NYSlimes article - Dec. 2009-Jan. 2010
“We like Imam Feisal, the way he presents the philosophy of the true Islam that I call it,” said one of the congregants, Mohammed Abdullah, an investment banker who traveled from Washington for the service.
[...]The location is not designated a mosque, but rather an overflow prayer space for another mosque, Al Farah at 245 West Broadway in TriBeCa, where Imam Feisal is the spiritual leader.[...]
[...]Kukiko Mitani, whose husband, Stephen Pomerantz, owned the building at the time, tried to sell it for years, at one time asking $18 million. But when the recession hit, she sold it in July to a real estate investment firm, Soho Properties, for $4.85 million in cash, records show. One of the investors was the Cordoba Initiative, an interfaith group founded by Imam Feisal...]
“It’s really to provide a place of peace, a place of services and solutions for the community which is always looking for interfaith dialogue,” said Sharif El-Gamal, chairman and chief executive of Soho Properties.
The patched-up roof was easily visible on a recent tour of the building, along with evidence of its sudden evacuation: food bags still in a fifth-floor staff refrigerator and, most eerily, a log sheet for the testing of the emergency alarm system that shows a sign-in signature for 9/11 but no sign-out.
Records kept by the city’s Department of Buildings show anonymous complaints for illegal construction and blocked exits at the site. Inspectors tried to check but were unable to gain access, so the complaints, though still open, were listed as “resolved” under city procedures, according to an agency spokeswoman, Carly Sullivan.
But worshipers are legally occupying the building, where retail space is offered for lease, once a week under temporary permits of assembly through December, Ms. Sullivan said.
With 50,000 square feet of air rights, Imam Feisal said, the location, with enough financing, could support an ambitious project of $150 million, akin to the Chautauqua Institution, the 92 Street Y or the Jewish Community Center.
Joy Levitt, executive director of the Jewish Community Center, said the group would be proud to be a model for Imam Feisal at ground zero. “For the J.C.C. to have partners in the Muslim community that share our vision of pluralism and tolerance would be great,” she said.
Mr. El-Gamal agreed. “What happened that day,” he said, “was not Islam.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/nyregion/09mosque.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&ref=nyregion
An investment banker travels from Washington specifically for the service - interesting. Who is this guy and is he the individual who financed it? One wonders if this is really about an el-grande building to house Sharia Banking on Wall Street. What a double victory for Islam that would be...
We’re also told they’re occupying it legally via leasing but one wonders if it is actually legal as it doesn’t appear to be up to city code.
If companies start supporting shariah by, for example, divesting from Israel, not investing in companies that make pork products, etc., then those companies need to be run out of business.
Creepy pictures of the “worshippers” at the Burlington Coat Factory. Furthermore, I doubt that they have been officially permitted to use the space; IIRC, it was significantly damaged by part of the fuselage, and it still appears that they have that door just covered by a sheet of plastic.
But this is just the Muslims marking their spot.
This should not be allowed to happen.