"Soon, Imam, this will all belong to our people"
Posted on 12/16/2009 11:28:23 AM PST by Steelfish
Mysterious Group Buys Building Next to Ground Zero For Mosque Wednesday, December 16, 2009 Jim Hoft
A mysterous Muslim group with unknown sponsors has purchased a building steps away from Ground Zero. Hudson New York reported:
An identified group with unknown sponsors has purchased building steps away from where the WorldTrade Center once stood — to turn it into potentially one of the largest New York City mosques.
At the moment the building, the old Burlington Coat Factory, already serves as a mini-mosque: an iron grill lifts every Friday afternoon for a little known Imam leading prayers a few yards away from where Osama Bin Laden’s airborne Islamist bombers killed nearly 3000 people back in 2001.
The Imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, told the New York Times — which put the story on its front page Wednesday — that he has assembled several million dollars to turn it into ‘’an Islamic center near the city’s most hallowed piece of land that would stand as one of ground zero’s more unexpected and striking neighbors.’’
The 61-year-old Imam said he paid $4.85 million for it — in cash, records show. With 50,000 square feet of air rights and enough financing, he plans an ambitious project of $150 million, he said, akin to the Chautauqua Institution, the 92 Street Y or the Jewish Community Center.
(Excerpt) Read more at gatewaypundit.firstthings.com ...
Note: Video (CNN) included.
http://bigpeace.com/sright/2010/09/08/ground-zero-mosque-iman-if-you-dont-build-it-they-will-attack/
“Ground Zero Mosque Iman: If You Don’t Build It, They Will Attack”
Posted by Larry O’Connor Sep 8th 2010 at 11:04 pm
in Featured Story, Islamic extremism, ground zero mosque
SNIPPET: ““If we move from that location, the story will be the radicals have taken over the discourse, the headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack. Our national security now hinges on how we negotiate this, how we speak about it. The battlefront is between moderates of all sides… and the radicals on all sides,” he said.
Moving the project to another location would strengthen Islamist radicals’ ability to recruit followers and will likely increase violence against Americans, the imam said.”
Quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2586557/posts
9/11 first responder files suit against Ground Zero mosque developers
NY POST ^ | 9/9/10 | DAREH GREGORIAN
Posted on September 10, 2010 4:42:14 AM PDT by Liz
A 9/11 first responder’s $350M suit against the developers, calls the Ground Zero mosque a “nuisance,” “a terror risk” and “an assault.” The strongly worded suit, was brought by a former volunteer firefighter from Westchester with the assistance of Freedom Watch. It charges developer Feisal Abdul Rauf and the Park 51 company’s “interests are tied to terrorism,” and “believers in radical Islam and its jihad against American interests.” The suit, calls the proposed center “a monument to the jihadist’s victory over American ideals, [and] a desecration of the terrible sacrifice made by those innocents attacked.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The organizer of the fundraising trip on Air Force One, Luis Cardillo (Sp?) was promptly fired, and probably, all the records relating to the trip were destroyed. We’ll never know who was on the plane, but I think most Americans have a pretty good idea.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/75181
“One Day Before Sept. 11, Obama Defends ‘Inalienable’ Right to Build Mosque Near Ground Zero”
SNIPPET: “One day before the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Barack Obama became adamant and emotional in defending the “inalienable” right of people “to practice their religion freely” and, specifically, “to build a mosque” two blocks from Ground Zero in New York City.
Friday, September 10, 2010 “
By Fred Lucas
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2587029/posts
“Ground Zero Mosque: The Bombast of Imam Feisal”
Pajamas Media ^ | September 9, 2010 | Claudia Rosett
Posted on September 10, 2010 6:09:16 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah
Quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2587986/posts
Ground Zero mosque Imam blames Sarah Palin for ‘growing Islamophobia’
Telegraph UK ^ | 9/12/2010 | Telegraph UK
Posted on September 12, 2010 6:03:11 PM PDT by opentalk
The Muslim cleric behind plans to build a mosque close to the Ground Zero site has blamed politicians such as Sarah Palin for fuelling a “growing Islamophobia” that led to the burning of Korans on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The Reverend Terry Jones abandoned his “international burn a Koran day” in Gainesville, Florida on Saturday but there were isolated instances in Tennessee and New York of the Muslim holy book being set alight.
“What has happened is that..certain politicians decided that this project would be very useful for their political ambitions,” Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said, adding that this had prompted a “growing Islamophobia” in the US.
Imam Rauf’s proposal for an Islamic Centre, containing a mosque, two blocks from the site of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre, has become embroiled in controversy.
Mrs Palin was the first major national figure to get involved in what had been a localised dispute when she sent a Twitter message in July stating: “Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing.”
Imam Rauf said Mrs Palin’s intervention had been “disingenuous” and played a part of the issue being “hijacked by the radicals” over the summer.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
September 12, 2010
SNIPPET - quote:
Mega-mosque imam says Qur’an-burning would have been “disastrous” and would have “strengthened radicals,” implying Muslims cannot control themselves
This comes after his threat that “anger will explode” among Muslims if the Qur’an burning went forward. Honestly, though, such thinly veiled threats are tantamount to a denial of free will in the Muslim world.
