Following is some useful, fact-based information about the Islamic Community Center that has the knickers of the Right Wing in a major twist. At the end you'll find a lot of useful links.
If you need solid information to help counteract right wing lies and innuendo when speaking to your sane friends about this, you might the info here helpful.
To give credit where credit is due, this was compiled by a high school chum of mine named Kevin Mack. He got interested in the topic and started doing some deep digging. I've already passed this along to one cousin who, though generally reasonable, had been ranting about this. It actually had the desired effect of calming him down!
Hope some of you can use it the same way.
Facts:
There is no Mosque being proposed AT or ON the World Trade Center Site (WTC).
There is no new dedicated single use Mosque being proposed near the WTC.
There is already an actual dedicated Mosque (Masjid Manhattan) near "ground zero" at 20 Warren Street, which is about three blocks from the WTC site. It has been in the same block for almost forty years. It's greatly overcrowded at this point, with some people having to pray outside the Mosque in the street.
The focus of the "controversy" is the proposed $100 million Cordoba House project to rebuild a five-story former Burlington Coat Factory building at 45-47 Park Place. It will be rebuilt into a thirteen story Muslim community center open to all people, located two blocks from ground zero and it will NOT BE VISIBLE from "ground zero". In the building will be a swimming pool, restaurants, galleries, a memorial to 9-11, gym, auditorium, community rooms, and a large prayer room (Mosque??). The entire project is modeled after the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan that has a small synagogue in it, and the YMCA.
Also, often overlooked (conveniently?) is that a number of Moslems from many nations died at the WTC, as well as Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Christians, Atheists, Agnostic. People from over 75 nations, a total of around 327 non-Americans, lost their lives on 9-11.
There are a number of large churches, synagogues and temples near the WTC, and over a hundred Mosques in New York City.
The group putting up this building are moderate Moslems, who have written about and formed inter-faith tolerance groups, just the type of Moslems rational folks need to support.
...and of course it's private property and the changes have been okayed by the local New York City authorities, so if it's legal and on private property, it's nobody else's business by American laws :)
Given these basic facts, it suspiciously looks like another manufactured controversy to attempt to distract and divide Americans ahead of the fall elections by disseminating misinformation to stir up fear, intolerance and hatred by the usual cast of conservative characters such as Australian Rupert Murdoch and his media (Fox News, The NY Daily News), Sarah Palin, Teabaggers, Newt Gingrich and other rightwing people and organizations. BTW, there's an excellent article referenced below dissecting Newt Gingrich's historical "analysis", Newt was evidently counting on no one taking the time to check his facts ;>)
Some Sources:
Interesting Medieval History of Cordoba
http://gotmedieval.blogspot.com/...
Masjid Manhattan, 20 Warren St., Manhattan, NY
http://www.masjidmanhattan.com/
Good General Article in The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/...
Cordoba Center
http://topics.nytimes.com/...
New York City Mayor Bloomberg Articulate Speech on Why He Approves the Project
http://home.nyc.gov/...
List of Nationals (75+ Nations) Killed At the World Trade Center
http://www.interpol.int/...
http://www.america.gov/...
300+ Non-Americans Killed at World Trade Center
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
http://wiki.answers.com/...
Jewish Community Center in Manhattan
http://www.jccmanhattan.org/...