Dutch anti-Islam MP addresses NY mosque rally
Sunday, 12 Sep, 2010
NEW YORK: Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders told thousands of people protesting against plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero on Saturday that it was time to take a stand.
“This is where we have draw the line,” Wilders said before some 2,000 people fiercely opposing a Muslim organization’s plans to build an Islamic cultural center close to the site where the World Trade Center once stood.
“America, New York, and Sharia are incompatible. New York stands for freedom,” he told the crowd.
“That is why we are here today to draw a line today on this sacred spot. We are here in the spirit of America’s founding fathers, we are here in the spirit today in the spirit of freedom.”
“We must never give a free hand to those who want to subjugate us,” Wilders added.
“Draw this line so that New York... will never become New Mecca.”The firebrand Dutch politician, who calls Islam fascist and wants to stop Muslim immigration and the building of new mosques, walked out of talks earlier this month to form a rightist coalition government in The Netherlands.
He has been under 24-hour protection since 2004, after receiving death threats for his radical beliefs.
Wilders appeared at the New York rally as the city marked the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks in which the World Trade Center was destroyed by Al-Qaeda militants riding hijacked planes.
He was joined at the protest by former US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, as well as ultra-conservative radio chat show host Mike Gallagher.
Earlier a rally in support of the mosque project drew about 1,500 people. A tight police presence kept the two groups apart, though tensions were high with fierce arguments breaking out on the sidewalks. – AFP
the line is drawn
Showing posts with label Mosques. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mosques. Show all posts
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Strange Things Happen In This World: of Mosques and Mice
(I cannot link this story due to the fact it is from a paid service, although it can be located at the NY Post)
• 5 Sep 2010
• New York Post
• By ISABEL VINCENT and MELISSA KLEIN
LET’S MECCA DEAL
The mosque money trail has taken another strange turn. The original owners of 45-47 Park Place mysteriously walked away from an $18 million cash offer for their damaged Ground Zero building in 2007, only to accept $4.8 million 18 months later from mosque developer Sharif El-Gamal. El-Gamal also happened to give the building owner’s son a job. The original owners of the Ground Zero mosque site mysteriously spurned dozens of higher bids before selling the prime downtown real estate at a bargain-basement price.
The Pomerantz family, which had owned the building since the late 1960s and fielded offers after the patriarch died in 2006, rejected at least one bid that was nearly four times what prospective mosque builder Sharif ElGamal eventually paid, The Post has learned.
El-Gamal did offer what could be viewed as a sweetener to his $4.8 million bid in July 2009 — a job as a property manager for a son of the family, Sethian Pomerantz.
New York developer Kevin Glodek was livid when he found out the building sold for a fraction of what he offered in 2007 — $18 million cash — and wondered whether money changed hands under the table, according to sources close to the deal.
Glodek and his partners wanted to build a 60-story condo tower with retail space on the Park Place site, had inked a purchase agreement and even had keys to the existing building, according to sources and documents obtained by The Post.
But Kukiko Mitani — whose late husband, Stephen Pomerantz, owned the property — and her brother-in-law, Melvin Pomerantz, a trustee to the estate, went silent at the end of 2007 and Glodek’s deal disappeared, sources said.
Glodek, who owns the ChefsDiet food delivery service and several Manhattan properties, declined to comment.
The property is now at the heart of one of the most divisive issues in the country — whether it should be the location of a $100 million mosque and community center. The location two blocks from Ground Zero has been called insensitive, and questions have been raised about whether extremists will help fund the project. Recent polls show that 70 percent of New Yorkers want it moved.
strange bedfellows
• 5 Sep 2010
• New York Post
• By ISABEL VINCENT and MELISSA KLEIN
LET’S MECCA DEAL
The mosque money trail has taken another strange turn. The original owners of 45-47 Park Place mysteriously walked away from an $18 million cash offer for their damaged Ground Zero building in 2007, only to accept $4.8 million 18 months later from mosque developer Sharif El-Gamal. El-Gamal also happened to give the building owner’s son a job. The original owners of the Ground Zero mosque site mysteriously spurned dozens of higher bids before selling the prime downtown real estate at a bargain-basement price.
The Pomerantz family, which had owned the building since the late 1960s and fielded offers after the patriarch died in 2006, rejected at least one bid that was nearly four times what prospective mosque builder Sharif ElGamal eventually paid, The Post has learned.
El-Gamal did offer what could be viewed as a sweetener to his $4.8 million bid in July 2009 — a job as a property manager for a son of the family, Sethian Pomerantz.
New York developer Kevin Glodek was livid when he found out the building sold for a fraction of what he offered in 2007 — $18 million cash — and wondered whether money changed hands under the table, according to sources close to the deal.
Glodek and his partners wanted to build a 60-story condo tower with retail space on the Park Place site, had inked a purchase agreement and even had keys to the existing building, according to sources and documents obtained by The Post.
But Kukiko Mitani — whose late husband, Stephen Pomerantz, owned the property — and her brother-in-law, Melvin Pomerantz, a trustee to the estate, went silent at the end of 2007 and Glodek’s deal disappeared, sources said.
Glodek, who owns the ChefsDiet food delivery service and several Manhattan properties, declined to comment.
The property is now at the heart of one of the most divisive issues in the country — whether it should be the location of a $100 million mosque and community center. The location two blocks from Ground Zero has been called insensitive, and questions have been raised about whether extremists will help fund the project. Recent polls show that 70 percent of New Yorkers want it moved.
strange bedfellows
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