That should be insulting to the intelligence of a Muslim who believes him- or herself above such histrionics as we have seen in Afghanistan in recent days. Besides, isn’t Ramadan about self control? So, everyone should be at the top of their game there right about now.
Does Rauf really mean to tell us that, instead, real or imagined (like the Newsweek debacle) insults to Islam are really that much like poking a bee-hive with a stick where free will is concerned? Again, Muslims ought to be insulted, but many seem more bent on leveraging that instability to quash free speech in the West — Rauf included.
“Koran burning ‘would be disaster’ NY imam warns,” from BBC News, September 12:
The New York imam leading efforts to build an Islamic centre near the World Trade Center site says plans by a small US church to burn Korans would have sparked “a disaster”.
Feisal Abdul Rauf told ABC News that the event - now called off - would have “strengthened radicals”.
Note: Hyptertext links, photos, and videos included.
http://www.investigativeproject.org/2172/ground-zero-mosque-group-includes-9-11-denier
“Ground Zero Mosque Group Includes 9/11 Denier”
IPT News
September 13, 2010
SNIPPET: “In his interview with CNN’s Soledad O’Brien on Wednesday, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf defended his plans to build a mosque and Islamic center near Ground Zero, saying “You cannot heal a trauma by walking away from it. We have to sit down. We have to talk about it. We have to dialogue about it and find a way to move through it and beyond it.”
But a trove of videos and writings available on the Internet shows that a longtime partner of Rauf believes the 9/11 terror attacks were “an inside job” by U.S. government and corporate interests, the Investigative Project on Terrorism found.
Faiz Khan, a physician who claims to have been a first responder after the September 11 attacks, is a founding member of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth and is on the advisory board of the Muslims for 9/11 Truth. In an essay on the Alliance’s website, he argued that “the prime factor for the success of the criminal mission known as 9/11 did not come from the quarter known as ‘militant Islam’ although the phenomenon known as ‘militant Islamic networks’ may have played a partial role, or even a less than partial role - perhaps the role of patsy and scapegoat.””
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/keithellison/index
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/ellison/index
#
Quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2588566/posts
(Keith) Ellison speaks out in support of NYC mosque
StarTribune.com ^ | 9/13/10 | Jeremy Herb
Posted on September 13, 2010 5:26:18 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
Standing three blocks from the World Trade Center site on the eve of Sept. 11, Rep. Keith Ellison looked out over more than 1,500 people wearing white and holding candles in support of a proposed Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero.
“The whole world is watching you,” the Minnesota Democrat told the mosque supporters. “You emphatically say we are together, and we can’t be torn apart based on religion.”
Ellison has never shied away from talking about his Muslim faith, but until now has not attempted to be a spokesman for it. Now, as he tries for a third term, he has jumped head-first into the frontline of a controversy that has sparked the biggest anti-Muslim backlash since the terrorist attacks of nine years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
ADDING to post no. 489:
Quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2588586/posts
Meet Imam Rauf’s Partner, Faiz Khan, 9/11 Truther
National Review Online ^ | 9/13/2010 | By Andy McCarthy
Posted on September 13, 2010 6:05:19 PM PDT by granite
Faiz Khan, a physician who claims to have been a first responder after the September 11 attacks, is a founding member of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth and is on the advisory board of the Muslims for 9/11 Truth. In an essay on the Alliance’s website, he argued that “the prime factor for the success of the criminal mission known as 9/11 did not come from the quarter known as ‘militant Islam’ although the phenomenon known as ‘militant Islamic networks’ may have played a partial role, or even a less than partial role – perhaps the role of patsy and scapegoat.”…
Khan also helped form the American Sufi Muslim Association in 1997 with Rauf, a group now known as the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA). ASMA and Rauf’s Cordoba Initiative are leading the mosque effort in lower Manhattan. Khan has led Friday prayers at the Al Farah Mosque, where Rauf is the imam, for years. That practice continued at least through December – after the mosque proposal was unveiled — when Khan was cited and photographed in an article in the German magazine Der Spiegel on the project.
Khan and Rauf also are members of the Sufi Circle, created in 2004 to promote “a Divine Love, unity and tolerance for a happy and meaningful life.” In an announcement for a pending appearance, Khan’s photograph on the Sufi site comes from this 2005 speech he gave explaining his beliefs about the 9/11 attacks. Cropped out is a sign behind Khan that reads “Expose the 9/11 Cover-Up.” In that speech, Khan claimed people he meets in the Middle East and North Africa take government responsibility for 9/11 as a given and ask what Americans don’t understand.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Hat Tip:
Jawa Report
#
ON THE INTER
twitter.com/Park51
Quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2589185/posts
Imam at center of Islamic center controversy named in lawsuit
CNN ^ | Sept. 14, 2010 | Laura Batchelor
Posted on September 14, 2010 3:43:32 PM PDT by La Enchiladita
The imam at the center of the controversy surrounding a proposed Islamic center near ground zero is now the defendant in a law suit, according the paperwork filed today at Hudson County Superior Court.
