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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. The plan is build it to replace an existing building that was damaged in the 9/11 attacks. It is to be built in New York City on Park Place between West Broadway and Church Street, two blocks away from Ground Zero. It it was anticipated that once built, 1,000 to 2,000 Muslims would pray at the mosque every Friday.

It has been the subject of 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. Families of 9/11 victims, politicians, organizations, and academics from across the United States have come out both against and in support of the mosque being built in the Ground Zero vicinity.

The project's name refers to Córdoba, Spain, the capital of Caliphate of Córdoba during the period of Muslim rule in Spain.

History

Damage on 9/11, and purchase

During the September 11 attacks, the then-five-story Burlington Coat Factory building, which is located two blocks north of the former World Trade Center site, was severely damaged. Part of one of the hijacked planes used in the attack crashed through its roof. Until its 2009 purchase, it lay abandoned.

In July 2009, the real estate company Soho Properties purchased the building. Soho Properties paid the owner $4.85 million in cash for the property. One of the investors in the transaction, a tax-exempt foundation called the Cordoba Initiative (with assets of $20,00; and which in its first five years, from 2004–08, raised under $100,000), along with another foundation known as the American Society for Muslim Advancement that is run by Rauf and his wife out of the same New York office, later proposed to use the property as the site for a $100 million Islamic center and mosque. The two foundations are working on the project with a real estate developer named Sharif El-Gamal, chief executive of Soho Properties, the co-developer of the center.

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 of the effort. 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, with King saying "The people who are involved in the construction of the mosque are refusing to say where their funding is going to come from."

For several months after its purchase, the building was used as a makeshift Muslim prayer space, with services led by American Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is CEO of Cordoba Initiative. Abdul Rauf is the chief exponent of the mosque project, and some U.S. politicians voiced concerns about his views. On September 30, 2001, shorty after the 9/11 attacks, he told CBS’ “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.” King raised the remarks in regard to a discussion of Rauf being the driving force behind the mosque. Congressman Rick Lazio has raised questions as to Rauf's connections with Islamist extremists, which Rauf strongly denied.

Facilities and use

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. The plan is for it to have a Muslim prayer room, 500-seat auditorium, performing arts center, fitness center, swimming pool, basketball court, childcare services, art exhibitions, bookstore, a culinary school, and a food court serving halal dishes. Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement and Cordoba Initiative board member, as well as Rauf's wife, said that it was anticipated that once built, 1,000 to 2,000 Muslims would pray at the mosque every Friday.

Community board advisory vote

On May 6, 2010, neighborhood authorities in an advisory vote backed plans for Cordoba House, a $100-million Islamic center and mosque, to be built on the site. The project was endorsed by the 12-member Lower Manhattan Community Board 1's financial district committee, in a vote of 29-to-1, with 10 abstentions. The vote does not have any binding effect.

Vote as to landmark status

One remaining obstacle to construction is the potential of conferment landmark status on the building, which was constructed between 1857 and 1858 in the Italian Renaissance palazzo style, to be voted by the City's Landmarks Preservation Commission. Cordoba House has stated that if the Commission landmarks 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.

Opposition to construction near Ground Zero

Polls

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

A Quinnipiac University Poll carried out in June 2010 reported that 52% of New York voters oppose the construction, while only 31% supported it. At the same time, 46% of Manhattanites supported it, while 36% opposed it; in Staten Island, 73% opposed it.

Families of 9/11 victims

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. 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."

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.” 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." Rosemary Cain, mother of firefighter George Cain, who was killed on 9/11, called the project a "slap in the face", and said "I think it's despicable. That's sacred ground". 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." 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."

Muslims

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 Rauf barely two blocks from Ground Zero, is inconsistent with Sufi philosophy of simplicity of faith and sensitivity towards others and "grossly insensitive".

Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, strongly opposes 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.

Poiticians

Politicians such as Republican 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin (who called on moderate Muslims to oppose the project, which she called an "unnecessary provocation"), Milt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich ("It’s not about religion, and is clearly an aggressive act that is offensive"), Peter King (R-NY; ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee; "it is offensive to so many people"), Ilario Pantano, Carl Paladino, and Rick Lazio have opposed the construction of the mosque. A Republican political action committee created a television commercial attacking the proposal. Tea Party activist Mark Williams called it a monument to the terror attacks.

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.

Organizations

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. Brown is seeking to pressure Rauf to fully disclose the project's funding sources. Pamela Gellar, 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.

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.

Support

Families of 9/11 victims

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.” 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."

Organizations

Another Jewish political group, J Street, 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.

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.

Politicians

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.

Community Board 1 Committee Chairman Ro Sheffe said: "it will be a wonderful asset to the community." Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn also supported the proposal. New York City Councilmember Margaret Chin said: "The center is something the community needs".

