New York – After weeks of heated debate over plans for an Islamic community center near Ground Zero – the site of the 9/11 attacks on New York – it seems Muslim leaders will soon back down, agreeing to move to a new site.
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The decision follows a high-profile campaign against the project that included advertisements on New York buses showing images of the burning Twin Towers, an iconic landmark razed when al-Qaida terrorists flew packed passenger planes into them in 2001. The New York Republican party is also said to be planning a hostile television campaign.
Sources in New York said on Monday that Muslim religious and business leaders will announce plans to abandon the project in the next few days.
New York Governor David Patterson said last weekend that Muslim leaders had rejected outright his proposal tto swap the site in for another in Manhattan.
But several people familiar with the debate among New York’s Islamic activists now claim that the leaders are convinced abandoning the site is preferable to unleashing a wave of bitterness towards Muslims.
They also hope the move will be seen as a show of sensitivity to families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, and to the American public generally.
Another factor in the apparent climbdown is a lack of funds to pay for construction of the center, estimated to cost a hundred million dollars. Backers hope moving it will lead to a wave of support, accompanied by cash donations.
It is also possible that the decision was also influenced by comments made by U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday, in which he appeared to reverse an earlier show of support.
Obama said that when he went on record backing the center, he meant only that it was the right of every religious group to establish its own places of worship – but he did not intend to justify building the center specifically at Ground Zero .
Why can’t these Moslem leaders also condem Moslem violence and beheadings?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Democratic party or other influential liberal or Democrat big-wigs had a hand in this. They have everything to gain from this development — if true — whereby the Ground Zero mosque is rendered a non-issue, thereby precluding it from being a subject of contentious debates, which would in all probability only cost the Dems precious Congressional and Senatorial seats come November.
The financial reason is the only true reason.
Call me a bigot. If the plans are modified for another location, my opinion about Islam won’t change a bit. History is replete with wars being fought “in the name of G-d”. Some of the wars we studied in history classes were about territory. Many others were about religion. However, that trend has been abandoned long ago. Except for Islam. The fanatic Islamic factions and countries are still looking to destroy everyone else and reign supreme. The mosque at Ground Zero would be blasphemous. And I don’t have a problem with religious services anywhere. This is more than that, and needs to be somewhere else. But my general opinion about Islam cannot change until their mission statement will be rewritten to exclude all the stuff about “infidels”, the hatred for Jews, Israel, democracy, etc.
Moslems would not ordinarily back down, especially with the haskomo of the mayor. No question that this is way over their heads financially. They probably thought it would bring in money but the fact is that money dried up after the huge controversy. Whatever, BH they won’t build it on the ashes of the American citizens their people murdered.
The muslims have already won even if they don’t build thier mosque at this location. They now have shown to the world that most yidden and right wing Republicans are hateful bigots and intolerant of islam. They will use this whole episode as in support of their anti-semitic agenda. The only heroes are Bloomberg and Obama who had the backbone to speak out against theis emotional reaction in the name of the so called “9/11 sacred ground”.
#6 are you on drugs..comparing to baruch 1 goldstein to muslims all over the globe doing barbaric atrocities in the name of islam!!??
American “freedom” is what allowed “free people” to buy an airline ticket, walk into the cockpit, hijack planes and fly them with innocent civilians, into other innocent civilians and buildings. If we allow this “freedom” a free reign, then it will destroy us. There has to be a cap on what is free – living & working and what is not – Fanatical Islam in New York. We should all ‘stick to our guns’ and demand all Muslims who do not denounce their fanatical brothers to leave New York & the USA, while those who do denounce fanatical Islam, (like those who denounce Fanatical Judaism) should be free to stay & practice their religion.
#4 you did not have to go to history class the learn about holy wars. One can find many in the Torah and Tanach where we did the same
#9 which ‘koran’ did you read..the one sanitizes by CAIR, ETC ?
#12 your comparrison of jews thruogh out galus to fanatical muslims in america is just dumb. while we can’t constitutionally challenge a person’s leagle status based on their beliefs alone,there is no question that any muslim who is known to indorse violence on behalf of islam should be deported from this country post haste. esther