The lawsuit alleges Feisal Abdul Rauf’s company, Sage Development, which owns two buildings in Union City, New Jersey, failed to properly maintain the buildings and apartments. One building contains 32 residential units and the second contains 16 units, according to the lawsuit.
“From 1996 to 2010, the city responded to no less than 30 complaints from tenants predicated upon various health and safety concerns, including lack of heat, mold inside apartments, garbage issues, bed bugs, foul odors, dirty hallways and the lack of utilities/heat,” the filing says.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
The larger of the two buildings has been vacant since a fire damaged the property on February 8, 2008. According to the lawsuit, Union City Fire Officials issued 12 fire code violations over one year prior to the fire. In the second apartment building, more than two units were found to be ingested with bed bugs after complaints of improperly stored garbage.
1 posted on September 14, 2010 3:43:35 PM PDT by La Enchiladita
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies | Report Abuse]
Quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2589428/posts
Sharif El-Gamal, developer of Ground Zero mosque, evicted from SoHo office for racking up back rent
NY Daily News ^ | 9/15/10 | JAMES FANELLI
Posted on September 15, 2010 4:03:25 AM PDT by jimbo123
The developer of the Ground Zero mosque is being bounced from his SoHo office, the Daily News has learned.
Sharif El-Gamal, who runs the real estate firm Soho Properties and is heading the project two blocks from Ground Zero, was slapped with eviction proceedings last month after tallying up $39,000 in back rent, a Manhattan Housing Court filing shows.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
http://www.investigativeproject.org/2198/gzm-imams-malaysia-connections
“GZM Imam’s Malaysia Connections”
IPT News
September 24, 2010
Quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2596388/posts
Ground Zero Mosque Officially Enters ‘Alice In Wonderland’ Terrority
Fox News ^ | September 22, 2010 | Michael Goodwin
Posted on September 26, 2010 1:19:24 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Mark the moment: The battle over the Ground Zero mosque has passed through the looking glass and into the wonderland of insanity.
Surprise, surprise, the “summit” of national and local Muslim organizations early this week turned into a rally-around-the-mosque gathering. While that was predictable, the logic justifying the move is as scrambled as the landscape Alice discovered behind the mirror.
It is now the “extremists” opposed to the mosque who are the reason why it must be built, according to the Muslim supporters. At least one of whom, not incidentally, is a big supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Growing out of the fetid swamps of moral equivalence, where extremism is in the eye of the beholder, the gathering illustrates how a preposterous sense of victimization is now the driving force behind the mosque. The initial vow that the facility would help heal the breach of 9/11 has vanished.
Instead of the interfaith bridge, developers and supporters delivered a superhighway of grievance and false claims of discrimination. In a flash, the mosque has gone from a plan to assertions of legal right and absolute moral authority.
To merely question it is to be a bigot. It must be built or the whole country will be labeled anti-Islam. And you know what that means — kaboom!
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Video:
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/beliefnet/new-mosque-in-lower-manhattan-20100927
#
“’Ground Zero mosque’ already exists: prayer services held weekly at site of proposed Islamic center”
BY MEENA HARTENSTEIN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, September 27th 2010, 6:09 PM
(akas: Cordoba, Ground Zero Mosque, GZM)
QUOTE:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2599369/posts
Park 51 THE GROUND ZERO MOSQUE: WHY IT MATTERS, WHAT IT MEANS
Atlas Shrugs ^ | 29 September 2010 | Pam Geller
Posted on September 30, 2010 3:56:52 PM PDT by combat_boots
Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer
Spencer and I are speaking at Temple University next week (where the craven quislings tried to silence Geert Wilders after trying to ban him). Thought you might like a look at the open minded “Democratic Socialists” at Temple.
Here is the note from the brave organizers:
At a State of the Campus Address in which at least 280 leaders from all student organizations were present, the Democratic Socialists announced that they were organizing a protest against TU Purpose’s Islamophobic event next week. They concluded by calling TU Purpose and me Bigots.
Atlas readers heads up. Do you believe 70% of Americans are islamophobes or freedom lovers. Stand with us. Come to Temple!
The event is open to the public so come and stand for FREEDOM.
Host: Temple University Purpose Date: Thursday, October 7th Time: 7-9:30PM Location: Howard Gittis Student Center 200C 1755 N. 13th Street OPEN TO THE PUBLIC Philadelphia, PA, 19122
http://www.investigativeproject.org/2216/gzm-imam-filed-false-tax-form
“GZM Imam Filed False Tax Form”
IPT News
October 1, 2010
SNIPPET: “Feisal Abdul Rauf, the leader of the Ground Zero Mosque effort, filed a false federal tax form when he created the Cordoba Initiative, claiming that group had no ties to any other organization although Rauf and his wife led another nonprofit that shared the same directors.”
Archived copy:
http://s88179113.onlinehome.us/2010-10-11/lame_gmz_response.jpg
#
http://internet-haganah.com/harchives/007008.html
12 October 2010
“LAME GZM RESPONSE
This is really the best they could do?”
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