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Title: Ground Zero Mosque Imam: No, This Isn’t a Mosque, It’s an Islamic YMCA…
Source:
Weasel Zippers
URL Source: http://weaselzippers.us/2010/08/14/ ... -a-mosque-its-an-islamic-ymca/
Published: Aug 15, 2010
Author: staff
Post Date: 2010-08-15 15:01:50 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 350
Comments: 6
NEW YORK - When Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf decided to build a Muslim cultural center in lower Manhattan, the model he chose couldn’t have been more mainstream American — the Young Men’s Christian Association chapters found in cities across the United States. The institution he had in mind was the 92nd Street Y, a Jewish adaptation of the YMCA concept that is one of New York’s leading addresses for residents of all religions or none to visit for public lectures, debates, concerts or educational courses. But Imam Rauf’s project is better known here now as the “Ground Zero mosque,” after the term for the World Trade Center site. Families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and conservative politicians have mounted an emotional campaign to block it, claiming that locating it only two blocks north of the site was a provocation. “We repeatedly say we are neither a mosque nor within Ground Zero, but they just shout back ‘Ground Zero mosque,’ ‘Ground Zero mosque,’” Imam Rauf, 61, told Reuters in an interview. The planned building will have a prayer room for Muslims, he said, but it would only be a small part of the 13-story complex. Imam Rauf said the YMCA, which began in London in 1844 as Christian center for young working men and quickly spread to the United States and other countries, had long worked to promote understanding across religious, ethnic and social dividing lines in modern societies. Now called simply “the Y,” its facilities across the United States offer exercise classes, education and community activities. “We are trying to establish something that follows the YMCA concept but is not a church or a synagogue or, in this case, a mosque,” he said by telephone from Kuala Lumpur, where he is visiting. “We are taking that concept and adapting it to our time and the fact that we’re Muslims. It’s basically a Muslim Y.”
Nice try, douchebag…
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#1. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
Hope nobody flies aircraft into it.
The amusing thing about this controversy is it was Bush, Cheney and company who knocked down the towers with the planes only cover, distraction and concealment of the nasty deed. In any event, this center is so controversial, I would be amazed if it is built where they plan it.
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#2. To: A K A Stone (#1)
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