By Barry Rubin
Readers of my column know that I have written repeatedly that the “Ground Zero” mosque would never be built for reasons having nothing to do with politics. The main financiers and the imam have gotten into one legal problem after another and Allstate Insurance Company is now launching a major lawsuit for fraud against one of them. As we approach the tenth anniversary of September 11, it’s clear that there isn’t going to be a mosque next to the World Trade Center attack site.
From the start, it seemed to me that the whole project was designed as something of a scam by shady characters to get lots of money from the contributions of the Saudis and others. In other words, the controversial and triumphalist aspects of the mosque were a public relations’ scheme designed to win millions of dollars from the Muslim-majority world’s millionaires. When the money didn’t materialize–the controversy didn’t help matters–the whole thing fell apart.
Should the mosque have been built? I have no strong opinion on that issue (especially since I knew nothing would ever actually be built). My father was a builder and I spent a lot of time around construction sites learning the trade in my youth, also gettingto know about how to put together a development project and what it takes to get zoning permissions. This project could never have gotten off the ground without the fear of being called Islamophobic making politicians either tremble or see an opportunity to burnish their Politically Correct credentials. But the scheme was such a mess that even with these special privileges it could never actually fly.
What should be most interesting about the whole affair aside from the political battle about whether or not a mosque should be built on that spot (freedom of religion versus respect for the victims, and so on). At any rate, you already know about all the various arguments on both sides.
Here’s the real story:
A group of people with a terrible record as developers who didn’t develop, businessmen who didn’t pay their bills, and slumlords put together a very badly designed project that would never otherwise have gotten zoning and other permits. In other words, the true story is how city officials gave special privileges and the media gave sweetheart coverage because people were Muslims building a mosque, not that there was discrimination against Muslims who wanted to build a mosque. Remember, in the end the mosque project got everything its advocates wanted and yet it still wasn’t built.
It is the story of how the corrupt can play a system built around special privileges for special categories of people, in which fear of being labelled some variety of “racist” overrides the proper enforcement of the law.
Someone should write the detailed story of the whole affair from that standpoint.
‘It is the story of how the corrupt can play a system built around special privileges for special categories of people’
Are you talking about Congress,the Senate,the White House or all three ?
I believe everything occurred at the municipal level. I recall hearing mayor Bloomberg gushing about how he was above the fervor of anti-Muslim, and cut straight through ALL the red tape to give the project the go ahead. It is entirely possible that Obama weighed in as well, I don’t recall.
This is an excellent parallel for the Palestinian/Israeli dialogues of 2000. Barak offered everything Arafat wanted (except 3% of land, that would be given in swaps), and Arafat still didn’t make a deal. I’d be interested in Prof. Rubin’s take on whether this is a valid parallel.
Bilking the backers with a sure-fire flop as in the flick The Producers, eh?
“This project could never have gotten off the ground without the fear of being called Islamophobic making politicians either tremble or see an opportunity to burnish their Politically Correct credentials.”
Taking a principled stand for doing the right thing used to be a good way to burnish credentials. Why doesn’t somebody try doing that for a change?
Sarah Palin did that when, as governor, she went after corruption in Alaska’s government. Look how much it helped her political career.
Mr Rubin…..
With your background as just described here it’s my bet that you’d be just the one to peel back the onionskin layers of B.S. of this City-Building-Permit-Construction-Labor labyrinth.
Please do it.
(…what a hoot if Osama’s family/heirs had an interest in this construction…even if they’d had a superficial falling out, business is business…….)
I would agree with you, except that billionaires are involved and Bloomberg himself, just one example, stands to loose hunreds of millions with his pending electronic financial transaction contracts with Arab countries, if this mosque is not built. Then there is the survival instict of Kahn and the developers to avoid having a death fatwa on their heads. Sadly, it’s not as simple as you make it seem, sorry to say. Jihad is everything to muslims and the ground zero mosque is jihad with fanatical islamists as backers. A lawsuit is not going to stop them anymore than a theif serving a jail sentence prevents the thief from stealing again.
I’d like to believe you, but I think Bloomberg is building it if he has to roll up his sleeves and do it all by himself.
I’m not sure I disagree with you. This provides New York liberals with a major opportunity to create a public drama in which they can portray themselves as the reasonable, generous ones and everyone else – those who oppose the mosque for whatever reason – get cast as the evil racists. There’s political capital to be generated, egos to inflate, and money to be made. I’m sure somebody is trying to resuscitate this dying project. Hope they fail.
Wow! A plot to funnel money from the violent crazies to the incompetent corrupt. I wish I had supported it at the time.
Two other reasons it’s unlikelyto be built:
The site is actually two properties. 45-47 Park & 59-51, which used to be a Con-Ed substation. New York’s PUC, a board controlled by the governor, has to approve the sale. Former Gov. Patterson opposed GZM; now that Andrew Cuomo is the guv, that obstacle may be easier for them to clear.
Second, the trade unions have said last year they wouldn’t work on it, and this kind of building simply can’t be built in New York without the trade unions. Are they sticking to that position now Imam Rauf is no longer the spokesman and that it’s been scaled back to four stories, no longer the triumphalist “call to dawa from the heart of the 9/11 rubble?
I’ve wondered where the mosque people plan to put the 400 or so worshippers who fill the space on Friday afternoons once they tear down the existing building to put up a new one. I have not heard anything about that in all this time. Or did I miss something? Without another space to put all those attendees, it does not look as if they have a real plan.
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Apreciez sa vad informatie de calitate si ca sa fiu sincer, am momente cand pot aprecia si discutii generale, indiferent de tema. Blogul asta este un loc unde sper sa am timp sa mai revin si sper sa pot comenta si eu cat mai des pe temele si subiectele puse in discutie de voi. Numai bine.
Salutare, popor! Va spun din experienta ca e bine sa mai deschizi si situri care aparent nu te intereseaza ca-ti pot fi folositoare informatiile gasite. Ma bucur ca am “gresit” si v-am citit si va indrum sa continuati. Numai bine tuturor!
Apreciez ca pe acest blog exista deschidere spre comunicare si te felicit pentru asta. E de faptul scopul in sine al platformei de blogging. Important este ca cei care viziteaza un anumit site sa fie invitati sa isi spuna parerea, fie ca sunt pentru sau impotriva.