If you needed any convincing that the Park51 community center cum mosque was in fact a multicultural institution, just ask Michel Abboud. He is the principal of SOMA Architects, which has done all the design work thus far on the controversial project on Park Place. He sat down with Architectural Record Read More
So far, the debate over the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero has unfolded along predictable lines, with the man at the center of the project, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, drawing attacks from the right painting him as a terrorist sympathizer with and the .
But meanwhile, links between the group behind the controversial mosque, the Read More
Barack Obama got “emotional” according to several reports when he was asked at the end of his press conference today about the Park51 project.
“This country stands for the proposition that all men and women are created equal, that they have certain inalienable rights,” Obama said. “One of those inalienable rights is to practice Read More
Ground Zero MosquePolitics as usual
The great Koran (Quran, Qur’an)-burning controversy launched by Terry Jones, the crazed pastor of a tiny Gainesville, FL church, may have been defused: Sarah Palin (or maybe her ghostwriter) has taken to Facebook to add her 2 cents. And she agrees with everyone else who has publicly commented on the matter–it’s Read More
According to Newsweek, one constituency accounted for a surprisingly large portion of the crowd that gathered to hear Bill Keller’s inaugural speech as the head of his fledgling 9/11 Christian Center: a third of the 70 people attending were reporters.
Keller announced that he would host a weekly sermon to “preach against Islam and Read More
Plenty of conservatives have made loud remarks about the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, but Bill Keller — a Florida televangelist who hosts the online ministry Live Prayer, and who confusingly shares a name with the executive editor of The New York Times — has done the impossible. He’s managed to somehow inspire rage from Read More
A majority of New Yorkers say that the developers of the Park51 project have a right to build a mosque/cultural center near Ground Zero, but far more say that the project should move elsewhere due to the sensitivities surrounding the issue, according to a new poll by Quinnipiac.
Over 70 percent of those surveyed Read More
Ground Zero MosqueThe Last Critic
America may be, as Gertrude Stein once wrote, the oldest young country in the world, but we are currently afflicted with the growing pains of a national neophyte. We are now experiencing several furious battles—waged in different keys—over the ownership of symbols.
In lower Manhattan, the city’s decision to allow an Islamic center to be Read More
Ground Zero MosqueSuggestive Reading
How did we miss this in our Morning Read?
Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama have had their say. So have Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, everyone running for town council from here to Tacoma, construction workers nearby, 9/11 first responders, 9/11 families, your roommate. But what exactly do the strippers of Lower Manhattan think of Read More
What HappenedGround Zero Mosque
Sharif El-Gamal, the principal of SoHo Properties and would-be developer of the “ground zero mosque” (getting really tired of putting those quotation remarks around it, will stop soon), says he’s not going anywhere—though he would sell if the price were right.
Anthony Malkin, owner of the Empire State Building, isn’t too fond of the Read More
