Putting 'Un-American' Islamic Center in Perspective
Some history is in order.
In the late 1850s, an architect whose name is lost in the mists of time designed a five-story building at 45-47 Park Place, in the neighborhood now called TriBeCa.
Leap forward to 1989. The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission considered designating the building a landmark, but saw no reason to take action. If any New Yorkers felt that an injustice had been done, they kept it to themselves for many years....
In 2009, the building was bought by a real estate developer who intended to turn the site into an Islamic community center and mosque. His plans inflamed passions among those who were appalled that anything Islamic would rise near the trade center. (Never mind that hundreds of Muslims, without anyone saying so much as boo in protest, were already praying on Fridays inside the shuttered building.)
Suddenly, for some people, 45-47 Park Place became not just another building that they had long ignored. They declared it to be part of ground zero. Dozens of other structures in Lower Manhattan had also been damaged by debris from the twin towers and the airplanes-cum-missiles that had destroyed them. Yet it was the Park Place building that all of a sudden came to be described with words like “sacred” and “hallowed.”...
Read entire article at NYT
In the late 1850s, an architect whose name is lost in the mists of time designed a five-story building at 45-47 Park Place, in the neighborhood now called TriBeCa.
Leap forward to 1989. The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission considered designating the building a landmark, but saw no reason to take action. If any New Yorkers felt that an injustice had been done, they kept it to themselves for many years....
In 2009, the building was bought by a real estate developer who intended to turn the site into an Islamic community center and mosque. His plans inflamed passions among those who were appalled that anything Islamic would rise near the trade center. (Never mind that hundreds of Muslims, without anyone saying so much as boo in protest, were already praying on Fridays inside the shuttered building.)
Suddenly, for some people, 45-47 Park Place became not just another building that they had long ignored. They declared it to be part of ground zero. Dozens of other structures in Lower Manhattan had also been damaged by debris from the twin towers and the airplanes-cum-missiles that had destroyed them. Yet it was the Park Place building that all of a sudden came to be described with words like “sacred” and “hallowed.”...