Islamic Center Near Ground "Zero"..[ 1294 ]

Muslim Prayer Center Near Ground Zero (ανάρτηση στα Ελληνικά , παρακάτω)

Here’s an item we nearly missed, buried as it was in the ‘New York Region’ section of the New York Times:

Worshipers exit the old Burlington Coat Factory near ground zero, which now houses a prayer space.

Muslim Prayers and Renewal Near Ground Zero

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL and SHARAF MOWJOOD

On that still-quiet Tuesday morning, the sales staff was in a basement room eating breakfast, waiting to open the doors to the first shoppers at 10 a.m.
There was no immediate sign of the fiery cataclysm that erupted overhead starting at 8:46. But out of a baby-blue sky suddenly stained with smoke, a plane’s landing-gear assembly the size of a World War II torpedo crashed through the roof and down through two empty selling floors of the Burlington Coat Factory.

The Sept. 11, 2001, attack killed 2,752 people downtown and doomed the five-story building at 45 Park Place, two blocks north of the World Trade Center, keeping it abandoned for eight years.
But for months now, out of the public eye, an iron gate rises every Friday afternoon, and with the outside rumblings of construction at ground zero as a backdrop, hundreds of Muslims crowd inside, facing Mecca in prayer and listening to their imam read in Arabic from the Koran.
The building has no sign that hints at its use as a Muslim prayer space, but these modest beginnings point to a far grander vision: an Islamic center near the city’s most hallowed piece of land that would stand as one of ground zero’s more unexpected and striking neighbors.
The location was precisely a key selling point for the group of Muslims who bought the building in July. A presence so close to the World Trade Center, “where a piece of the wreckage fell,” said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the cleric leading the project, “sends the opposite statement to what happened on 9/11.”
“We want to push back against the extremists,” added Imam Feisal, 61.
Although organizers have sought to avoid publicizing their project because they say plans are too preliminary, it has drawn early encouragement from city officials and the surrounding neighborhood.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said through a spokesman that Imam Feisal told him of the project last September at a celebration to observe the end of Ramadan. As for whether Mr. Bloomberg supported it, the spokesman, Andrew Brent, said, “If it’s legal, the building owners have a right to do what they want.”
The mayor’s director of the Office of Immigrant Affairs, Fatima Shama, went further. “We as New York Muslims have as much of a commitment to rebuilding New York as anybody,” Ms. Shama said. Imam Feisal’s wife, Daisy Khan, serves on an advisory team for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, and Lynn Rasic, a spokeswoman for the memorial, said, “The idea of a cultural center that strengthens ties between Muslims and people of all faiths and backgrounds is positive.”
Those who have worked with him say if anyone could pull off what many regard to be a delicate project, it would be Imam Feisal, whom they described as having built a career preaching tolerance and interfaith understanding.
“He subscribes to my credo: ‘Live and let live,’ ” said Rabbi Arthur Schneier, spiritual leader of Park East Synagogue on East 67th Street.
As a Sufi, Imam Feisal follows a path of Islam focused more on spiritual wisdom than on strict ritual, and as a bridge builder, he is sometimes focused more on cultivating relations with those outside his faith than within it.
But though the imam is adamant about what his intentions for the site are, there is anxiety among those involved or familiar with the project that it could very well become a target for anti-Muslim attacks.

Oh, yes. That must be a real concern. Given how many thousands of anti-Muslim attacks there have been over the years.

