Park51 Islamic Community Center and Mosque Developers Apply For a $5 Million Federal Grant: "
The good news is the developers are short the cash they need to build their ground zero mosque. The bad news is they’re applying for $5 million in federal grant money set aside for the redevelopment of lower Manhattan after the attacks of September 11th, according to The Daily Beast’s John Avlon’s two sources who have direct knowledge of the matter.
The application was submitted under a “community and cultural enhancement” grant program administered by the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation (LMDC), which oversaw the $20 billion in federal aid allocated in the wake of 9/11 and is currently doling out millions in remaining taxpayer funds for community development. The redevelopment board declined to comment on the application (as did officials from Park51), citing the still ongoing and confidential process of determining the grant winners.
While news of the application has not previously been made public, developer Sharif El-Gamal outlined it in closed-door meetings, according to two individuals he spoke with directly. The thirtysomething, Brooklyn-born El-Gamal is motivated more by real estate ambition—one of these sources describes him as aspiring to be the next Donald Trump—than Islamic theology or ideology.
While the developers certainly have the right to apply for public money, it shows, once again their callous disregard for the sensibilities of Americans who object.
“If Imam Feisal and his retinue want know why they’re not trusted, here’s yet another reason,” says Irshad Manji, author of The Trouble with Islam and Director of the Moral Courage Project at NYU, when I asked her about the grant proposal. “The New Yorkers I speak with have questions about Park51. Requesting money from public coffers without engaging the public shows a staggering lack of empathy—especially from a man who says he’s all about dialogue.”
Amazingly enough, they’re asking for way more than the suggested amount from this grant program:
Part of the strangeness of the application is that it blows past the suggested range of $100,000 to $1 million that these grants are supposed to fall to within (I’m told the entire pool for this round of cultural funding will come in under $20 million). According to the two sources knowledgeable about the thinking behind the proposal, the strategy behind the $5 million ballpark was trying to yield a higher figure in the end.
Because Avlon doesn’t believe the Park 51 project qualifies for the grant, they’ve positioned themselves into a lose-lose situation:
In the end, Park51’s application is likely to be unsuccessful financially while mobilizing a new round of opposition. It’s a lose-lose proposition put forward by a tone-deaf organization that seems determined to alienate allies and embolden opponents.
Perhaps since they’ve already been so successful in talking “multi-cultural New Yorkers” into going along with their bid to build a mosque at ground zero, they decided they’d give it a whirl.
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