Mosque to be Built Near Ground Zero

“Today we closed the Taiba mosque because young men were being turned into religious fanatics there,” said Christoph Ahlhaus, secretary of the interior for the city of Hamburg, at a news conference Monday. ... The mosque achieved worldwide notoriety in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, and other members of 9/11 plot used the mosque on Steindamm, near Hamburg’s main train station, as a meeting place.

Now a legal question, if the new mosque turns into a "terrorist training center" as is alleged about the mosque that just got shut down in Hamburg, Germany, do we have the right to do that here as well?

Nothing new about mosques in New York
By Jerrilynn Dodds,
Special to CNNAugust 5, 2010 6:55 p.m. EDT

CNN) -- It's hard to think of a better place for a mosque today than lower Manhattan, near to ground zero. To support the siting of a mosque there is not just deeply American--a declaration of the freedoms we stand for -- it is the continuation of a long and established New York tradition of mosque-building.

In fact, by any historical measure it is absurd to see Cordoba House, a community center that will include a mosque, as a kind of hostile and exotic cultural invasion of the lower east side. Mosques have been part of New York's rich architectural and religious mix for over a century, and today hundreds of thousands of Muslims, many whose New York roots go back generations -- attend the city's more than 100 mosques in the five boroughs.

The Muslims who built these mosques are New Yorkers, blameless in the events of September 11, 2001, and linked to other New Yorkers through the deep shared sense of loss and pain evoked that day. Their mosques, already part of our urban identity, bear witness to the strength of our freedoms, as will the Cordoba House center.

Muslim slaves from Africa who lived in New York no doubt had places to pray as early as the 18th century, but the first mosque building in New York was likely the one belonging to the American Mohammedan Society in 1907 on Powers Street in Brooklyn.

The Islamic Mission of America constructed its own mosque in 1939, and in 1947 purchased the brownstone where the Masjid Daoud can still be found today.

The number of mosques in the city began to increase significantly in the 1960s after the ratification of the 1965 Immigration Act, which increased immigration from non-European countries with Muslim populations.

Over time, they would range from modest basement prayer halls to elaborate architect-designed buildings. One small mosque in Brooklyn is composed of a dozen neighbors who take turns leading prayer.

The first mosque of a new Muslim community in New York, for example, might simply be a suburban house, like the split-level in Richmond Hills, Queens that served as the Masjid Hazrat-i-abu Bakr in the 1990s. With time, the community might gather the funds to construct a more elaborate building, like Masjid Hazrat-i-abu Bakr's grander building today at the same location.

Many mosques in New York City are built and financed by the community members themselves; some donate materials or work or money. The Ali Pasha Mosque in Astoria, and the Albanian Cultural center in Staten Island were completed in the 1990's with the help of the contracting and manual labor of their communities.

A new mosque can result in the building up of a neighborhood. Fatih Camii was fashioned from an old building in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and a representative of the New York Police's 66th Precinct commented to me in the 1990's that the mosque had revitalized the neighborhood: "Since the congregation renovated the building and began to function, the entire neighborhood has profited."

This is surely the case with the Masjid Malcolm Shabazz, a renovation of the former Lenox Casino in Harlem by architect Sabbath Brown in 1965. There the addition of dome marks the presence not only of a mosque, but a school and other community services that make it a beacon in the neighborhood.

The mosque's community has been instrumental in constructing low income housing and supporting the economic revitalization of Harlem. Mosques as community centers all around New York provide day care, help with small business start up, rooms for events, classes in English and other languages, gyms and recreational facilities for their neighborhoods.

New York's newly designed mosques are real products of American pluralistic culture. The first mosque in New York designed from the ground up was probably Masjid Alfalah in which the community collaborated with a local Korean-American architect William Park, in 1983.

Such grand mosques as the Albanian Cultural Center in Staten Island, or the modernist Islamic Cultural Center on Manhattan's East Side (designed by the famed architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill) are monuments to the transformations wrought by Muslim communities: They are American mosques.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/04/dodds.mosques.new.york/?hpt=T2

Quote:

So, I would predict that when American Muslims evolve their livelihoods beyond taxi cab drivers, food cart vendors, small retail store owners, or franchise owners, and start to serve the general public as doctors, teachers, dentists, etc. (aka, "professionals"), I believe that a good percentage of the general population will have an epiphany that Muslims are nice.

Since you don't like being called "ignorant", Foofie, might I suggest you are woefully uninformed or misinformed?

American Muslims are not currently relegated to the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder, as you suggest. Almost 60% of American Muslims hold at least an undergraduate college degree, and one in three reports an income over $75,000 a year. They aleady are part of the professional class. They also serve our country in the armed forces.

Perhaps it is time for you to have an "epiphany", Foofie.

Quote:

According to a 2004 telephone survey of a sample of 1846 Muslims conducted by the polling organization Zogby, the respondents were more educated and affluent than the national average, with 59% of them holding at least an undergraduate college degree. Citing the Zogby survey, a 2005 Wall Street Journal editorial by Bret Stephens and Joseph Rago expressed the tendency of American Muslims to report employment in professional fields, with one in three having an income over $75,000 a year. The editorial also characterized American Muslims as "role models both as Americans and as Muslims".

Unlike many Muslims in Europe, American Muslims do not tend to feel marginalized or isolated from political participation. Several organizations were formed by the American Muslim community to serve as 'critical consultants' on U.S. policy regarding Iraq and Afghanistan. Other groups have worked with law enforcement agencies to point out Muslims within the United States that they suspect of fostering 'intolerant attitudes'. Still others have worked to invite interfaith dialogue and improved relations between Muslim and non-Muslim Americans.

