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[Jack of 32]

Ground Zero Muslim center may get public financing

REUTERS – Fri Aug 27, 3:54 pm ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Muslim center planned near the site of the World Trade Center attack could qualify for tax-free financing, a spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu said on Friday, and Liu is willing to consider approving the public subsidy.

The Democratic comptroller's spokesman, Scott Sieber, said Liu supported the project. The center has sparked an intense debate over U.S. religious freedoms and the sanctity of the Trade Center site, where nearly 3,000 perished in the September 11, 2001 attack.

"If it turns out to be financially feasible and if they can demonstrate an ability to pay off the bonds and comply with the laws concerning tax-exempt financing, we'd certainly consider it," Sieber told Reuters.

Spokesmen for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor David Paterson and the Islamic center and were not immediately available.

http://news.yahoo.co...yorkcity_mosque

[Psycmeistr]

I'm still waiting on the 'Separation of Church and State' crowd to start their wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Oh--they're Muslims--enemies of the West-- (the enemy of my enemy is my friend). Never mind.

[Jack of 32]

Farrakhan supports planned mosque near ground zero ANN SANNER From Associated PressSeptember 02, 2010 4:39 PM EDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said Thursday an Islamic community center and mosque planned near ground zero should be built because Muslims were among those of many faiths who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"Why then should a mosque, a cultural center, not be constructed a few blocks away?" Farrakhan asked at a news conference in Washington, where he was joined by a coalition of African-American Muslims.

Farrakhan and other Muslim leaders said the controversy over the building points to a rise in racism toward minorities and an anti-Islamic atmosphere.

The proposed $100 million project has been denounced by many critics as insensitive to the families of people killed at the World Trade Center. They say it is disrespectful to build an Islamic institution so close to the spot where nearly 2,800 people died at the hands of Muslim extremists.

"When that building was destroyed, the whole world felt it," Farrakhan said, adding that many Muslims had offered their condolences to the country in the wake of the attacks. He said the area is also hallowed ground to blacks who are Muslims.

"Muslims are here. We are not terrorists," Farrakhan said. "We will not allow anyone on our watch to do some silly act to deprive an innocent human being of their life. And if we see it, we'll stop it."

Early plans for the Islamic center in lower Manhattan call for a swimming pool, a Sept. 11 memorial open to the public and a prayer space.

Farrakhan also commented on the rumors that President Barack Obama is a Muslim.

Obama is a Christian.

"Respect his choice," Farrakhan said. "He chose to be a Christian, but he has deep respect for Islam. Take him as he is."

Obama has said Muslims have the right to practice their religion and build the Islamic center in lower Manhattan. He later said he wasn't commenting on the wisdom of building it there.

In a poll released last month by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, 18 percent of people said they believe Obama is Muslim. That was up from 11 percent who said so in March 2009.

[Ghostman]

...where are all of those atheists that constantly decry public display of christian symbols of any kind. Am I the only one to notice the their silence on this whole issue is deafening?