08-13-2010, 09:30 PM
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Confirmed User
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 1,901
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the tea party seems to be embracing it as a wedge issue.
the article contains an illustration of the proposed building.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/..._ground_z.html
Quote:
A National Tea Party leader protesting a proposed mosque near Ground Zero set off a firestorm of anger Wednesday by saying that Muslims worship "the terrorists' monkey god."
Mark Williams, chairman of the Tea Party Express, blogged about the 13-story mosque and Islamic cultural center planned at Park Place and Broadway, calling it a monument to the 9/11 terrorists.
"The monument would consist of a Mosque for the worship of the terrorists' monkey-god," Williams, a frequent guest on CNN, wrote on his Web site.
His statements drew a sharp rebuke from City Hall and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national Muslim civil rights and advocacy group.
"It's appalling," a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg said of Williams' comments, adding that the land is private and is zoned for a number of uses including a religious facility.
"It would be shocking if such ignorant comments failed to elicit a strong response not only from Tea Party leaders, but from other parties throughout the political spectrum," said Corey Saylor, the Muslim rights group's national legislative director.
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The downtown project is being spearheaded by the Cordoba Initiative and the American Society for Muslim Advancement. Neither group had any immediate response to Williams' comments.
The glass-and-steel building - which would also include a 500-seat performing arts venue, a swimming pool and a basketball court - would be built two blocks from the World Trade Center site, in the old Burlington Coat Factory.
This month, Community Board 1's financial district committee unanimously approved the project.
In an e-mail to the Daily News, Williams was unapologetic - saying his comments were specifically aimed at the terrorists, which he described as "the animals of Allah."
"If CAIR equates terrorists with Muslims then they apparently have a little [political correctness] problem of their own now don't they?" Williams said.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...xzz0wYFBy1 71
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