Mighty Mosque

Check this out. It's a mosque that expanded but looks hideous attached to the small house.

If you look back on the street view, you see the house that was there prior to this.

Infernal amplified chanting heard for blocks by Barclays Arena

No need to worry, Saudi Arabia is our "ally" and are a great and reliant customer of our beautiful weapons. And Al Qaeda wound up being very useful too as proxies in Syria and Yemen. I think our derelict mayor and quixotic presidential candidate would call this vibrancy in action.

Mosque variance going to court

From the Queens Chronicle:

The Kissena Park Civic Association and state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) are considering filing an Article 78 lawsuit over a controversial plan to build a mosque in Flushing at 46-05 Parsons Blvd.

The group behind the plan, Masjid e-Noor, sought approvals for variances from the Board of Standards and Appeals, which has not yet published the resolution that includes the waivers and conditions for the project. All of the waivers sought were approved, according to BSA spokesman Ryan Singer.

“They got what they were asking for,” Singer told the Chronicle.

The site is a small, unusually shaped lot at the corner of 46th Avenue and Parsons Boulevard.

The lawsuit — which would aim to overturn the BSA’s decision — has to be filed within 30 days after the agency publishes its resolution with the waivers and conditions for the project, which it will do early next week, according to Singer.

“The Board of Standards and Appeals approved the applicant’s request to waive regulations pertaining to maximum floor area regulations, front yard and height and setback to permit a house of worship to be built at 46-05 Parsons Blvd in Queens,” Singer said in an emailed statement. “The building did not change during the hearing process although waivers were added to accommodate the proposed dome.”

The variances sought were for parking, floor area ratio, sky exposure plane, side yard and other construction regulations. Community Board 7 rejected the plan after members of the board tried to get the applicants to consider another site.

Singer insisted that the proposal was considered as any other would be.

“The Board treated this application with the same rigor as any other before it and found that it met the findings for a variance,” he said.

“We have a situation where the city is letting this particular group and this mosque go forward by waiving the building codes applicable to them,” Carsten Glaeser, the vice president of the KPCA, said.

The civic association, he added, is “trying to come up with money” for representation in court. According to Glaeser, other civic associations might get involved with the lawsuit.

BSA Chair attends grand opening of mosque she approved

This isn't a conflict of interest or anything...

Margery Perlmutter, Chair of the Board of Standards and Appeals, which decided in favor of an oversized mosque that a Brooklyn community opposed, not only attended the grand opening of said mosque, but presented a proclamation to the congregation on behalf of the de Blasio administration.

With a track record like this, it seems the deck is stacked against those opposed to an oversized mosque in Flushing.

No, it's not that people hate you

From Yahoo/AP:

After months of searching to find a home for their mosque, a Muslim group settled on a century-old, three-story Tudor in a leafy neighborhood of a New York suburb, a fixer-upper they say would be perfect with the right renovations.

But not long after the sale went through last year, neighbors thought it was perfect just the way it was. A neighborhood group filed an application to have the building designated a city landmark and won final approval last month, meaning any exterior renovations will now have to go through a time-consuming permission process.

While city officials insisted the landmark status wouldn't prevent the home being used as a mosque, the Muslim organization saw something more sinister.

"We feel that we are being targeted," said Arshad Shariff, chairman of the Islamic Community Center of Mid-Westchester. "And unnecessary obstacles and hindrances are being placed because we are Muslim."

No, it's because you were planning to fuck up an historic house that people in the neighborhood are attached to and admire. Get it?

CB7 says no to mosque variance

Queens Tribune

From the Times Ledger:

Community Board 7 turned down an application for a mosque to be built on Parsons Boulevard and disapproved another by a manufacturer seeking to expand its facility in College Point.

The board unanimously denied an application by not-for-profit Masjid-e-Noor to build a mosque at 46-05 Parsons Blvd. on the grounds that it did not fit the character of the neighborhood amid concerns about the building’s architectural integrity. The board tabled a vote on the proposal in January.

The issue is more than just the application not matching the character of the neighborhood, according to Chuck Apelian, CB 7’s first vice chairman.

Apelian said that more congregants would be attending the mosque than the group anticipates.

“There is great doubt and concern about the integrity of the presentation and the need of their program spaces for this site,” Apelian said.

Concerns included the group’s request for bulk waivers to exceed the maximum community facility floor area allowed in the property’s zoning district, which is designated for residential housing.

The developers also sought to change the mandated floor area ratio of 0.5 in the R2 district — zoned for single-family homes — to 1.045, cut down two trees and waive the yard and parking requirements to address the property’s irregular shape.

The property is an oddly shaped 4,773-square-foot corner lot, according to an Aug. 22 statement of facts and findings prepared for the city Board of Standards and Appeals by Simons & Wright. The group anticipated the mosque would serve about 420 worshipers, 95 percent of whom live in the mosque’s 11355 zip code.

Two floors would house the prayer rooms, one for 210 men and the other for 210 women because they pray separately. On weekends, the imam or the religious scholars would hold Quranic classes to teach roughly 100 students.