Joan Brown Campbell, director of the department of religion at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York and former general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ U.S.A., who is a supporter of Imam Feisal, acknowledged the possibility of a backlash from those opposed to a Muslim presence at ground zero.
But, she added: “Building so close is owning the tragedy. It’s a way of saying: ‘This is something done by people who call themselves Muslims. We want to be here to repair the breach, as the Bible says.’ ”
The F.B.I. said Imam Feisal had helped agents reach out to the Muslim population after Sept. 11. “We’ve had positive interactions with him in the past,” said an agency spokesman, Richard Kolk. Alice Hoagland of Las Gatos, Calif., whose son, Mark Bingham, was killed in the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania, said, “It’s quite a bold step buying a piece of land adjacent to ground zero,” but she said she considered plans for the site “a noble effort.”
On a recent Friday, worshipers in the old Burlington Coat Factory heard Imam Feisal’s call for spiritual purity during the time of the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
“We like Imam Feisal, the way he presents the philosophy of the true Islam that I call it,” said one of the congregants, Mohammed Abdullah, an investment banker who traveled from Washington for the service.
The location is not designated a mosque, but rather an overflow prayer space for another mosque, Al Farah at 245 West Broadway in TriBeCa, where Imam Feisal is the spiritual leader…
“It’s really to provide a place of peace, a place of services and solutions for the community which is always looking for interfaith dialogue,” said Sharif El-Gamal, chairman and chief executive of Soho Properties…
With 50,000 square feet of air rights, Imam Feisal said, the location, with enough financing, could support an ambitious project of $150 million, akin to the Chautauqua Institution, the 92 Street Y or the Jewish Community Center.
Joy Levitt, executive director of the Jewish Community Center, said the group would be proud to be a model for Imam Feisal at ground zero. “For the J.C.C. to have partners in the Muslim community that share our vision of pluralism and tolerance would be great,” she said.
Mr. El-Gamal agreed. “What happened that day,” he said, “was not Islam.”

Sorry. We are not convinced.
Still, it will give Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his pals a handy place to worship at during his show trial.

Ισλαμικό κέντρο κοντά στο «Σημείο Μηδέν»

ΑΝΤ1-

πρίν 1 ώρα & 45'

Ένα αμφιλεγόμενο σχέδιο κατασκευής ισλαμικού πνευματικού κέντρου ενέκρινε την Τετάρτη το δημοτικό συμβούλιο της Νέας Υόρκης σε πολύ μικρή απόσταση από το «Σημείο Μηδέν», θέατρο των τρομοκρατικών επιθέσεων της 11ης Σεπτεμβρίου.

Η ψηφοφορία, η οποία είχε συμβουλευτικό χαρακτήρα, υπερψηφίσθηκε με μεγάλη πλειοψηφία 29 ψήφων έναντι μίας, ενώ υπήρξαν δέκα αποχές.

Οι υποστηρικτές του σχεδίου υποστηρίζουν πως ο «Οίκος Κόρδοβα» θα συμβάλλει στο ξεπέρασμα των αρνητικών στερεοτύπων, τα οποία εξακολουθούν να πλήττουν την μουσουλμανική κοινότητα της αμερικανικής μεγαλούπολης μετά τις επιθέσεις κατά των Δίδυμων Πύργων του Παγκόσμιου Κέντρου Εμπορίου, από τις οποίες έχασαν τη ζωή τους 3.000 άνθρωποι. 

«Πιστεύω πως ήρθε η ώρα που ορισμένα συναισθήματα αρχίζουν να υποχωρούν», εκτιμά μία από τις συνηγόρους του σχεδίου.

Σύμφωνα με τους αντιπάλους του όμως, η κατασκευή ενός τεμένους τόσο κοντά στο «Σημείο Μηδέν» συνιστά προσβολή για τη μνήμη των νεκρών.

Εν τούτοις ο πρόεδρος του προαστίου του Μανχάταν Σκοτ Στίνγκερ επισημαίνει πως «το να υποστηρίζει κανείς πως ένα τέμενος δεν ταιριάζει στην Νέα Υόρκη αποτελεί αντιαμερικανική στάση. 

Θα κάνω ό,τι περνά από την αρμοδιότητά μου για να λειτουργήσει ένα τέμενος και να έχει ο κόσμος το δικαίωμα να συναντάται και να εξασκεί τη θρησκεία του», τόνισε ο ίδιος στην εφημερίδα «Daily News».

Το ισλαμικό κέντρο θα περιλαμβάνει μία αίθουσα αθλοπαιδιών, ένα θέατρο και ένα τέμενος.