allow moderate Muslims to teach people that not all Muslims are terrorists."^[44] September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows also voiced its support.^[48]

Nihad Awad, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said that the opinion of Republican Congressman Peter King "should not be considered, because his ideas are extreme."^[3]

Another Jewish political group, J Street, supported the construction.^[60] 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.^[61]

Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, spoke out in favor of the mosque, and the Interfaith Alliance also supported the mosque, while indicating that it agreed with the need for transparency as to who is funding the project.^[60][62][14]

New York City's Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who strongly endorsed the project, responding to opposition to the project, 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.^[7][20][20]

Community Board 1 Financial Committee Chairman Edward "Ro" Sheffe said: "it will be a wonderful asset to the community."^[40][29] New York City Councilwoman Margaret Chin (D) said: "The center is something the community needs".^[21]

Other New York politicians supported the proposal. They included Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer (D; "I'll do everything I can to make sure this mosque does get opened"), Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), NY State Senator Daniel Squadron (D), NYC Comptroller John Liu, and Speaker of the NYC Council Christine Quinn (D).^{[18][44][45][63][43]}

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.^[64] Boston University Department of Religion professor Stephen Prothero spoke out against the arguments that Cordoba House should not be built near Ground Zero.^[7][65] 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 [of the "real" Islam]."^[66]

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.^[40][67] In an interview, Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, 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."^[68] 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."^[69]

• Islamic Cultural Center of New York

• 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, Jr. (columnist), The Miami Herald, July 21, 2010
• "Newt Gingrich Statement on the Proposed “Cordoba House” Mosque near Ground Zero", 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
• "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