{"id":662,"date":"2010-07-21T10:28:17","date_gmt":"2010-07-21T10:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2010\/07\/an-interview-with-park51.html"},"modified":"2010-07-21T10:28:17","modified_gmt":"2010-07-21T10:28:17","slug":"an-interview-with-park51","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2010\/07\/an-interview-with-park51.html","title":{"rendered":"An interview with Park51"},"content":{"rendered":"

The controversy over the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” project (which is not actually at Ground Zero, and of which the mosque aspect is only a tiny piece) continues unabated, with Sarah Palin entering the fray<\/a> calling upon all “peaceful muslims” to “refudiate<\/a>” the project because it “stabs hearts”. Of course, Sarah Palin (like myself) is no New Yorker. The good news is that a plurality of Manhattan residents support<\/a> the project (including tech guru Dave Winer, in a very thoughtful<\/a> supportive post), but the bad news is that a majority of New Yorkers overall still oppose it, which means that the organizers of the project have a lot of work to do.<\/p>\n

This is why I am excited to report that Sharif el-Gamal, CEO of Soho Properties (the developer of the Park 51 project) has graciously agreed to an interview about the project. I am grateful to Sharif for taking the time to engage personally in this way.<\/p>\n

And let’s repeat that this is not about a “mega mosque” being constructed right atop Ground Zero. The Park 51 project is a large-scale development of a community center for lower Manhattan, for arts and culture, education, and recreation. The list of facilities includes a swimming pool, 500 seat auditorium, art exhibition spaces, and even a culinary school. The broader Park51 project will include a mosque and the Cordoba House center for interfaith dialogue, but these are only small pieces of the overall vision.<\/p>\n

My goal with the interview is to ask some hard questions, not softball it. As the polls results show, ordinary New Yorkers have genuine concerns about the project, and those concerns are being cynically exploited by people like Sarah Palin for their own political self-interest through fear and misinformation. As I said earlier<\/a>, it isn’t just muslim Americans who have a stake in this project, but all Americans. Here’s a chance for Park 51 to set the record straight.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned, I hope to have the interview up by the end of the week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The controversy over the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” project (which is not actually at Ground Zero, and of which the mosque aspect is only a tiny piece) continues unabated, with Sarah Palin entering the fray calling upon all “peaceful muslims” to “refudiate” the project because it “stabs hearts”. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}