Trump Offer for NYC Islamic Center Rejected
Updated at 7:59 p.m. ET
Donald Trump offered Thursday to buy out a major investor in the real estate partnership that controls the site near ground zero where a Muslim group wants to build a 13-story Islamic center and mosque.
The offer, though, fell flat nearly instantly.
"This is just a cheap attempt to get publicity and get in the limelight," said Wolodymyr Starosolsky, a lawyer for the investor, Hisham Elzanaty.
In a letter released Thursday by Trump's publicist, the real estate investor told Elzanaty that he would buy his stake in the lower Manhattan building for 25 percent more than whatever he paid.
Scroll down to read the letter released by Donald Trump's office.
"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 that is destined, in my opinion, to only get worse," the letter said.
Trump also attached a condition to his offer: He said that as part of the deal, the backers of the mosque project would need to promise that any new mosque they constructed would be at least five blocks farther away from the World Trade Center site.
In Gainesville, Fla., a minister said he had canceled plans to burn copies of the Quran because the imam leading the mosque agreed to move its location. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said that he was surprised by the announcement and that he would not barter.
The current planned location is just two blocks north of the site. Opponents argue it's insensitive to families and memories of Sept. 11 victims to build a mosque so close to where Islamic extremists flew planes into the World Trade Center and killed nearly 2,800 people, while proponents support the project as a reflection of religious freedom and diversity.
It's unclear how much control Elzanaty has over the property, which is owned by an eight-member investment group led by Soho Properties, but his response was unequivocal.
"He knows what the value of the building is. If he were really interested in buying the buiding, he would have come forward with at least $20 million," Starosolsky said.
Elzanaty said he remains committed to the idea of having a mosque built on at least part of the property.
A spokesman for Soho Properties general manager Sharif El-Gamal and his nonprofit group, Park51, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Earlier in the day, the organization sent a statement to The Associated Press affirming that Soho Properties controlled the real estate and that Elzanaty was one of several investors.
El-Gamal and other people associated with the Islamic center have refused to detail the ownership structure of the real estate partnership that holds the site.
Elzanaty's lawyer did not immediately return a phone message Thursday. But in a pair of interviews with the AP this week, Elzanaty said he had invested in the site with an intention of making a profit and was willing to half the land for private development, and maybe all of it if a Muslim group doesn't come forward with enough money to build the mosque.
Fact Check: The "Ground Zero Mosque" Debate
Dean: NYC Mosque a "Real Affront"
Mass. Gov. Defends "Ground Zero Mosque"
Pelosi Questions Funding of Mosque Critics
AP Donald Trump offered Thursday to buy out a major investor in the real estate partnership that controls the site near ground zero where a Muslim group wants to build a 13-story Islamic center and mosque.
The offer, though, fell flat nearly instantly.
"This is just a cheap attempt to get publicity and get in the limelight," said Wolodymyr Starosolsky, a lawyer for the investor, Hisham Elzanaty.
In a letter released Thursday by Trump's publicist, the real estate investor told Elzanaty that he would buy his stake in the lower Manhattan building for 25 percent more than whatever he paid.
Scroll down to read the letter released by Donald Trump's office.
"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 that is destined, in my opinion, to only get worse," the letter said.
Trump also attached a condition to his offer: He said that as part of the deal, the backers of the mosque project would need to promise that any new mosque they constructed would be at least five blocks farther away from the World Trade Center site.
In Gainesville, Fla., a minister said he had canceled plans to burn copies of the Quran because the imam leading the mosque agreed to move its location. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said that he was surprised by the announcement and that he would not barter.
The current planned location is just two blocks north of the site. Opponents argue it's insensitive to families and memories of Sept. 11 victims to build a mosque so close to where Islamic extremists flew planes into the World Trade Center and killed nearly 2,800 people, while proponents support the project as a reflection of religious freedom and diversity.
It's unclear how much control Elzanaty has over the property, which is owned by an eight-member investment group led by Soho Properties, but his response was unequivocal.
"He knows what the value of the building is. If he were really interested in buying the buiding, he would have come forward with at least $20 million," Starosolsky said.
Elzanaty said he remains committed to the idea of having a mosque built on at least part of the property.
A spokesman for Soho Properties general manager Sharif El-Gamal and his nonprofit group, Park51, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Earlier in the day, the organization sent a statement to The Associated Press affirming that Soho Properties controlled the real estate and that Elzanaty was one of several investors.
El-Gamal and other people associated with the Islamic center have refused to detail the ownership structure of the real estate partnership that holds the site.
Elzanaty's lawyer did not immediately return a phone message Thursday. But in a pair of interviews with the AP this week, Elzanaty said he had invested in the site with an intention of making a profit and was willing to half the land for private development, and maybe all of it if a Muslim group doesn't come forward with enough money to build the mosque.
Fact Check: The "Ground Zero Mosque" Debate
Dean: NYC Mosque a "Real Affront"
Mass. Gov. Defends "Ground Zero Mosque"
Pelosi Questions Funding of Mosque Critics
(CBS)
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Red Skelton, Pledge of Alligence:
http://www.poofcat.com/july.html
The same NYC building commission refused a building permit for a church but fast track and approve a building permit for a Mosque.
Decision Not to Rebuild Church Destroyed on 9/11 Surprises Greek Orthodox Leaders
Published August 18, 2010, | FoxNews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/18/leaders-disappointed-government-declares-deal-rebuild-ground-zero-church-dead/
The St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, once a tiny, four-story building in the shadows of lower Manhattan, was destroyed in 2001 by one of the falling World Trade Center towers. Nobody from the church was hurt in the attack, but the congregation has, for the past eight years, been trying to rebuild its house of worship.
Though talks between the church and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey stalled last year, church leaders say they've been trying to kick-start discussions ever since.
But amid debate over whether a proposed Islamic community center should go forward near Ground Zero, government officials threw cold water on the prospect of any deal with the church -- telling Fox News the deal is off the table.
Confronted with the Port Authority's verdict, Father Mark Arey, of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, said it's the first he's heard that.
"Negotiations did break off last year. We were expecting to hear from their lawyers -- we never did. We're still expecting to hear from them," he told Fox News. "We're disappointed. ... 130 Liberty Street was promised to us."
At least Trump is trying to take the focus of the attention away.
Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-seven percent (47%) Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -24.
Siding with the Muslim is costing Obama.