Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Clash over proposed Ground Zero mosque

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Clash over proposed Ground Zero mosque

    New York (CNN) -- Those for and against a mosque near ground zero butted heads during a passionate three-hour hearing of New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission Tuesday night.

    Officially the hearing was for taking testimony on whether a more than century-old building is worth preserving, but those pushing for the landmark status are opposed to the mosque and community center at the site where the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed by Islamist hijackers on September 11, 2001.

    The contentious nature of the hearing was expected, because if the commission rules the building is not worth landmarking, it will pave the way for the project that is planned there. Opponents dominated the hearing.

    "It would be a terrible mistake to destroy a 154-year-old building in order to build a monument to terrorism," one woman said.

    "It's called Islamaphobia, pure and simple," said Zead Ramadan while being heckled.



    Video: Outrage over proposed mosque
    RELATED TOPICS
    September 11 Attacks
    Manhattan
    Islam
    Earlier this month, a community board said the building at the site wasn't architecturally significant enough to landmark.

    The project calls for a 13-story community center including a mosque, performing art center, gym, swimming pool and other public spaces.

    It is a collaboration between the American Society for Muslim Advancement and the Cordoba Initiative.

    The Cordoba Initiative aims to improve relations between Muslims and the West.

    "The Cordoba Initiative hopes to build a $100 million, 13-story community center with Islamic, interfaith and secular programming, similar to the 92nd Street Y," its website says, referring to the cultural institution on the upper East side of Manhattan.

    But some at the hearing were suspicious of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who heads the Cordoba Initiative -- including Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio, who called for an investigation into its funding.

    "We're asking for a delay in the process to get some answers," Lazio said.

    Feisal was out of the country and did not attend the hearing.

    But New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg rejected the notion.

    "The government should never be in the business of telling people how they should pray or where they can pray," he said.

    Daisy Khan of the American Society for Muslim Advancement said ahead of the hearing that it would be a "community center with a prayer space inside."

    She said the project was an opportunity for American Muslims living in New York to "give back" to the community.

    "There is a lot of ignorance about who Muslims are. A center like this will be dedicated to removing that ignorance and it will also counter the extremists because moderate Muslims need a voice," she said. "Their voices need to be amplified."

    "Building the Ground Zero mosque is not an issue of religious freedom, but of resisting an effort to insult the victims of 9/11 and to establish a beachhead for political Islam and Islamic supremacism in New York ... ground zero is a war memorial, a burial ground. Respect it," said Pamela Geller, a conservative blogger, on her group's website, "Stop Islamicization of America."

    Geller recently told CNN's Joy Behar that no one is telling the mosque's planners they can't build it, but "We're asking them not to."

    "We feel it would be more appropriate maybe to build a center dedicated to expunging the Quranic texts of the violent ideology that inspired jihad, or perhaps a center to the victims of hundreds of millions of years of jihadi wars, land enslavements, cultural annihilations and mass slaughter," Geller said.

    The heckling and intense nature of the hearing got to be too much for some.

    "I'm ashamed to be an American today," said Rakif Gathwari, a Muslim American, who reminded the crowd that people from many countries and religions died on September 11.

    "I want to prove to this hall that I am a citizen," Gathwari said, holding up her passport.

    The project already has the backing of the Community Board of lower Manhattan. If the building now at the site doesn't gain landmark status, no additional city permission is required for it to be demolished and the project to go ahead.

  • #2
    Ain't no damn way they can let this happen

    Comment


    • #3
      I know I know,all muslims aren't terrorist but this aint the place to be building something like that.Go build that shit somewhere else besides ground zero.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by vols fan View Post
        New York (CNN) --
        "I'm ashamed to be an American today," said Rakif Gathwari, a Muslim American, who reminded the crowd that people from many countries and religions died on September 11.
        Planes fly out of America every day.Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by vols fan View Post
          Planes fly out of America every day.Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by vols fan View Post
            Planes fly out of America every day.Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.



            My thoughts exactly!! Muslims have moved in a taken over France and they are too scared to stop it.
            NBA is a joke

            Comment


            • #7
              while i don't think a mosque is a good idea for ground zero, why all the hatred to muslims?

              if a christian group kills a abortion doctor or burns a clinic, should all christians be lumped into that catigory? what about the IRA? should every irish person be lumped in with that group? terrorists are terrorists and every group has them, that doesn't make everyone bad.
              “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."

              Gerald Ford

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by husker View Post
                while i don't think a mosque is a good idea for ground zero, why all the hatred to muslims?
                I guess I can't help it.If I get on a plane and two muslim guys are sitting beside me do I hate them.No. Am I going to jump on him if he scratches his leg the wrong way.You damn right I am.
                I think it's more of us Americans being cautious than hatred.JMHO

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by husker View Post
                  while i don't think a mosque is a good idea for ground zero, why all the hatred to muslims?

                  if a christian group kills a abortion doctor or burns a clinic, should all christians be lumped into that catigory? what about the IRA? should every irish person be lumped in with that group? terrorists are terrorists and every group has them, that doesn't make everyone bad.

                  Yeah, I hate the fact that they come in here and demand favors for their religion. Fuck them. Asians dont lobby schools for this. If you give an inch they will take a mile.

                  How many abortion docs have been killed compared to those killed on 9-11? There is no comparison
                  NBA is a joke

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by flarendep1 View Post
                    Yeah, I hate the fact that they come in here and demand favors for their religion. Fuck them. Asians dont lobby schools for this. If you give an inch they will take a mile.

                    How many abortion docs have been killed compared to those killed on 9-11? There is no comparison

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      "Asian" isn't a religion

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by ctt8410 View Post
                        "Asian" isn't a religion
                        Ok, Buddhists

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Fuck these carpet riders. You want 1, go back home and find 1.

                          Whats next ??

                          Gonna want to wrap a towel around the Statue of Liberty's head ??

                          Change Ozone Park to Osama Park ??

                          They want a Holiday ? I say we give them Feb. 29th and call it Porky Pig Day

                          Bedeet Bedeet Bedeet Thats All Mohammed !!
                          He who wears diaper knows his shit - Confucius

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by insidethe8thpol View Post
                            Fuck these carpet riders. You want 1, go back home and find 1.

                            Whats next ??

                            Gonna want to wrap a towel around the Statue of Liberty's head ??

                            Change Ozone Park to Osama Park ??

                            They want a Holiday ? I say we give them Feb. 29th and call it Porky Pig Day

                            Bedeet Bedeet Bedeet Thats All Mohammed !!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by flarendep1 View Post
                              Yeah, I hate the fact that they come in here and demand favors for their religion. Fuck them. Asians dont lobby schools for this. If you give an inch they will take a mile.

                              How many abortion docs have been killed compared to those killed on 9-11? There is no comparison

                              this thread is about a mosque, not asking for a holiday. wasn't this country founded on freedom of religion?

                              i know your stance on abortion. the way you feel about abortion doctors is the same way radical muslims feel about the US. anyone being killed by ideological fanatics (terrorists) is wrong, it's not just about how many are killed.
                              “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."

                              Gerald Ford

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X