What an AWESOME idea.... NOT!!!

[Chi]

One of many articles covering this: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/mosque_madness_at_ground_zero_OQ34EB0MWS0lXuAnQau5uL

 

Updated: Thu., May. 13, 2010, 11:37 AM

Mosque madness at Ground Zero

By ANDREA PEYSER

 

Last Updated: 11:37 AM, May 13, 2010

 

Posted: 3:59 AM, May 13, 2010

 

A mosque rises over Ground Zero. And fed-up New Yorkers are crying, "No!"

 

A chorus of critics -- from neighbors to those who lost loved ones on 9/11 to me -- feel as if they've received a swift kick in the teeth.

 

Plans are under way for a Muslim house of worship, topped by a 13-story cultural center with a swimming pool, in a building damaged by the fuselage of a jet flown by extremists into the World Trade Center.

 

The opening date shall live in infamy: Sept. 11, 2011. The 10th anniversary of the day a hole was punched in the city's heart.

 

How the devil did this happen?

 

Plans to bring what one critic calls a "monster mosque" to the site of the old Burlington Coat Factory building, at a cost expected to top $100 million, moved along for months without a peep. All of a sudden, even members of the community board that stupidly green-lighted the mosque this month are tearing their hair out.

 

Paul Sipos, member of Community Board 1, said a mosque is a fine idea -- someplace else.

 

"If the Japanese decided to open a cultural center across from Pearl Harbor, that would be insensitive," Sipos told me. "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?"

 

Why, indeed.

 

A rally against the mosque is planned for June 6, D-Day, by the human-rights group Stop Islamicization of America. Executive director Pamela Geller said, "What could be more insulting and humiliating than a monster mosque in the shadow of the World Trade Center buildings that were brought down by an Islamic jihad attack? Any decent American, Muslim or otherwise, wouldn't dream of such an insult. It's a stab in the eye of America."

 

Called Cordoba House, the mosque and center is the brainchild of the American Society for Muslim Advancement. Executive director Daisy Khan insists it's staying put.

 

"For us, it's a symbol, a platform 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," said Khan, adding that Cordoba will be open to everyone.

 

"We were pleased to see that the community welcomed us as an asset to lower Manhattan," she added. "The community board approved it."

 

Not so fast.

 

The Financial District Committee of Community Board 1 seems to have gotten ensnared in a public-relations ploy by mosque-makers. At a May 5 meeting, the committee gave the project an enthusiastic thumbs-up. But boards have zero say over religious institutions.

 

Board chair Julie Menin, blind-sided by the move, predicts "this will be overturned by the full board" later this month.

 

But the damage is done.

 

Wounds that have yet to heal are now opening, as mosque opponents are branded, unfairly, as bigots.

 

"The worst tendency is the knee-jerk, emotional, angry, hateful response to acts of violence and war," said Donna Marsh O'Connor, who lost daughter Vanessa on 9/11 and supports the mosque. "I think it's racist tendencies."

 

Many more feel like Bill Doyle -- doubly maimed as he's forced to defend himself against charges of prejudice.

 

"I'm not a bigot. What I'm frightful about is, it's almost going to be another protest zone. A meeting place for radicals," said Doyle, whose son, Joseph, was murdered on 9/11.

 

"It's a slap in our face!" said Nelly Braginsky, who lost son Alexander.

 

Unclear is how the mosque will raise the $100 million-plus it needs.

 

"We would be seeking funding from anyone who would help," Khan told me. "Seeking maybe some bonds or something like that." At the May 5 community board meeting, she displayed a sign with names like "Rockefeller Brothers Fund" and "Ford Foundation," which observers believed meant money is coming from those organizations. But Khan says those groups merely gave money in the past, and no funding is yet in place.

 

There are many questions about the Ground Zero mosque. But just one answer.

 

Move it away.

[hugo]

Maybe they will put the Al-Queda flag on top.

[snafu]

Oh hell no! That aint' gonna happen.

[Chi]

Maybe they will put the Al-Queda flag on top.

 

and a life-sized Bin Laden statue in the front. And some memorial busts of the terrorists, my bad "martyrs", who flew the planes into the towers.

[emkay64]

That wont go through. There are too many people in New York with lots of money. The mosque will never get there.

[snafu]

The day that's built is the day I go jhad on their ass!

[wez]

Hey TJ... did they commission your expertise on mosque building for this grand plan?

[Chi]

That wont go through. There are too many people in New York with lots of money. The mosque will never get there.

 

I hope not. There are also many arab Muslims and oil tycoons with more than enough money to fund this. I'm sure they would LOVE to fund this to rub it in our faces and piss us off. Someone in power needs to intervene in this. It can cause A LOT of problems and more tension. It already is and it's only an idea in the works.

[Chi]

Hey TJ... did they commission your expertise on mosque building for this grand plan?

 

lol, I was gonna ask him if he was planning on being part of this project.

[timesjoke]

Very bad idea, it will be a symbol of victory for all radical Islam to toppls such a great symbol of America and to replace it with a grand symbol of Islam, and that is the most likely the real intent.

[Chi]

Very bad idea, it will be a symbol of victory for all radical Islam to toppls such a great symbol of America and to replace it with a grand symbol of Islam, and that is the most likely the real intent.

 

That is how I see it (omg, TJ and I agree on something.) On this case, screw all the acceptance and PC bull crap! Most New Yorkers don't like it nor agree with it and neither do most other Americans. Call us prejudice, racist, whatever, good reason to be if any. Go build your mosque somewhere else, cuz you damn well know near that spot will cause nothing, but trouble.

[emkay64]

The grand opening date is what bothers me most. That IS a slap!

[Chi]

The grand opening date is what bothers me most. That IS a slap!

 

That just further reaffirms what the real intentions of building this are.

[eddo]

yeah, I am sooooooo not a fan of this.

[Chi]

The grand opening date is what bothers me most. That IS a slap!

 

That just further reaffirms what the real intentions of building this are.

 

Oh, but that's not all, a 2nd mosque even closer to Ground Zero is also under way.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/17/muslims-nyc-planning-build-second-smaller-mosque-near-ground-zero/

 

"The Masjid Mosque has raised $8.5 million and is seeking an additional $2.5 million to begin construction. While it apparently has not settled on a final location, it has told donors it plans to build very close to where 3,000 people were killed in the September 11 terror attacks.

 

In fact, the website appealing for donations boldly states that it plans to “build the 'House of Allah' next to the World Trade Center. Help us raise the flag of 'LA ILLAH ILLA ALLAH' in downtown Manhattan."

[emkay64]

Wasn't the city supposed to rebuild on that site? Where is Trump when you need him?

[Chi]

Wasn't the city supposed to rebuild on that site? Where is Trump when you need him?

 

They're not building on that site only because they can't. I'm sure they would if they could. They do have every intention of building their mosques as close as they can to Ground Zero though.

[RegisteredAndEducated]

Wow... somebody dropped the ball...

[Chi]

latest on this - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100526/ap_on_re_us/us_ground_zero_mosque