Manhattan, NY – The nation’s leading Jewish civil rights group has come out against the planned mosque and Islamic community center near ground zero, saying more information is needed about funding for the project and the location is “counterproductive to the healing process.”
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The Anti-Defamation League said it rejects any opposition to the center based on bigotry and acknowledged that the group behind the plan, the Cordoba Initiative, has the legal right to build at the site. But the ADL said “some legitimate questions have been raised” about funding and possible ties with “groups whose ideologies stand in contradiction to our shared values.”
“Ultimately this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right,” the ADL said in a statement. “In our judgment, building an Islamic center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain — unnecessarily — and that is not right.”
The Cordoba Initiative did not comment Friday.
Based in New York, Cordoba aims to improve relations between Islam and the West by hosting leadership conferences for young American Muslims, and organizing programs on Arab-Jewish relations, building civil society in the Muslim world and empowering Muslim women.
The mosque and community center would be located two blocks from the lower Manhattan site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Cordoba purchased the property for $4 million and planned to build a 13-story, $100 million Islamic center, of which the mosque would be a part.
Cordoba’s director, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, has not disclosed the funding sources for the project. But Sharif El-Gamal, the CEO of the company that owns the property, has said the project’s backers were committed to transparency and would work with the attorney general’s watchdog Charities Bureau.
A city community board voted overwhelmingly last spring to back the project even as it drew emotional opposition from some local residents and relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg supports the mosque’s construction. Disagreement over the project has become a national issue, drawing opposition from former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin, among others.
The ADL, one of the most prominent groups in American Jewish life, is known for its advocacy of religious freedom and interfaith harmony. Its position on the mosque was met with shock and condemnation by several groups.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, head of J Street, the dovish, pro-Israel group, said he would hope ADL would be at the forefront in defending the freedom of a religious minority, “rather than casting aspersions on its funders and giving in to the fear-mongerers.”
The Rev. Welton Gaddy, head of the Interfaith Alliance, a Washington advocacy group, said he read the ADL statement “with a great deal of sorrow.”
“As an organization that for nearly 100 years has helped set the standard for fighting defamation and securing justice and fair treatment for all, it is disappointing to see the ADL arrived at this conclusion,” Gaddy said.
I’m disappointed that the ADL has joined the demagogues
Shocking news! Of course it’s insensative, but for the ADL to oppose something like this!
But the ADL said “some legitimate questions have been raised” about funding and possible ties with “groups whose ideologies stand in contradiction to our shared values.”
“Ultimately this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right,” the ADL said in a statement. “In our judgment, building an Islamic center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain — unnecessarily — and that is not right.”
100% correct!
Since when is Jstreet a dovish pro Israel group. It is a pro Muslim group cloaked in Jewish garb.
I think it is just disgusting!! Why do the Christian org/ not cry out.??? Plenty of them died!!!
The adl needs to stay away from this it needs not to be a jewish muslim issue but an american nine eleven vs muslim issue
Adl can just damage the coalition and I Question the judgment of those who made the statement
ADL always jumps up where they don’t belong, nobody is interested in their opinion, and Jews have to stay away from this issue, it is not a Jewish issue.
CAIR now asked the ADL to retract their statement against the NY Islamic Center
I’ve read all about the “radical ties” of the Cordoba Center. The best the slanderers and fear-mongers have been able to come up with is this:
The uncle of the wife of Imam Rauf was once associated with a group that was later deemed politically radical. Not while he connected with it, but later.
The ADL has abandoned its mission of fighting defamation and bigotry in order to score some cheap political points. They got money from me last year. Not any more until they apologize for their shameful behavior.
#7 , Plenty of Muslims died, too. And plenty more have died serving in the US Armed forces fighting against other Muslims in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is an American topic not a Jewish one. Since when does the ADL represent us all? The only org that represents us all is the Simon Weisenthal Center headed by Rabbi May.
The center should be stopped because US is supposed to be in a war on terror. This aint no ‘peace mosque’.