Trump Spurned in Bid for Proposed NYC Islamic Center

– Donald J. Trump was spurned in an offer to purchase the site of the proposed Islamic community center near New York City’s Ground Zero for the price paid plus 25 percent.

Trump’s offer is “just a cheap attempt to get publicity and get in the limelight,” said Sharif El-Gamal, chief executive officer of Soho Properties LLC, who signed the deed to purchase the property in July 2009. He commented in an e-mail statement.
As part of the bid, any community center built would be located at least five blocks farther from the World Trade Center site, Trump said. The offer was made in a letter dated today and included in a statement received by e-mail.
“I am making this offer as a resident of New York and citizen of the United States, not because I think the location is a spectacular one (because it is not), but because it will end a very serious, inflammatory, and highly divisive situation,” Trump wrote in the letter to Hisham Elzanaty, a businessman who’s said he provided the majority of the financing for the two buildings where the center would be built.
Trump, founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. and host of the NBC television series “The Apprentice,” didn’t return a telephone call and e-mail seeking further comment.
The proposed Islamic center is two blocks north of where the World Trade Center’s twin towers were destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Book Burning
Trump’s offer was made public shortly before Terry Jones, a pastor from Gainesville, Florida, announced he was canceling plans to burn copies of the Koran on Sept. 11. He said the Islamic center’s developers agreed to discuss moving to a different location.

El-Gamal said there is no deal to relocate the center.
“It is untrue that the community center known as Park51 in lower Manhattan is being moved,” he said in his e-mail. “The project will proceed as planned.”More BW

Rev. Jones cancels Quran burning, after given promise of mosque move

The White House added its voice to warnings that the move could trigger outrage around the Islamic world and endanger the lives of US soldiers. A spokeswoman for EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said the European Union roundly “condemns” the plans.  “The High Representative respects all kinds of religious beliefs and this is not the right way to go,” the spokesperson told reporters.

Arab League chief Amr Moussa dubbed Jones a “fanatic” and urged Americans to oppose his “destructive approach.” Moussa, who heads the 22-member pan-Arab body based in Cairo, said: “There is an increasing majority in the United States against this fanatic. “We want to see the reaction of the educated in the United States against this fanatic’s destructive approach,” he said.


US Attorney General Eric Holder met religious leaders to discuss ways of stemming the anti-Islam tide, with calls from the broad coalition of faiths to make a strong speech condemning hate crimes.more arabnews

– A Florida minister who had created an international furor with his plan to burn the Quran on the ninth anniversary of 9/11 canceled the event under intense pressure Thursday, saying he agreed to back off after reaching a deal to move the location of a controversial mosque near New York’s ground zero. The imam planning the New York mosque said no such deal has been reached.
The Rev. Terry Jones announced his decision Thursday afternoon, standing outside his small church alongside Imam Muhammad Musri, the president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida. However, Musri and the imam planning the New York mosque disputed Jones’ contention that a deal had been cut.

After the news conference, Musri told The Associated Press there was an agreement for him and Jones to travel to New York and meet Saturday – on the actual anniversary of the 9/11 attacks – with the imam overseeing plans to build a mosque near ground zero.


“I told the pastor that I personally believe the mosque should not be there, and I will do everything in my power to make sure it is moved,” Musri said.more

Jones, the pastor of a Florida Pentecostal church of 50 members, has said that he believes the Quran is evil because it espouses something other than biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims.
Jones on Thursday said he prayed about the decision and that if the site of the mosque was moved, it would be a sign from God to call off the Quran burning.

“We are, of course, now against any other group burning Qurans,” Jones said during the news conference. We would right now ask no one to burn Qurans. We are absolutely strong on that. It is not the time to do it.”
His decision comes after a firestorm of criticism from leaders around the world. President Barack Obama, the top U.S. general in Afghanistan and several Christian leaders had urged Jones to reconsider his plans.more