Well the path has been made clear for the rising of the Mosque. All you haters can get ready to start saying your Allah Akbar when you are in the New York ground zero area... BTW I put a picture of where the mosque will be located at the bottom of the page..while it looks close it is actually a good ways away. If you are on the WTC site you would NOT be able to see it or even know it is there unless someone told you.
Panel clears way for mosque near Ground ZeroVIDEO LINK http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid42806360001?bctid=390526096001
By Michael Nagle,
Workers unload window frames across the street from 45-47 Park Place on Tuesday in New York City.
By Martha T. Moore, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — Amid applause and cries of "Shame!" a New York City panel cleared the way Tuesday morning for the construction of an Islamic cultural center and mosque two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The city Landmarks Preservation Commission, in a 9-0 vote, denied protected status to the building located in Lower Manhattan, saying the 1850s commercial building did not have enough historic or architectural merit.
That means it can be demolished for the cultural center, which has drawn opposition from politicians including former Alaska governor and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and former congressman Rick Lazio, a Republican running for New York governor.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spoken in support of the center, saying religious freedom is at stake.
"It's a 9/11 victory mosque," said Linda Rivera, a New York resident who held up a sign during the vote reading "Don't Glorify Murders of 3,000." She was among those who criticize the location of the proposed center, which is on a commercial street two blocks north of the northern edge of the World Trade Center site.
The 152-year-old building once housed a Burlington Coat Factory. Plans from the developer, Park51, call for a gym, auditorium, exhibition and educational space, and a mosque.
Megan Putney of the Muslim Consultative Network, a community development group, said she hoped the community center would be "a way for different faiths and cultures to become more familiar with each other and understand that those who committed those heinous acts on 9/11 were not Muslims."
Some national and New York politicians and the Anti-Defamation League have come out in recent weeks against plans for the mosque, saying it disrespects the memory of Sept. 11 victims.
Supporters of landmark status, including some Sept. 11 family members, had argued that the building warranted the status because it was struck by airplane debris during the attacks.
But Commissioner Christopher Moore noted that the debris hit a number of buildings.
"One cannot designate hundreds of buildings on that criteria alone," Moore said. "We do not landmark the sky."
The mosque would be part of an Islamic community center to be operated by a group called the Cordoba Initiative, which says the center will be a space for moderate Muslim voices.
Oz Sultan, the program coordinator for the proposed Islamic center, said last week that the building has been changed too much over the years to qualify as a landmark.
"I think a lot of the negativity we're getting is coming from people who are politically grandstanding," Sultan said. "We're completely open and transparent."
Sharif El-Gamal, a real estate developer involved in the project, has said the center could resemble the 92nd Street Y, a major Jewish cultural center in New York that also houses a synagogue.
"Where do you draw the line?" asked Ralph Seliger, a retired city employee who was among a group from J Street, a progressive Jewish group, that came to support the Islamic center. "In no way is this in tended to desecrate the memory of those who died there."
The Rev. Robert Chase, founding director of an interfaith group called Intersections, supported the project and called it "a really positive example of how we can move forward from 9/11."
But the Anti-Defamation League's national director, Abraham Foxman, said Khan's proposals fail to address the crux of opponents' criticism that erecting the mosque near ground zero is insensitive to 9/11 victims' families.
The Jewish organization came out against the mosque last week, saying "some legitimate questions have been raised" about the Cordoba Initiative's funding and possible ties with "groups whose ideologies stand in contradiction to our shared values."
Lazio attended Tuesday's hearing, saying he still had questions about funding sources and saying the national debate over the mosque had nothing to do with religion.
He said: "It's about this particular mosque called the Cordoba Mosque. It's about being at Ground Zero. It's about being spearheaded by an imam who has associated himself with radical Islamic causes and has made comments that should chill every single American, frankly."
The imam, Faisel Abdul Rauf, had refused to call the radical Palestinian group Hamas a terrorist organization, Lazio has said. Rauf also had said in a "60 Minutes" interview televised shortly after 9/11 that "United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened."
Contributing: the Associated Press
