Commission Clears Way for Ground Zero Mosque
AFP/Getty Images The former Burlington Coat Factory building that will make way for the Cordoba House which some are calling the "Ground Zero Mosque" is seen in lower Manhattan on July 29 in New York.
The New York City Landmarks Commission unanimously voted Tuesday to deny landmark designation to the site of the proposed mosque near Ground Zero, paving the way for the controversial community center and worship space to rise two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The commission’s chairman, Robert B. Tierney, said the building at 45-47 Park Place “does not rise to the level of an individual landmark.” The 11-member panel is appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has vehemently defended the mosque as an example of religious freedom.
The proposed community center has become the center of an intense national controversy, prompting opponents to call on the commission to grant landmark status in hopes of blocking the plan.
The commission’s vote – taking place under heavy police presence at a theater at Pace University in Lower Manhattan – is viewed as the principal municipal hurdle for the mosque, which is now free to move forward. Commissioner after commissioner said the building, constructed in 1857-58, is not unique and lacks the characteristics necessary for a landmark. Manhattan has more than 11,000 landmarked properties.
Manhattan resident Linda Rivera sat in the audience holding a sign that read “Don’t glorify murders of 3,000—no 9/11 victory mosque.”
As the commissioners left the room, another audience member, Andy Sullivan of Queens, asked if any of them had lost a loved one during the terrorist attacks. He said commissioners should look into the television cameras and “apologize for this disgrace.”
Mr. Sullivan, who is in the construction business, predicted that some construction workers will refuse to build the mosque. “You’re going to have a problem getting labor there because everybody I talked to — they will not lift a finger to construct that disgrace.”
Megan Pugney, a New Jersey resident who works for the Muslim Consultative Network, a local advocacy organization, came out Tuesday to support the mosque. She praised the commission’s decision.
“Regardless of their personal opinion of what they believe of a community center being built, they made the decision based on fact,” Ms. Pugney said.
Asked what she would say to families who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, she said, “I know your pain. I know many of the people who also passed…I feel your pain. It was not real Muslims who did that.”
by Michael Howard Saul
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703545604575407131182033768.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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