According to Ahlul Bayt (A) News Agency – ABNA.ir – Community Board 1, which represents the area of lower Manhattan that includes Ground Zero, voted 29 to 1 on Tuesday to back the proposal, with 10 abstentions.Supporters, including Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer, say the proposed center, called Cordoba House, would show tolerance for all religious groups and the space would encourage a moderate interpretation of Islam.By supporting the multi-faith community and cultural center, the board “sent a clear message that our city is one that promotes diversity and tolerance,” Stringer said in a statement, AP reported.However, some critics of the plan consider it to be an affront to the victims of the attack to build a Muslim religious space so close to Ground Zero and have said it would be a monument to the terror attacks.“The pain never goes away,” C. Lee Hanson, 77, whose son Peter was killed in the attacks told The New York Times. “When I look over there and I see a mosque, it’s going to hurt. Build it someplace else.”The vote, although only a recommendation, is seen as an important barometer of community sentiment since the organization wishing to build the mosque must also obtain approval from the Landmarks Preservation committee because the building it has bought and intends to modify was built in the 1850s and is under consideration to be classified as a “historic landmark.”/106
17 August 2010 - 19:30
News ID: 189882
After a heated four-hour meeting, a New York community board has endorsed a plan to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center close to Ground Zero of the World Trade Center attack.
