NY1 Exclusive: Developer Won't Budge on Mosque Location (Says It's "Nowhere Near" Ground Zero)

New York One ^ | Tuesday, August 17, 2010 | Grace Rauh

[kristinn]

SNIP

Sharif El-Gamal is the developer behind the plan to erect an Islamic community center and mosque two blocks from the World Trade Center site.

Calls are mounting for him and the other backers to find a new home for their center, further away from the site of the September 11th terrorist attacks, but El-Gamal isn't budging.

He is sticking with his plans to erect a 13-story center and prayer space in Lower Manhattan. He likens the project to a YMCA or Jewish Community Center, with programs open to all residents of all faiths.

"A landmark, an iconic building that will have people come and visit it from around the world,” said El-Gamal as to what he imagines. “This looks like it is going to be the most famous community center in the world."

SNIP

"Park51 is a community center. It is two blocks north of the World Trade Center site,” said El-Gamal. “In New York City, two blocks is a great distance. There are some buildings in New York that have their own zip codes. There is such a scarcity of space in New York, especially in Lower Manhattan. Keep in mind this is a small island, so we are nowhere near the World Trade Center site."

SNIP

Of course, the project got a boost from the White House last weekend when President Barack Obama spoke strongly in support of the developer's right to build the center. El-Gamal says he heard the president's remarks while he was on his way to East Hampton. He says he was blown away.

[Choose Ye This Day]

In 2001, in the 9/11 attacks after hijacked Flight 175 penetrated through a tower of The World Trade Center, part of the plane's landing gear and fuselage came out the north side of the tower and crashed through the roof and two of the floors of the Burlington Coat Factory at 45–47 Park Place, between West Broadway and Church Street, (600 feet (180 meters)) north of the former World Trade Center. The plane parts destroyed three floor beams, and severely compromised the building's internal structure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlington_Coat_Factory

[TLI]

Whaddya say we collect a few Freepers, a few cold ones, and some pork rinds, and head on down to the community center and hang out a while?

Hey, we could set up a grill out back just like at the Babtist Church!

Mmmmmmmm... pork ribs and ice cold Buds... mmmmmmmmm!

.

[LowTaxesEqualProsperity]

When can a church or synagogue be built within 2 blocks of the Kaba in Mecca?

How about anywhere within Sauuuuudi Arabia?

[livius]

I think you’re absolutely right, and I think everybody knows this deep down inside and that is what is causing such unease and anger. But many people are afraid to say it because once they say it, they will have acknowledged exactly what is going on, what Islam is doing, and then they’ll have to find some way of dealing with it.

It’s easier to think of it as an act of appalling insensitivity than as an act of aggression and a monument to an Islamic victory, which is all that it is.

[animal172]

Of course they will, remember that the unions are an arm of the Commucrats.

[Choose Ye This Day]

Your post and mine should be combined into a new thread, to clarify the geography and what really happened at that site. Nowhere in this discussion do I hear mentioned that the landing gear and part of the fuselage went through this building.

And when the tower collapsed, does anyone actually believe that dust and perhaps human remains were not scattered over this site?

And the Muslim community wants to ‘build bridges.’

[Choose Ye This Day]

I mean, ‘nowhere in the MEDIA discussion...’

[ilovesarah2012]

Then NYC deserves whatever happens to them.

[gulfcoast6]

Gotta help my ‘Bro’s, you know...

[Spunky]

"If Obama is a “Christian,” why is he celebrating Ramadan in the White House?"

He is using TAQIYYA when he says he is a Christian.

Remember this little bit in an interview?

In the below video Stephenopolis jumped in to correct him, but this was stated so forcefull and clearly to have been just a mistake.
Click on the link MY MUSLIM FAITH

[rhombus]

Of course they will, remember that the unions are an arm of the Commucrats.

Leadership for sure but I'm not sure every electrician and carpenter is going to want to build a mosque there. Someone should start asking the construction unions and put them on the spot.

[In Maryland]

I predict an unusual number of work “accidents” will happen on this build. Might be there will also be a few circuits wired incorrectly, and a few pork rinds left in the plumbing.

[Mojave]

Eminent domain time. Let the leftists squeal.

[ColdOne]

I don’t think what I have said is terribly insightful or original. It seems obvious. So why am I not hearing this argument? Or have I missed it? I get that, the other side who wants this knows this, of course they aren't going to say a thing like the truth. No you have not missed it.

[swain_forkbeard]

“The plane parts destroyed three floor beams, and severely compromised the building’s internal structure.”

What you said. It is not a stretch to assert that this location is part of the ruins of 9/11.

[a fool in paradise]

They must be using the John Kerry standard.

[a fool in paradise]

“This looks like it is going to be the most famous community center in the world."

Most INFAMOUS, as in villainous.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The Cordoba Victory Mosque is the line in the sand.

If it is built, America might as well hand over the keys to Sharia law.

[a fool in paradise]

He didn’t even celebrate Christmas and does not take his family to church.

In fact he never had a DC church to attend as a Senator, he was too busy listening to tapes of Jeremiah Wright’s racist diatribes.

[Enchante]

If plane parts from the WTC attacks fell on this building/site then it IS part of “Ground Zero” by any reasonable standard.

No more of the “two blocks from Ground Zero” b.s. -— the Islamists know exactly what they are doing, building a mosque AT Ground Zero

anyway, looking at that aerial photo it seems that, really, only ONE block separates the Burlington Coat Factory site from the WTC site???

since “framing” is often everything in winning political/public debates, we need to emphasize that this mosque would be AT Ground Zero, which is perfectly accurate

not like they are proposing it for Harlem or the Bronx