Factbox: New York's Islamic Centre

13 Sep 2010, 12:40 pm   -   Source: SBS Staff
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- 'Cordoba House' is a project being carried out by the Cordoba Initiative, whose aims are to 'cultivate multi-cultural and multi-faith understanding across minds and borders.'

 - As part of the larger Park51 complex, Cordoba House will contain a 500-seat auditorium, a swimming pool, art exhibition spaces, bookstore and restaurant - as well as a 'meditation and prayer space.'

 - Cordoba is a town in Southern Spain. In the Middle Ages, under Muslim rule, Christians, Jews and Muslims lived together, more or less in harmony.

 - Led by Imam Feisal Addul Rauf, Cordoba House is the 'interfaith and religious component' of the larger Park51 Centre.

 - Park51 is 'an independent project led by Muslim Americans for all New Yorkers.'


View Cordoba House in a larger map

The centre's location is several blocks north of 'Ground Zero.'

 - A poll last week showed that although Americans as a whole seem opposed, New Yorkers themselves may be more split.  Marist College found that of 616 registered New York City voters, 51 per cent opposed it, while 41 per cent were in favour – up from 34 per cent in August.

 - The building is a former Burlington coat factory store.

 - The developer took the proposal to a community board four times, with approval each time, reports CBS.

 - Imam Feisal Addul Rauf penned an extensive piece for the New York Times in which he stuck by plans to proceed with the community centre, in order to show Muslims overseas that Islam was not under attack in the US.

'We are doing so with the support of the downtown community, government at all levels and leaders from across the religious spectrum, who will be our partners’, he said.

 - The President of the US, Barack Obama, and the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, have both spoken out in favour of the cultural centre.

Barack Obama reiterated George W Bush' claim in the days following the 911 attacks that 'America is not at war with Islam.'

Mayor Blomberg said when it comes to erecting religious buildings ' we shouldn't be in the business of picking which religions can and which religions can't.'

-Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has said he's neither in favour of burning Korans, nor a support of an Islamic centre at this location - both actions would be divisive, he said.

Ground Zero , Mosque

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Your Comments

Mr.

Daniel Thorat - from Pune, India, 3 years ago

Certain assertions being made by people like Obama and other hidden supporters of the Cordoba are that the US is not at war with Islam. It also was not at war with Islam on 9/11. A cursory look on the world shows how Islam followers are throwing their lives to kill Americans and the West. This is nothing but a thrust for global caliphate. Cordoba will create more 9/11s with ease.Let Cordobas be built first in Pakistan,Iran,Afghanistan.Let America wake up before it is too late.

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