Mosque at 51 Park Place, NY, NY

[TheMercenary]

Considering the closed method of money transfer in the Islamic world I am sure it would be difficult to follow the money trail. Sort of like following the money trail of a Synagogue, the donors are hidden.

[wanderer]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Considering the closed method of money transfer in the Islamic world I am sure it would be difficult to follow the money trail. Sort of like following the money trail of a Synagogue, the donors are hidden.

Agreed, they are in fact having a complete network system to transfer even a single penny according to one article I read some time ago. It will be more like trying to find sand in sand...........until/unless there is a sabotage.

[Lamplighter]

I believe Mayor Bloomberg made a heroic statement here....

Bold is mine.

<snip>
...The simple fact is this building is private property, and the owners have a right to use the building as a house of worship.

The government has no right whatsoever to deny that right - and if it were tried, the courts would almost certainly strike it down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution. Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question - should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here. This nation was founded on the principle that the government must never choose between religions, or favor one over another.
The World Trade Center Site will forever hold a special place in our City, in our hearts. But we would be untrue to the best part of ourselves - and who we are as New Yorkers and Americans - if we said 'no' to a mosque in Lower Manhattan.

Let us not forget that Muslims were among those murdered on 9/11 and that our Muslim neighbors grieved with us as New Yorkers and as Americans. We would betray our values - and play into our enemies' hands - if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else. In fact, to cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists - and we should not stand for that.

For that reason, I believe that this is an important test of the separation of church and state as we may see in our lifetime - as important a test - and it is critically important that we get it right.