RSS Feed MenuThe efforts to launch the $100 million Cordoba House (now dubbed Park51) two blocks north of the World Trade Center site have been an uphill battle from the start, and not just because of controversy. And even as the “Ground Zero Mosque” emerges as a hotly debated national symbol, New York government officials and real estate insiders are privately questioning whether the project has much chance of coming to fruition.
The Cordoba Initiative hasn’t begun fundraising yet for its $100 million goal. The group’s latest fundraising report with the State Attorney General’s office, from 2008, shows exactly $18,255 – not enough even for a down payment on the half of the site the group has yet to purchase.
The group also lacks even the most basic real estate essentials: no blueprint, architect, lobbyist or engineer — and now operates amid crushing negative publicity. The developers didn’t line up advance support for the project from other religious leaders in the city, who could have risen to their defense with the press.
The group’s spokesman, Oz Sultan, wouldn’t rule out developing the site with foreign money in an interview with POLITICO – but said the project’s goal is to rely on domestic funds. Currently, they have none of either.
Politico, August 18, 2010
The lower Manhattan mosque has provoked many doubts and suspicions. Here’s mine: the whole thing is a phony-baloney publicity stunt by a developer in search of project financing. …
$100 million is not so easily raised, not even in Abu Dhabi, not in the middle of a global commercial property slump, not with the Manhattan real estate market in a shambles. Believe it or not, rich people in the Persian Gulf are not yearning to plunge into a U.S. political controversy.
So here’s my guess about the future. The money will not be found. The mosque will not be built.
David Frum, August 10, 2010
sinz54 // Aug 19, 2010 at 8:54 am
If the mosque is built with Saudi money,
that will prove once and for all that this mosque is about jihad, and NOT about freedom of religion and certainly NOT about “promoting interfaith understanding.”
Because we all know that the Saudis don’t believe in either of those things.
More to the point,
even in tough economic times,
it’s going to be hard to find architects and engineers willing to work on this project.
Nobody wants to be associated with the construction of an edifice that is opposed by 70% of Americans. It’s not a good career move.
Fairy Hardcastle // Aug 19, 2010 at 9:10 am
This is probably the best outcome. Let the people speak through their wallets. Any of you lefties out there willing to make the noble sacrifice of contributing to the mosque?
The problem with the proposed mosque is that it is in a building that was damaged by the “Blessed” 19. Islam, like Catholicism, is very much a religion of tangible signs and actions, for example, Eid Al Adha (festival of animal sacrifice) and Eid ul-Fitr (huge feast to mark the end of the fast). (Such practices might be hard for you lazy Cartesians to appreciate but they are in fact part of the attraction of Islam because humans are thoroughly physical beings.) The fact that there are numerous militant elements throughout the Islamic world means that yes it is inevitable that some Muslims would pray at the proposed mosque precisely for the destruction of America, precisely for the “Blessed” 19, precisely in praise of Allah for the gift of the mangled bodies of the WTC victims and be incredibly inspired to do so because the building was physically damaged by the 9/11 attacks. The mosque would in that way become a kind of additional holy place for pilgrimage for this reason. No doubt many Muslims would pray differently but the militants who would pray there makes the whole idea of a mosque in that building repugnant to me.
easton // Aug 19, 2010 at 10:35 am
Sinz in right that it will probably be funded, but at this point it would not surprise me if Chavez funded it, or if virtually every American Muslim sickened at this continuing guilt by religious association doesn’t chip in. The Republican party has been the greatest fundraiser for these people, I am sure there are now untold millions of Muslims worldwide know the Republicans are determined to deny their fellow adherents the right to worship (yes, I know that is not true, yet it is how it will be played out on Arab TV) so yes, I expect the money to pour in.
Now wouldn’t it have been nice if Republicans who opposed the building there went quietly and privately to the site owners and offered to buy them out, instead of calling them terrorists?
Fairy, you are aware that Hutus are predominantly Christians yet felt little compunction about going into Churches and Convents to slaughter Tutsis, and that in the process many Churches were burned down and destroyed. You are also aware that they have been rebuilt and it is likely that many of the ACTUAL killers return to pray at those very same churches. So does the idea of the church being rebuilt feel repugnant to you?
And in many churches priests molested altar boys, are you opposed to any new building of new churches since it will invariably give some priest new opportunities to molest? Or are you willing and able to separate the church from the actions of the criminals who act from within it? Let us also not forget the church covered up the actions of many of the criminals. Are you now going to condemn and protest the building of every Catholic church?
more5600 // Aug 19, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Hey Fairy Hardcastle,
The community center (it’s not a mosque) if built at all will not be located in the building damaged on 9/11, that building and the one next to it will be demolished and a new building erected, so rest easy the Burlington Coat Factory Outlet will not be so abused.
Fairy Hardcastle // Aug 20, 2010 at 9:32 am
more5600, thanks for that. That’s good to know but it still is the same spot and militant muslims will make the same prayer with the same fervor.