Seandainya saja penguasa Indonesia bisa bersikap dewasa dan tegas seperti ini
dalam mengayomi dan melindungi kaum minoritas beragama.
Tanpa memedulikan protes dari kaum konservatif, Landmarks Commission kota NY
beserta walikotanya membela rencana pembangunan mesjid di bekas reruntuhan WTC
di NY. Baca argumentasi dan rasional mereka, sungguh mengharukan.
Beda 180 derajat dengan sikap para penguasa di negeri ini, dari presidennya
sampai bupati dan walikotanya :(
manneke
Panel's landmark denial frees NY mosque site
34 minutes ago
By Karen Matthews, The Associated Press
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NEW YORK, N.Y. - Ignoring jeers and cries of "Shame on you," a city commission
on Tuesday denied landmark status to a building near the World Trade Center
site that can now be demolished to make way for an Islamic community centre and
mosque.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission said in voting 9-0 that the 152-year-old
building isn't distinctive enough to qualify as a landmark.
"This is not a building of special esthetic character," said Commissioner Diana
Chapin, echoing the remarks of her colleagues.
The property is two blocks north of the site of the World Trade Center, which
was destroyed in Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Landmarks Commissioner Stephen
Byrns said the building's proximity to the site, and the fact that it was
struck by airplane debris during the attacks, does not qualify it as a landmark.
The proposed mosque has emerged as a national political issue, with prominent
Republicans from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
lining up against it. The Anti-Defamation League, the nation's most prominent
Jewish civil rights group, also opposes it.
Former Rep. Rick Lazio, a Republican who is running for governor of New York,
attended the commission meeting and criticized the group that is building the
mosque, the Cordoba Initiative.
"This is not about religion," Lazio said. "It's about this particular mosque
called the Cordoba Mosque, it's about it being at ground zero, it's about it
being spearheaded by an imam who has associated himself with radical Islamic
causes and has made comments that should chill every single American, frankly."
Lazio said the group's imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, had refused to call the
Palestinian group Hamas a terrorist organization. Rauf also had said in a "60
Minutes" interview televised shortly after 9/11 that "United States policies
were an accessory to the crime that happened."
Cordoba Initiative staff members did not immediately answer an email seeking a
response to Lazio's comments.
Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement,
was quoted in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday as saying the centre's board
will include members of other religions and will explore including an
interfaith chapel at the centre.
"We want to repair the breach and be at the front and centre to start the
healing," said Khan, a partner in the building and the wife of the imam.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaking on Governor's Island against
the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty, praised the commission's ruling.
"This building is private property and the owners have a right to use the
building as a house of worship," Bloomberg said. "The government has no right
whatsoever to deny that right, and if it were tried, the court would almost
certainly strike it down as a violation of the U.S. constitution."
Bloomberg said the firefighters and other first responders who died in the 2001
attacks had done so to protect the constitution. To deny religious freedom to
Muslims would play into the terrorists' hands, he said. "In rushing into those
burning buildings, not one asked, 'What god do you pray to? What beliefs do you
hold?'" Bloomberg said of the first responders. "We do not honour their lives
by denying the very constitutional rights they died protecting."
The commission's decision not to designate the existing building as a landmark
means that the developers can tear it down and start from scratch. If the
building had been declared a landmark, they could have created a smaller mosque
and community centre there.
SoHo Properties, a partner in the project, purchased the property for nearly $5
million. Early plans call for a 13-story, $100 million Islamic centre, of which
the mosque would be a part.
SoHo Properties CEO Sharif El-Gamal said he was "deeply grateful to the
landmarks commission and to its staff." He did not respond to a question about
the timing of demolition and construction.
Foes of the proposed mosque say it insults the memory of those who died on
Sept. 11, 2001, at the hands of Muslim extremists.
As the landmarks commission met, some in the audience waved signs. Linda
Rivera's sign read, "Don't glorify murders of 3,000. No 9/11 victory mosque."
She cried after the board's vote. "I lost 3,000 American brothers and sisters,
including courageous policemen and firemen, and this is a betrayal," she said.
Others said they supported the mosque.
Zead Ramadan, president of the board of the New York chapter of the Council on
American Islamic Relations, said Islam is "a religion of peace and justice."
"The people here are trying to connect this vile attack on our nation to the
religion Islam, though that exact act stands against everything that Islam
stands for," he said.
The conservative public-interest law firm the American Center for Law and
Justice, founded in 1990 by evangelist Pat Robertson, vowed to fight Tuesday's
decision in court.
ACLJ attorney Brett Joshpe said the group would file a petition in New York
State Supreme Court on Wednesday alleging that the landmarks panel "acted
arbitrarily and abused its discretion."
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