The Ground Zero Mosque Mess Continues--And Could Have Been Avoided

Claims and counterclaims continue to fly around the Ground Zero Mosque.

As it is, it is not even clear if the location of the Ground Zero Mosque is even going to facilitate its use as a mosque. On the one hand, 'Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, Al-Arabiya TV director-general and former editor of the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat wrote in a column:

"[T]here are no practicing Muslims in the district who need a place of worship, because it is indeed a commercial district....The last thing Muslims want today is to build just a religious center out of defiance to the others, or a symbolic mosque that people visit as a museum next to a cemetery."

At the same time, Sharif El-Gamal, the mosque developer, insists that:

"While we have a tremendous amount of respect for our governor... this has always been about serving Lower Manhattan."

Now CBS is reporting about a second meeting that Governor Paterson is going to have with Muslims associated with the project, in order to offer another site on state land.


The only problem is that not only are Muslim officials saying that they have heard nothing about such a meeting, some have already said outright that they are not interested in such a meeting.

And even those willing to meet, such as Zead Ramadan, of the New York branch of CAIR, don't seem to offer much leeway. In the CBS video report, Ramadan tells the reporter:

I would go to the table and I'd listen, but they surely would have to offer me something in the vicinity that saves me money and is going to help us expedite our project more quickly.

Just what does 'in the vicinity' mean, and why does it have to be in that vicinity. Besides, the fact that CAIR is involved is in itself cause for concern.

Now Jonah Goldberg is writing about how easily this whole mess could have been avoided in the first place--after all, this is New York we're talking about:

Bloomberg is not only the mayor. He's also a billionaire with massive sway in the city's media, finance and cultural institutions. Moreover, the Big Apple is a Hieronymus Bosch hellscape for landlords and developers. Rent control, historic preservation, zoning, environmental impact, community protests, union delays -- not to mention plain old red tape and corruption -- offer enough tools to stop any project before it starts (Heck, ground zero is still a gaping hole, and everyone has wanted that land to be developed, fast).

The notion that Bloomberg couldn't have quietly stopped this in New York is like saying Satan is powerless to do anything about the heat in Hades. He could have kept the molehill from becoming a mountain with an afternoon's worth of phone calls. The center would be built, just not so close to ground zero; no big deal.[emphasis added]

Read the whole thing.

The Ground Zero Mosque has turned into a showcase of political incompetence from all quarters--and the show is not over yet.

Technorati Tag: Ground Zero Mosque.