PolitiFact (PF) recently did a fact-check on whether the “Ground Zero Mosque” is at Ground Zero. It gave a ruling of “Barely True.” Researching this, I found a number of very fishy things, or I might say, given how I rate Sublime Bloviations’ “Grading PolitiFact”, with Pepé LePews, this one gets the max of five, because they really stink.
First there’s the slippery slope….of just how close is close. The day following the publishing of this fact-check, my little friend Bryan White posted in Facebook “Now you [PF] can move on to the question of whether Central Park apartments are actually *inside* Central Park.” I don’t think there are any apartments technically inside Central Park. They border it, and apartment/ condo buildings like the name “Central Park West”, for example, because the view and location is what gets them better rents/prices. It’s sort of a New York City real estate branding.
To read some of the conservative accounts, you’d think the Mosque was on top of One World Trade Center; most say, on hallowed ground. Libertarians are necessarily reluctant to support it because of the paramount importance of private property rights. In my Facebook posts, I posted a possible solution: for someone like Donald Trump, the Big Apple commercial real estate authority, to find a buyer for the Mosque property whereby the owners might make a profit, and then find them a suitable replacement somewhere else on Manhattan. The response was basically, the Imam’s heart is set on this spot…..but why?
Secondly, what fouls the air up further with its fishiness is what one journalist called the “Balloon Boy” aspects: One of those is who is behind the Mosque itself, the so-called owners/developer, and one who is providing support behind the “move the Mosque” faction.
The current status of the development plan is pretty negligible: “…Among the many issues facing the Islamic center’s development plan is its lack of an institutional structure, clear leadership, or money. For one thing, the effort to build the mosque isn’t yet a nonprofit with 501(c)3 tax-exempt status. That’s months from being cleared, according to most nonprofit experts.”
So, here are a few facts about this “developer”, Sharif El-Gamal, from a CBS New York article:
** His most recent arrest was in 2005 for assault on a man he met while working as a waiter at Serafina Restaurant, who sublet an apartment from his brother. He reportedly punched the man, breaking his nose and cheekbone and spit on him…Records showed El-Gamal also had trouble coming up with the $15,000 settlement reached in 2008, and had to pay interest . El-Gamal also has a number of other arrests on his record…..A potential problem for the mosque developer is a deposition he gave in the assault case in October 2007. When asked if he was ever convicted or pled guilty to a crime, El-Gamal replied “no.” **
On top of that, the property taxes are in arrears. So….. lemme get this straight. A man who has a lengthy arrest record and was a waiter five years ago, now is developer of a property estimated to potentially cost $100 million, for which he now owes $227,000 in unpaid property taxes. So where is the money coming from?
Well, it seems he may be just a front man, or nicely titled “Co-developer.” From Wikipedia:
“In July 2009, the real estate company and developer Soho Properties purchased the building and property at 45–47 Park Place for $4.85 million in cash.
Soho Properties' Chairman and CEO, Sharif El-Gamal, initially planned to build a condominium complex at the site, but was convinced by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's idea for a cultural center with a prayer space. El-Gamal's partner is Nour Mousa, the nephew of Amr Moussa, the Secretary General of the Arab League.
One investor in the transaction was the Cordoba Initiative, a tax-exempt foundation with assets of $20,000…. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is founder, CEO, and Executive Director of Cordoba Initiative, and the project is his brainchild….The project's other investor was the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), another non-profit foundation. Rauf is also the founder and CEO of ASMA, and his wife is its Executive Director. They run it out of the same New York office as the Cordoba Initiative."
The two foundations proposed to use the property as the site for a $100 million Islamic center and mosque. They are working on the project with El-Gamal, their co-developer.”It still doesn’t answer my questions, also thoughtfully posed by Claudia Rosette at Forbes:
**...If Rauf is now seeking funding abroad, is his provocative choice of a site just down the block from Ground Zero now helping bring money into his coffers? In other words, is any of his fundraising getting a boost from the high-profile debate and distress generated by his plans? One would hope that Rauf picked the site with the best of intentions. But on the chance that the choice amounts in any way to a cynical fundraising stunt, or even a dangerous appeal to potential donors who have lots of money but no love lost for America, full and regular public disclosure of his backers, prospects, plans and financial books would surely help clarify the situation.
4) Whose show is this, anyway? Rauf's Cordoba Initiative was set up in Colorado in 2004 as a small, tax-exempt foundation. “Over the first five years, the Initiative…reported receiving donations totaling less than $100,000. Here we are two years later, and the same foundation, hand-in-hand with another, …the American Society for Muslim Advancement, run by Rauf and his wife out of the same New York office, has hooked up with a real estate developer named Sharif El-Gamal. And, lo! Rauf…is now the public face of a $100 million project proposing to replace in lower Manhattan some of the "community space" once…around [the] World Trade Center…the mysteries multiply. At least part of the answer lies in such details as where is the money coming from. For that matter, where is Imam Feisal looking for it? And when will he make himself available to tell us all about it?”
Then, besides the usual suspects, there’s Jay Sekulow, another right-wing radio talk show host, but more importantly, chief counsel for the ACLJ (American Center for Law and Justice), which filed a lawsuit to try to stop the development of the mosque on behalf of New York City firefighter Tim Brown. In a story from the Houston Chronical:
"Brown has enlisted the services of the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative law firm founded by Pat Robertson and better known for championing the rights of Christians to build and worship freely. The ACLJ, representing Brown and more than 20,000 people who have signed an online petition for the Committee to Stop the Ground Zero Mosque, has been lobbying the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to give 45-47 Park Place landmark status - adding a major hurdle to construction there - because part of one of the hijacked planes had fallen through its roof.” (Note: I think it was voted down by the Bloomberg-appointed commission).
According to Wikipedia: **In addition to his work as a Supreme Court advocate, Sekulow, as lead counsel of the ACLJ, has submitted several amicus briefs in support of conservative issues. ..Sekulow served as counsel to Robert and Mary Schindler during the controversy surrounding their daughter, Terri Schiavo...**
But here’s where it gets REALLY interesting on Sekulow (maybe that’s why the post in Wikipedia was challenged on neutrality grounds): **In November 2005 Legal Times published an article in which it was alleged that Sekulow "through the ACLJ and a string of interconnected nonprofit and for-profit entities, has built a financial empire that generates millions of dollars a year and supports a lavish lifestyle -- complete with multiple homes, chauffeur-driven cars, and a private jet that he once used to ferry Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.” **
If you ask me, all this looks like a “cynical fund-raising stunt” from both sides. El-Gamal needs to hook up with Tareq and Michaele Salahi, and Sekulow could be the next big thing after the Kardashians’ 15 minutes are up. Or how 'bout a new reality show: "Be a Celebrity Media Frenzy Fund-raiser!" One thing I know for sure : it won’t *open* on September 11, 2011…if it’s even built.
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