• by Aprille Muscara (new york)
• Tuesday, August 03, 2010
• Inter Press Service

In a case viewed by many as a test of religious tolerance in the post-9/11 era, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted unanimously Tuesday morning against designating the future location of a Muslim-led community centre as a historic landmark.

The vote means that demolition plans to make way for the controversial 13-story, 100-million-dollar centre two blocks from the former Twin Towers in lower Manhattan can proceed.

The centre has been opposed by conservative Republicans such as Sarah Palin, Rick Lazio, and Newt Gingrich, as well as the head of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman.

However, numerous other faith and community organisations, including the Jewish lobby group J-Street, the American Jewish Committee and September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, sided with the project, with J-Street accusing its opponents of 'tapping into fear, prejudice, and partisanship'.

An official with the Cordoba Initiative, which is a co- sponsor of the community centre, told IPS that no concrete timetable has yet been decided for demolition of the building or construction of the centre.

LPC Commissioner Christopher Moore said Tuesday that the decision against designating 45-47 Park Place as a protected site was not made on the basis of religious freedom, even as he acknowledged the sensitivities surrounding development of the area.

'Memories do not reside in landing gear or in a building. I believe it resides in its space, its address and its connection to the horrific events of 9/11,' Moore said. 'Last I heard, we do not landmark the sky, but I wish we could.'

No matter what will take the building's place, Moore concluded, 'its space will always memorialise the people who were in those planes, in those buildings and in the sky.'

Although no comments were permitted at the vote, members of the public attended the hearing to witness the commission's decision. One woman in the audience, U.S. flag in hand, held up a sign reading 'Islam builds mosques at the sites of their conquests of victory. Don't glorify murders of 3000. No 9/11 victory mosque.'

In an echo of last month's hearing where public comments were heard, some audience members shouted at the panel upon the vote's conclusion, calling the decision a 'disgrace'.

Barbara Paolucci, a community activist and longtime New York City resident was among them. 'It's a moral issue,' Paolucci told IPS. 'The landing gear that was flown into one of the towers is in [the building] — that makes it a war memorial.'

Isaac Luria, vice president of Communications for J Street, attended the meeting and presented the commission with a petition of support for the centre, dubbed Park51.

Luria characterised the opposition to Park51 in recent months as 'offensive and wrong' in an e-mail. 'On what possible basis do Muslim Americans have less of a right than Americans of another background to develop this communal center?' Luria asked, adding, 'It's a propaganda gift to Islamic extremists globally who hope to whip up anger over the treatment of Muslims.'

Most of the alarm about Park51, which has come from Tea Partiers, politicians, pundits and ordinary citizens, has arisen from its undisclosed funding sources and the site's location at 45-51 Park Place so close to the twin tower rubble.

'Even nine years after 9/11, people are too emotionally charged for [the centre] to be there without being labeled as insensitive to the feelings of victims,' New York City resident Wilton Arellano told IPS.

The disquiet over the project — ranging from concerns for 9/11 families' ability to heal to vitriolic lies about terrorist shrines — have not fallen on deaf ears.

Daisy Khan, one of the founders of Park51, revealed plans Tuesday for a 9/11 memorial to be part of the centre in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. She also said that board members will be of various religions and noted the possible inclusion of an interfaith chapel in the final product, adding that no funding has yet been raised for the project.

'We've heard and felt [the families of the 9/11 victims'] pain and we're extending ourselves,' Khan said. 'We want to repair the breach and be at the front and center to start the healing.'

Meanwhile, Melody Moezzi, attorney and author of 'War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims', believes that Park51 and the support that non-Muslim individuals and groups have shown it says a great deal about American- Islamic relations in the post-9/11 United States.

'Most Americans realise that Islam is not a monolith, and they know better than to judge the whole of a community by the worst among us,' Moezzi told IPS. 'Just as most Christians do not want to be judged by the KKK or Hitler's false claims to Christianity, most Muslims, too, do not want to be judged by some misguided terrorists' false claims to Islam.'

Last month, the project's developer, Soho Properties, rebranded it as 'a community centre for all New York,' scrapping its initial Cordoba House moniker for the more generic Park51.

According to its Web site, Cordoba House will now be a 'programme' of Park51 and 'will be a center for interfaith dialogue and engagement'.

The community centre is set to house a 500-seat auditorium, swimming pool, meeting rooms, retail shops, culinary school, restaurant and mosque — the target of most of the project's criticisms — which will be administered separately from the rest of the centre.

In response to Tuesday's decision, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) told IPS that it plans to file an Article 78 appeal against the LPC on behalf of Tim Brown, a 9/11 first responder firefighter.

'Legally speaking, this will be one of multiple legal angles that [the ACLJ] will take,' Jordan Sekulow, director of international operations, told IPS. 'This is the first part of our strategy.'

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service