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Wednesday, 24 November 2010

Planned New York Islamic centre close to Ground Zero asks for federal funds


Artist impression of the proposed Park51 project in New York
Artist impression of the proposed Park51 project in New York, provided by SOMA architects. Photograph: AP
Tuesday 23 November 2010
The organisers of the scheme to build an Islamic cultural centre close toGround Zero in New York have risked incurring further controversy by applying for a multimillion dollar grant from the federal agency charged with revitalising lower Manhattan in the wake of 9/11.
The board of the project, known as Park51 after its proposed location in Park Place, a couple of blocks away from the site of the 2001 attacks on the twin towers, has asked the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for a reported $5m (£3.1m) in six separate grant requests.
The group said that it was asking for the money to partly cover a range of services open to all residents of the area, including domestic violence prevention, the teaching of foreign languages including Arabic, a couple of art spaces, as well as services for homeless veterans and immigrants.
The plan to build a Muslim community centre so close to the site of the 2001 tragedy caused a storm of protest in the runup to the midterm elections earlier this month. Detractors dubbed it the "Ground Zero mosque", even though it is not to be designated as a mosque and it is not to be built at Ground Zero. Rightwing zealots and evangelical Christian groups launched a sustained campaign against it.
Prominent figures in New York politics backed the centre, notably the mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who dismissed the furore as a politically-motivated row that would blow over once the midterm elections were over.
His prediction has largely played out, but there continues to be a groundswell of grumbling about the project. Last week the Florida-based pastor who had threatened to burn copies of the Qur'an as a protest against Park51 staged a small rally at the disused coat factory where the community centre would be built.
Last month a prominent Saudi prince, Alwaleed bin Talal, called on the directors of Park51 to move the project to a different location, urging them to "defer to the people of New York. The wound [of 9/11] is still there."
But the drumbeat of anger about the proposals has become much softer since the 2 November elections, and the scheme is no longer in the glare of nationwide public attention. However, the main developer Sharif El-Gamal and the religious figure behind the scheme, imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, continue to face funding difficulties in raising the $140m needed to pay for the 13-storey centre.
No money has yet formally been raised for the project, and its financial viability remains in doubt.

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