Mosque Near 9/11 Site Likely to Go Ahead Despite Rightwing Fury*
The proposed site of the Islamic community centre to be operated by a group called the Cordoba Initiative. Photograph: The Guardian
THE GUARDIAN: A plan to build a mosque and a Muslim community centre within two blocks of Ground Zero cleared a major hurdle today amid an intensifying groundswell of opposition from rightwing pundits and politicians.

The $100m project would see a 13-storey centre, replete with prayer space, swimming pool and restaurant, rise in Park Place, just north of the World Trade Centre where al-Qaida terrorists struck on 11 September 2001.

Opponents turned to the Landmarks Commission of New York City, that has the power to order the preservation of historic buildings, in the hope that it would put a stop to the plans by blocking the demolition of the existing building on the site.

Today the commission unanimously declined to preserve the building, an 1850s Italianate structure that was damaged on 9/11 and has been disused ever since. It said there was nothing sufficiently distinguished about its design that earned it landmark status.

The decision removes an important possible barrier to the plans going ahead, though critics have vowed to continue their fight. A group of protesters were present at the commission vote, including one man carrying a banner that said: "No 9/11 victory mosque". >>> Ed Pilkington in New York | Tuesday, August 03, 2010

* Are Americans really going to be that weak and subservient? This is quite unbelievable. It would have been totally unimaginable in years gone by. If they allow this mosque to go ahead, they will deserve the Islamisation of their country. They will have earned it! – © Mark

FINANCIAL TIMES: ‘Ground Zero’ mosque moves forward: Months of rising rhetoric about religious freedom came to a head on Tuesday when a city commission voted that a contentious plan to build a mosque two blocks from “Ground Zero” could move forward. >>> Alan Rappeport in New York | Tuesday, August 03, 2010

SKY NEWS: 'Ground Zero Mosque' Set To Go Ahead >>> Hannah Thomas-Peter, in New York | Tuesday, August 03, 2010



BBC: Attempt to block 'Ground Zero mosque' fails: An attempt to stop a plan for a mosque near New York's Ground Zero has failed after the site was denied landmark status. >>> | Tuesday, August 03, 2010

THE TELEGRAPH: Ground Zero mosque and Muslim community centre wins approval: Controversial plans to build a Muslim community centre and mosque near Ground Zero can go ahead after a conservation agency cleared the way on Tuesday for the demolition of the existing building on the site. >>> Tom Leonard in New York | Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Ground Zero Mosque Gets Green Light: More protests erupt as project is given go-ahead just steps from where World Trade Centers stood


TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Une mosquée sera construite à deux pas de Ground Zero : POLÉMIQUE | Une commission de la ville de New York chargée de la préservation du patrimoine a levé mardi un obstacle majeur à la construction d’une mosquée près de Ground Zero, en retirant un bâtiment de la liste des monuments historiques. >>> AFP | Mardi 03 Août 2010

NZZ ONLINE: Moschee am Ground Zero darf gebaut werden >>> sda/dpa | Dienstag, 03. August 2010


Mosque Near Ground Zero Clears Key Hurdle
Sharif El-Gamal, chief executive of SoHo Properties, the developer of the project, center, praised the commission’s decision. Photograph: The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: After a protracted battle that set off a national debate over freedom of religion, a Muslim center and mosque to be built two blocks from ground zero surmounted a final hurdle on Tuesday.

The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 9 to 0 against granting historic protection to the building at 45-47 Park Place in Lower Manhattan, where the $100 million center would be built.

That decision clears the way for the construction of Park51, a tower of as many as 15 stories that will house a mosque, a 500-seat auditorium, and a pool. Its leaders say it will be modeled on the Y.M.C.A. and Jewish Community Center in Manhattan.

The vote on Tuesday was free of much of the vitriol that had been part of previous hearings. One by one, members of the commission debated the aesthetic significance of the building, designed in the Italian Renaissance Palazzo style by an unknown architect.

Later in the day, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg*, who has forcefully defended the planned mosque, praised the landmarks commission’s vote. >>> Javier C. Hernandez | Tuesday, August 03, 2010

*The arrogance of Bloomberg is astonishing! Does this man really deserve the position he holds? – © Mark

Smokers Are Now New York's Most Discriminated Minority
Michael Rubens Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg was born in 1942. His estimated net worth is $16 billion (Forbes). He is of Russo-Polish descent. He is said to be an ex-chainsmoker; and this probably explains why he likes harassing people about their smoking habit. He was the Mayor of New York City who introduced the smoking ban in enclosed spaces there. His new crusade is to ban smoking in open spaces such as parks and playgrounds.

Some would consider this man to be a pesky, self-satisfied pip-squeak, his fortune notwithstanding. In any case, he would do well to go away and enjoy his money and leave others alone to have their own fun. Life is too short for bores like this. By the way, is this man short by any chance? – © Mark

THE GUARDIAN: Mayor Bloomberg is extending the New York smoking ban to outdoor public spaces, so London will probably follow suit in a year or two

Maybe the ferocity against Barack Obama in America is generated less by the colour of his skin than by the fact that he still has the odd cigarette. He has always been splendidly honest about this. Unlike Bill Clinton, who lied about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, the current president refuses to lie about his smoking (which many may regard as a more grievous offence than a sexual misdemeanour). Even after signing into law a new anti-smoking measure, he confessed to having "sometimes fallen off the wagon" in his struggle to quit.

To say this in the current American climate is brave; for the country seems to be moving inexorably towards prohibition. By admitting to being even an occasional smoker, Obama identifies himself with an minority that is now more likely to suffer discrimination than any ethnic minority group. The Mayor of New York, a former smoker himself, has even encouraged the harassment of smokers by saying that giving them "a not particularly nice look" when passing them in the street has shown that "social pressure really does work".

New Yorkers light up in the street because they are mostly forbidden to do so indoors; but even their right to smoke in the open air is under threat. The city's health commissioner, Thomas Farley, has said that he wants to ban smoking in New York's 1,700 parks and playgrounds, and on its 14 miles of beaches – a first step, one would guess, towards banning it everywhere. The mayor seems to have been taken by surprise by Dr Farley's plan, but he did not rule it out. He said that he wanted first "to see if smoking in parks has a negative impact on people's health", which is just about as verifiable as the existence of God. As he campaigns for re-election, however, he probably just wants to see what the popular reaction is, for he himself is as much an anti-smoking fanatic as Adolf Hitler and King James I of England before him. >>> Alexander Chancellor | Friday, September 18, 2009

Other articles by Alexander Chancellor here

Related:
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE:
New York songe à bannir la clope de ses parcs et places de jeux >>> Jean-Cosme Delaloye, New York | Jeudi 17 Septembre 2009