Ground Zero Mosque Developer: Mosque Could Accommodate 1,000 Worshippers

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ground-zeroSupporters of the “Ground Zero mosque” have been oddly obsessed with the idea that the proposed Islamic center shouldn’t be called a “mosque.” As Frank Rich wrote last Sunday in the New York Times: “It’s not a mosque but an Islamic cultural center containing a prayer room.”But the website for the project, once called the “Cordoba House” and now known as “Park51,” explicitly refers to “the mosque,” although it tries to minimize the mosque’s importance for some reason:

The Mosque

While a mosque will be located in the planned final structure of Park51, it will be a distinct non-profit. Neither Park51 nor the mosque, which hasn’t been named yet, will tolerate any kind of illegal or un-American activity or rhetoric. The final size and location of the mosque have yet to be determined, but it will only represent a small portion of the final structure.

While Park51’s website claims the “final size and location of the mosque have yet to be determined,” Sharif El-Gamal, head of Soho Properties, Inc., and developer, of the “Ground Zero mosque,” advertises the project on a Muslim website updated as recently as June 5, 2010, in expansive terms different from those the GZM team has lately addressed to the broader public. Al-Gamal’s group declares, “We are trying to establish a full fledged Islamic Center in the lower Manhattan, only 2 blocks from World Trade Center, New York City, NY. It is a neat and clean facility and can accomodate [sic] 1,000 people to pray in Jamat [i.e. collectively] at one time.”

Soho Properties notes on the Muslim site www.islamicfinder.org, which inventories mosques open around the country, that a mosque known as “The House” (Musallah – without Rauf’s “Cordoba” identification) already provides morning and evening prayer services, as well as Friday collective prayer and a weekly “networking event,” at 51 Park Place.

Thus Al-Gamal disclosed that, contrary to what Frank Rich and friends say, the real intent of the project was that for which it was questioned: an ambitious mosque, capable of drawing a large crowd of believers, close to the former World Trade Center.

{WeeklyStandard/Matzav.com}


10 COMMENTS

  1. The site for this mosque is two blocks away from Ground Zero (the site of the World Trade Center}. Have you ever been to downtown Manhattan? It’s jammed. Two blocks is not “at” Ground Zero. It’s two crowded, busy blocks away. No out-of-towner looking for “Ground Zero” is going near there.

    Let’s get our terminology straight, and get a little perspective. If someone doesn’t like a Muslim community center for whatever reason – and they have a right to their opinion – let him/her say so outright, and not try to hide behind phony arguments.

  2. AMAZING, EVEN THE EXTREME RIGHT WING MAGAZINE THE WEEKLY STANDARD CONCEDE AND PRINT THE STATEMENT OF THE BUILDERS THAT THE MOSQUE AND ACTIVITY CENTER — SIMILAR TO THE 92ND STREET Y, WILL N0T TOLERATE UNAMERICAN ACTIVITY.
    EVEN THE WEEKLY STANDARD IS LAUGHING THAT THIS MOSQUE PROJECT IS A LIBERAL REFORMIST ISLAMIC PROJECT.

  3. We have something called the First Amendment. They have every right to build this whether or not you like it. Be careful what you wish for. If this mosque is stopped, be prepared to have shuls, yeshivos, and mikvaos projects stopped as well.

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