Quote:
Originally Posted by Timber Loftis
B. There's another mosque already that close to "Ground Zero" -- it pre-dates the World Trade Center. Actually it's 4 blocks away, not 2.5 like 42 Park Place is.
F. The money behind the "evil" Kingdom Foundation that funds the Imam comes from a Saudi named Bin Talal who is Rupert Murdoch's partner in News Corp and therefore owns Faux News.
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In the interest of keeping the information accurate:
The mosque you refer to, the Masjid Manhattan, had their lease revoked in late 2008, early 2009 and was shut down. The staff was forced to vacate the premises and have relocated to the basement of a nearby building two doors down the street. The next nearest mosque is the Assata Islamic Center Inc about 1.4 miles away from ground zero.
Can someone update the status of the funding for the mosque? This is what I found in an article in Politico from August 18th:
Mosque a long shot to be built
8/18/10
The efforts to launch the $100 million Cordoba House (now dubbed Park51) two blocks north of the World Trade Center site have been an uphill battle from the start, and not just because of controversy. And even as the “Ground Zero Mosque” emerges as a hotly debated national symbol, New York government officials and real estate insiders are privately questioning whether the project has much chance of coming to fruition.
The Cordoba Initiative hasn’t yet begun fundraising for its $100 million goal. The group’s latest fundraising report with the state attorney general’s office, from 2008, shows exactly $18,255 — not enough even for a down payment on the half of the site the group has yet to purchase.
The group also lacks even the most basic real estate essentials: no blueprint, architect, lobbyist or engineer — and now operates amid crushing negative publicity. The developers didn't line up advance support for the project from other religious leaders in the city, who could have risen to their defense with the press.
The group’s spokesman, Oz Sultan, wouldn’t rule out developing the site with foreign money in an interview with POLITICO — but said the project’s goal is to rely on domestic funds. Currently, they have none of either.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41238.html
There have also been a couple of other articles that seem to corroborate that the funding for the site purchase and construction is not yet secured. Is the funding from Alwaleed bin Talal actually funding for the construction itself or is it funding for the parent organization which is proposing the project?
And one other:
Originally named "Cordoba House", the name of the building has since been changed to Park51.
"The project's sponsors explained that the original name of the center was meant to invoke 8th–11th century Córdoba, which they call a model of peaceful coexistence between Muslims, Christians, and Jews. The proposal triggered an intense nationwide controversy, with opponents of the project objecting to its proximity to the site of the September 11 attacks, its scale, sources of funding, or expressing concern that the project's name was intended as a reference to the Islamic conquest of the Christian city of Córdoba, Spain."
Nice summary of the facts TL.