As of May 30, 2005, over 15,000 Muslims were serving in the United States Armed Forces

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_the_United_States

O.K. ; Muslims in the U.S. are not all from the lower end of the socio-economic ladder. Fine. However, if they are so assimilated into the "fabric" of the U.S., why the proverbial "deep-throat" approach to the placement of the Ground Zero Mosque?

This new rental space is extremely small and it only has room for 20% of our members during Jummah. The rest of the members have to pray on the sidewalk outside the Masjid and are not able to listen to the Khutbah.
http://www.masjidmanhattan.com/

Our members are City, State and Federal employees, as well as professional employees of the Financial area who come to our Masjid to perform their daily prayers.
http://www.masjidmanhattan.com/

DISCLAIMER:
Please be advised that we are by no means affiliated with any other organization trying to build anything new in the area of downtown Manhattan.

Masjid Manhattan and its members condemn any type of terrorist acts. In particular, the attacks of 9/11 where non-Muslims as well as Muslims lost their lives. Islam always invites for peace; therefore Islam is not responsible for the actions of some ill individuals who, independently from what Islam advocates, have hatred against humanity. As Muslims and as Americans, we will never forget the beloved ones who perished that terrible day of September 11, 2001.

http://www.masjidmanhattan.com/

Ground Zero Mosque ads to hit NYC subways and buses
August 9, 7:43 PMNY Government Examiner
Michael A. Harris

Are you tired of reading about the Cordoba Mosque? If so, stay off mass transit.

The American Freedom Defense Initiative, a self proclaimed anti-Muslim organization has purchased ads opposing the proposed mosque near Ground Zero.

The bus ad originally included a picture of the Twin Towers in flames with a plane headed toward them and a tower with a crescent moon and star, symbols of Islam, according to the complaint. Arrows connect text reading “WTC Jihad Attack” and “WTC Mega Mosque.”

While the MTA had initially refused to run the ad, following a federal lawsuit and adjustments to make it "less inflammatory" the agency tonight agreed to run the ad.

"While the MTA does not endorse the views expressed in this or other ads that appear on the transit system, the advertisement purchased by a group opposing a planned mosque near the World Trade Center was accepted today after its review under MTA’s advertising guidelines and governing legal standards," said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz.

A copy of the approved ad was not immediately available Monday night.
http://www.examiner.com/x-1527-NY-Government-Examiner

FDI acts against the treason being committed by national, state, and local government officials, the mainstream media, and others in their capitulation to the global jihad and Islamic supremacism, the ever-encroaching and unconstitutional power of the federal government, and the rapidly moving attempts to impose socialism and Marxism upon the American people.

Another thing that bothers me about this thread is that the pro-mosque contingent seems to be overwhelmingly from either other places than NYC, or transplants to NYC. Am I the only native New Yorker (I am not sure if all "transplants" to NYC care about all New Yorkers) on this thread, AND was in the Wall Street area on 9/11? I saw the flames from the first plane (standing on the corner of Water St. and Maiden Lane), heard the "boom" of the second plane hitting, and saw the frightened people running as the first tower collapsed. I also walked a good way home. People were frightened, since no one knew if more planes would be coming.

So, if one is living in another state, I am not so sure that they can, or are choosing to, empathize with the mosqueophobia of some New Yorkers?

Will those who can identify themselves as self-righteous pro-mosque folks please get off your collective high horse, so to speak.

So, if one is living in another state, I am not so sure that they can, or are choosing to, empathize with the mosqueophobia of some New Yorkers?

Foofie wrote:

O.K. ; Muslims in the U.S. are not all from the lower end of the socio-economic ladder. Fine. However, if they are so assimilated into the "fabric" of the U.S., why the proverbial "deep-throat" approach to the placement of the Ground Zero Mosque?

I'm not sure what approach you are talking about. They want to replace an already existing prayer center with a new one in the exact same spot. Not one foot closer to ground zero, not one farther away. They just want to replace their old building with a new, bigger, more modern one. There's no secrecy, no hidden agenda at all. Everywhere around them, others are also rebuilding, upgrading, modernizing. Exactly what do you object to?

...I don't doubt that many New Yorkers have genuine reservations and emotional reactions to the building of that cultural center/mosque. But the major opposition and protest is coming from outside NYC by agitators like the American Freedom Defense Initiative and the Rev. Pat Robertson.

...What you don't seem to understand is that there were Muslims in NY on that day as well and who suffered just as much as the non Muslims as well as a tremendous collective hatred towards all Muslims after that horrific event. Not only in NY but in the Pentagon and on the planes which crashed into the buildings.

Foofie wrote:

So, if one is living in another state, I am not so sure that they can, or are choosing to, empathize with the mosqueophobia of some New Yorkers?

I find it interesting that you use the word "mosqueophobia," since a phobia is by definition an irrational fear.

Personally, I'd consider someone who lost family on 9/11 to be less authoritative, since they'd be more likely to be prejudiced by their experiences.

Sort of like PTSD then?

I'm not sure what approach you are talking about. They want to replace an already existing prayer center with a new one in the exact same spot. Not one foot closer to ground zero, not one farther away. They just want to replace their old building with a new, bigger, more modern one. There's no secrecy, no hidden agenda at all. Everywhere around them, others are also rebuilding, upgrading, modernizing. Exactly what do you object to