Mosque issue: J Street, Part 2

The last public approval is now in place for the "Cordoba House" Islamic center (now called the "Park51" project) to proceed to development a couple of blocks from the World Trade Center site. I was happy to be part of the local J Street group which showed up at the Landmarks Preservation Commission deliberations yesterday morning; we submitted a petition with the names of 10,000 J St. supporters showing their backing for the Muslim center. And we heard the commissioners deliberate impressively (on the architecture and not the politics) as they voted unanimously not to accord the site landmark status and thereby derail this project.

The head of the building project, Sharif El-Gamal, physically embraced Isaac Luria, a national VP of J St. in charge of communications, who was one of our organizers. "We love you guys," he said to Isaac.

We also witnessed and heard vociferous opposition, based on unfortunate (albeit understandable) emotions of hate and fear, inspired by the terrorists who attacked us nine years ago in the name of their warped view of Islam. We made some friends for the Jewish community among the moderate Muslims who are building this center explicitly with Jewish community centers (JCC's) and the 92nd St. Y in mind as models.

Yet the press coverage gave us an object lesson on its superficiality and sensation-seeking: a single hand-lettered hate-mongering sign got more coverage than we did.

The USA Today article that quoted me, left out what I said about this being a First Amendment issue and that as a minority group, we were showing our support for the religious rights of another minority. An earlier online version had referred to me as being there with J Street, but a later version left this out; I'm now quoted in the final paragraph:

As the physical scars of the attacks disappear beneath new buildings in Manhattan, "Where do you draw the line?" [The context for my comment is wrong here.] Ralph Seliger, a blogger on Middle East issues, asked before the commission vote. "In no way is this intended to desecrate the memory of those who died there."

And the Jerusalem Post mentions me, but makes no connection with J Street:
“They did the right thing,” Ralph Seliger said afterwards of the commissioners. “They ruled on the merits and not the politics.”