Is there a possibility that the developers of a mosque planned to be located within a few blocks of 911’s Ground Zero are open to relocating it? The New York Daily News reports that it is at least a possibility:
Sponsors of the proposed mosque near Ground Zero are not slamming the door on Gov. Paterson’s idea to build the center someplace else.
“We are open to a conversation to find out more on what the governor has in mind,” the center, Park51, said in a Twitter post yesterday.
While mosque opponents charge the chosen site is insensitive to 9/11 victims, Paterson doesn’t oppose the planned location.
He suggested earlier this week it might ease tensions if the center was further away from Ground Zero, and raised the possibility of offering state-owned land.
“I would hope that whatever spirituality exists would compel the developers to sit down and have this conversation,” Paterson said on WOR’s “The John Gambling Show” yesterday.
Mosque developer Sharif El-Gamal has said the group is interested in hearing from Paterson but added that “this has always been about serving lower Manhattan.”
Even if it’s announced that it’ll be moved, it’s unlikely to halt the election year controversy. The reason: it has become a potent hot button issue pressed in particular by Republicans and the talk radio political culture. Any announcement of a change would then become a new issue (we were right…you were wrong…it should not have been moved because it was legal to put it there).
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.