The battle over the construction of a proposed mosque and Islamic center in the shadow on Ground Zero has moved to the courts with the American Center for Law & Justice filed suit against the City of New York over the existing building's landmark status.
| The New Media Journal.us Source: AP/Yahoo! News The debate over a planned Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero became a court fight Wednesday, as a conservative advocacy group sued to try to stop a project that has become a fulcrum for balancing religious freedom and the legacy of the Sept. 11 attacks. The American Center for Law & Justice, founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson, filed suit Wednesday to challenge a city panel's decision to let developers tear down a building to make way for the mosque two blocks from ground zero. The city Landmarks Preservation Commission moved too fast in making a decision, underappreciated the building's historic value and "allowed the intended use of the building and political considerations to taint the deliberative process," lawyer Brett Joshpe wrote in papers filed in a Manhattan state court. The Washington, DC-based group represents a firefighter who responded to and survived the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center. City attorneys are confident the landmarks group adhered to legal standards and procedures, Law Department spokeswoman Kate O'Brien Ahlers said. A spokesman for the planned Islamic center, Oz Sultan, declined to comment on the lawsuit but said organizers were continuing to work toward choosing an architect. The mosque has become a national political flashpoint, pitting several influential Republicans and the nation's most prominent Jewish civil rights group against New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others. In one of the latest signs of the issue's political reach beyond Manhattan, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick expressed support Wednesday for the proposed mosque. The group behind the $100 million project, the Cordoba Initiative, describes it as a Muslim-themed community center...Developers envision it as a hub for interfaith interaction, as well as a place for Muslims to bridge some of their faith's own schisms... Opponents, including some Sept. 11 victims' relatives, see the prospect of a mosque so near the destroyed trade center as an insult to the memory of the nearly 3,000 people killed by Islamic terrorists in the 2001 attacks. Shouts of "shame on you!" erupted from the audience after the city panel voted Tuesday to deny landmark protection to the existing building, saying the 152-year-old structure wasn't distinctive enough. Big-name Republicans including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have criticized the plan — as has the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group known for advocating religious freedom. Former Rep. Rick Lazio, a Republican running for governor of New York, has raised questions about the Cordoba Initiative's imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf. In a "60 Minutes" interview televised shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Rauf said that "United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened." For now, the court case centers on the legalities of the landmarks commission's vote, which the lawsuit seeks to overturn... The law center argues it deserves landmark status for its architectural features — and for its newer historical significance as a structure that withstood being hit by debris from one of the hijacked jetliners used in the terrorist attacks. | ||