Academia

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.

Builders

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, 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." 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

References

1. ^ Neroulias, Nicole (July 29, 2010). "Quietly, another mosque operates in the shadow of Ground Zero". The Houston Chronicle. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
2. Sanchez, Ray (May 26, 2010). "Despite Protests, Mosque Plan Near 9/11 Site Wins Key Vote". ABC News. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
3. "Palin: Muslim facility near Ground Zero an 'unnecessary provocation'". CNN. July 20, 2010. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
4. "Editorial: The 9/11 Mosque". The Washington Times. May 27, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2010.
5. Geller, Pamela; Spencer, Robert (May 24, 2010). "Guest Opinion: The 9/11 Mosque's Peace Charade". Catholic Online. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
6. ^ El, Tamer (July 27, 2010). "Amid Ground Zero Mosque Debate, NYPD Alert for Security During Ramadan". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
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8. ^ "Monument to jihad | Comment". Toronto Sun. July 27, 2010. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
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10. ^ Hernandez, Javier C. (July 13, 2010). "Planned Sign of Tolerance Bringing Division Instead". The New York Times. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
11. ^ Rosett, Claudia (September 11, 2001). "Where In The World Is Imam Feisal?". Forbes.com. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
12. ^ Fung, Amanda (July 25, 2010). "Mosque madness a matter of perspective". Crain's New York Business. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
13. ^ Weaver, Carolyn (July 22, 2010). "Muslim Group Faces Opposition Near New York's Ground Zero". Voice of America. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
14. ^ Dean, Nick (September 30, 2001). "NY Congressman Calls for Probe of Funding for Mosque Near Ground Zero and Its Promoter". CNSNews.com. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
15. Blumenthal, Ralph; Mowjood, Sharaf (December 9, 2009). "Muslim Prayers and Renewal Near Ground Zero". The New York Times. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
16. Ansari, Anis (September 11, 2001). "Q-C area Islamic leader defends NYC mosque". Quad-City Times. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
17. "What is a Community Center". Cordoba Initiative. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
18. ^ Barbaro, Michael (July 30, 2010). "Debate Heats Up About Mosque Near Ground Zero". The New York Times. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
19. ^ Jackson, Joe; Hutchinson, Bill. "Plan for mosque near World Trade Center site moves ahead". Daily News. New York. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
20. ^ Jacoby, Jeff (June 6, 2010). "A mosque at ground zero?". The Boston Globe. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
21. Memmott, Mark (May 6, 2010). "Plan For Mosque Next to Ground Zero in NYC Moves Forward". NPR. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
22. ^ "NYC community board OKs ground zero mosque plans". The Boston Globe. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
23. Sgobbo, Rob; Goldsmith, Samuel (May 26, 2010). "Supporters, opponents debate merits of controversial plan to build mosque near Ground Zero". Daily News. New York. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
24. ^ Goldsmith, Samuel (July 1, 2010). "More than half of New York voters oppose Ground Zero mosque plan: poll". Daily News. New York. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
25. Dean, Nick (July 26, 2010). "ACLJ Asks Commission to Make N.Y. Building a Landmark to Keep 13-Story Mosque from Being Built at Ground Zero". CNSNews.com. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
26. Siegel, Joel (July 19, 2010). "Sarah Palin 'Refudiates' Ground Zero Mosque". ABC News. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
27. Tacopino, Joe (July 22, 2010). "Newt Gingrich comes out against planned Cordoba House mosque near Ground Zero". Daily News. New York. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
28. Hernandez, Javier C (July 13, 2010). "Planned Sign of Tolerance Bringing Division Instead". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
29. Pinkerton, James P. (April 7, 2010). "America Needs Willpower – And the Right Leaders". FOXNews.com. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
30. ^ "Jewish group opposes ground zero mosque". Associated Press. July 30, 2010. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
31. "J Street's Statement on Cordoba House Controversy". J Street. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
32. Berkman, Jacob (September 11, 2001). "ADL opposes World Trade Center Mosque". Jewish Telegraph Agency. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
33. Slater, Wayne. "TEXAS FAITH: Is a mosque at Ground Zero religious freedom too far?". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved August 1, 2010.
34. Prothero, Stephen. "My take: Ground Zero mosque good for America and New York". CNN Belief Blog. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
35. Bliman, Nicole (May 7, 2010). "Mosque to go up near New York's ground zero". CNN. Retrieved July 31, 2010.
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External links

• Cordoba House
• "A mosque to be built on our principles", Leonard Pitts, Jr. (columnist), The Miami Herald, July 21, 2010

• Mosques in New York
• Mosque-related controversies
• Places of worship in New York City
• Building projects in the United States