'Ground Zero mosque' opens quietly

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english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/09/2011922112830399319.html
An Islamic cultural centre close to the site where New York’s World Trade Center once stood has opened quietly in spite of scenes last year of vehement protests from those who said the area should not house a mosque.
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The opening ceremony for the Park51 centre on Wednesday featured a photo exhibit called “NYChildren”, displaying over 160 portraits of immigrant children living in New York.
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Sharif El-Gamal, the center’s developer, said the biggest error on the project was not involving the families of 9/11 victims from the start.
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“We made incredible mistakes,” El-Gamal told The Associated Press in an earlier interview at his Manhattan office.
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The building at 51 Park Place, two blocks from the World Trade Center site, includes a Muslim prayer space that has been open for two years.
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The Islamic center sparked a national debate last year about the place of Islam among the numerous religions practised in the US.
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By contrast, Park51 has vowed to offer “social and recreational services, as well as world-class health, wellness and educational facilities”, alongside a religious focus.
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Park51 seems to be drastically scaled down from what was condemned during the protests of a year ago.
On Wednesday night, however, aside from the cop car that sits outside the building 24/7 and a number of burly, black-clad bouncers, Park51’s recent history was little in evidence. Imam Feisel Abdul Ruaf, his wife Daisy Khan, and their Cordoba Institute — favorite targets of the anti-mosque forces — are out of the picture. “Feisel and Daisy thought the center was all about them, it wasn’t. The fact is his following wasn’t as big as first thought,” one project rep said.
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Once planned as a fifteen-story structure, what opponents called “the Triumphalist Islamic Supremacist Mega-Mosque at Ground Zero” is still housed in the low-slung edifice that was once occupied by the Burlington Coat Factory. But while the gray-and-green carpeted “prayer space” that is primarily used by taxi-drivers and local merchants for Friday services remains the same, an ample exhibit hall been constructed. On the freshly painted sheet rock walls hung a series of photographs showing charmingly posed children from 160 different countries, but now living in New York. The portraits, taken by Danny Goldfield, were a manifestation of the project’s overriding message, which Park51 chairman, Sharif El-Gamel, described as inclusion, community building, and diversity.”
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nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/09/ground_zero_mosque_furor_a_fai.html
 
Mark my words, this is nothing but your typical New York City real estate hustle !
 
SVP said:
…and the Muslims win, while Christianity suffers:stnicholasnyc.com/
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Excuse me, but that is a horrible thing to say. These Muslims that will be going to this community centre (it’s not a Mosque) are regular people too, and had nothing to do with 9/11 or the destruction of a church.
 
We should remember to support our fellow Christians first!

When the guy said that the Muslims win, he meant that the Muslims got their center (not anything to do with their role in 9/11), and when he says that Christianity continues to suffer, he means that the Christians did not get their Church.

Can you say Strawman?

I think you should be more charitable in responding to him.
 
Not_Sure said:
We should remember to support our fellow Christians first!

When the guy said that the Muslims win, he meant that the Muslims got their center (not anything to do with their role in 9/11), and when he says that Christianity continues to suffer, he means that the Christians did not get their Church.

Can you say Strawman?
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Apples and oranges
 
Not_Sure said:
We should remember to support our fellow Christians first!

When the guy said that the Muslims win, he meant that the Muslims got their center (not anything to do with their role in 9/11), and when he says that Christianity continues to suffer, he means that the Christians did not get their Church.

Can you say Strawman?

I think you should be more charitable in responding to him.
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Most certainly I can say Strawman. This is exactly what is happening when the Muslim center is somehow made to seem responsible for the loss of St. Nicholas Church. It isn’t responsible at all and it should not be insinuated that it is.
 
Be it be done in the name of “freedom!” The only thing I wish is that those good Muslims who worship in the mosque can turn around the radicals, at least because they are free in a free country.
 
Luigi_Daniele said:
How? They allowed a Muslim house of worship, and not a Christian one. Which is just wrong.
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No, that isn’t true. The mosque in question is two blocks away from Ground Zero. Opponents referred to it as “Ground Zero Mosque” because it made for good rhetoric, not because it was accurate.

In contrast, The Greek Orthodox church wants to rebuild at the Ground Zero site, and so its reconstruction has gotten tied up in the same red tape and bureaucratic delays which has affected the rest of the Ground Zero reconstruction.
 
Tsuwano said:
The Muslims who will worship at this mosque near the site of the World Trade Center were not responsible for the destruction of St. Nicholas. It is wrong to insinuate that they are.
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I never insinuated they were responsible.
I stated that the Muslims won. They got to build a new “cultural center”, which definitely includes a mosque.

The Orthodox St Nicholas church, much closer to ground zero, and had established worship at that that church since 1922, is still fighting for permission to rebuild. 10 years later they still have no permanent home. In essence, the Christians who had ben established there since 1922 have all but lost their bid to rebuild.
 
Tsuwano said:
The Muslims who will worship at this mosque near the site of the World Trade Center were not responsible for the destruction of St. Nicholas. It is wrong to insinuate that they are.
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I never insinuated they are or were responsible.

Just a simple fact that Muslims now have a permanent worship home in the area and the Orthodox Christians of St Nicholas parish have lost their worship home and have been mired in bureaucracy trying to rebuild on a location they have occupied since 1922.
 
Gift_from_God said:
Excuse me, but that is a horrible thing to say. These Muslims that will be going to this community centre (it’s not a Mosque) are regular people too, and had nothing to do with 9/11 or the destruction of a church.
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I never insinuated they are or were responsible.

Just a simple fact that Muslims now have a permanent worship home in the area and the Orthodox Christians of St Nicholas parish have lost their worship home and have been mired in bureaucracy trying to rebuild on a location they have occupied since 1922.
 
Maybe if all the authorities involved had a heart, the reconstruction of the church could be expedited. The authorities got the 9/11 Memorial built. The authorities let the Muslim Community Center be built. Maybe the authorities discriminate against Christians, or against Greek churches.

There is presently a lot of anit-religious discrimination showing up in our society, when it comes to Christianity, it seems to me.
 
donsnow said:
Maybe if all the authorities involved had a heart, the reconstruction of the church could be expedited. The authorities got the 9/11 Memorial built. The authorities let the Muslim Community Center be built. Maybe the authorities discriminate against Christians, or against Greek churches.

There is presently a lot of anit-religious discrimination showing up in our society, when it comes to Christianity, it seems to me.
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Maybe Christians are just not as good at building things.
 
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