Board member Tyler Cassell, a member of the land use committee, said the committee voted to deny the application, but he proposed an alternative.

The Mormon Church on 144-27 Sanford Ave., whose site contains a six-story apartment building with 13,300 square feet and a parking lot for about 25 vehicles, is moving to a different site and could accommodate the mosque’s needs, Cassell said.

Isabella's of Astoria demolished for Muslim school

From Brownstoner Queens:

A one-story mosque at 24-30 Steinway Street in Astoria has been demolished (or not quite demolished, it seems, as there are only alteration permits as opposed to new building permits on file) to make way for a five-story structure that will house a school in addition to religious facilities, according to DOB permits. Based on this DOB violation, it seems safe to surmise that the Al Iman Center (aka the Al Marwa Center) has been operating in one form or another since the mid-1990s.

Okay, Skippy, the mosque hasn't been demolished. Isabella's has been demolished.  You can see the rendering of the school in the window of this Google Maps shot:

Mad bomber in Jamaica

From Fox 5:

Police on Monday released surveillance video of a suspect in a string of possible bias-related firebombings in Queens on New Year's Day and announced $12,000 in reward money for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

One clip shows the arsonist tossing a lit Molotov cocktail that spilled its flaming contents onto the lawn in front of a home at 88-20 170th St. that also houses a Hindu temple.

Cops say the firebug is also behind similar attacks that took place at the Al-Khoei Benevolent Foundation Islamic center, the 179th Street Deli and a home at 146-62 107th Ave.

All of the incidents took place between about 8pm and 10:15pm on Sunday.

No one was injured, but the 107th Avenue home caught fire and was badly damaged.

Nassau County police are also investigating a similar incident in which a bottle filled with gasoline was thrown at a house on Glafil Street in Elmont around 9:40pm on Sunday.

The suspect in the Queens cases was described as a black man between 25 and 30 years old, about 5 feet 8 inches and weighing 200 pounds.

When last seen, he was wearing a black jacket and baseball cap, and he fled the scene in a light-colored, four-door sedan.

Police were looking into whether the fires were hate crimes.

Ground Zero mosque developer a slumlord

From Metro:

It’s not just the five civil suits pending against him, which Metro revealed last week.

Sharif El-Gamal, developer of Park51, the controversial mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, also has nearly 400 open violations on a building his company owns at West 151st Street, according to the New York Post.

El-Gamal also owes the city over $60,000 in unpaid fees, fines and taxes on the uptown property.

Tenants say the 14-unit building is infested with rats and cockroachs. They also told the Post that landlord El-Gamal has ignored their complaints, ranging from a bathroom ceiling collapse to a lack of heat.

The news comes on top of a claim from Con Edison that El-Gamal owes them $1.7 million in back rent for 51 Park Place, where he wants to expand the mosque and Islamic community center.

El-Gamal is due in court this Thursday for the uptown building violations. If he doesn’t show up, he reportedly risks being sent to jail.

I'm sure Bloomberg and Quinn will bail him out.

Queens Muslim melee at Playland

Bloomberg's hypocritical first amendment argument

From the NY Post:

As long as Mayor Mike is in the dock, let us also note that when it comes to building a mosque near Ground Zero, he has from the start stood behind the First Amendment -- sort of.

That is, he likes the part that gives Muslims the right to build a house of worship just about anywhere they want.

But the part guaranteeing a separation between religion and government?

Not so much.

That much became obvious last week with the release of e-mails demonstrating that City Hall did much more than offer the mosque's organizers routine help.

Even to the point of pressing Community Board 1 to cast an approving vote -- so that the chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission could be given the "political cover" he so urgently sought before his agency denied landmark status to the existing building.

That not only raises First Amendment questions -- it also provides serious doubts about the legitimacy of the LPC vote, which appears to have been dictated far more by politics than by any consideration of the building's architectural and historical merit.

All this is objectionable on its face.

But the violence it does the First Amendment takes the offense to a fundamentally higher level.

Government has no business advocating for any religion. That's the principle that chased Nativity scenes from the public square.

Leave it to Mike Bloomberg to cherry-pick one of America's founding principles.

One Muslim is saying it's time to look in the mirror.

It was Nazli's job to get mosque approval

From the NY Post:

Dozens of emails between Mayor Bloomberg’s aides and developers of the proposed mosque near Ground Zero show the mayor’s office has gone out of its way to support the controversial plan – with one of his commissioners going so far as to ghost write a letter to a community board leader on the mosque’s behalf.

In one exchange Nazli Parvizi, commissioner of the city’s Community Affairs Unit, penned a favorable letter to Community Board 1 Chairwoman Julie Menin -- thanking her for being open-minded to the project – which has drawn scrutiny nationwide for its proximity to Ground Zero.

Parvizi emailed the drafted letter to the mosque’s imam and his wife – Feisal Abdul Rauf and Daisy Khan – for their permission and ended it with Daisy’s first name.

She sent along the fax number and mailing address for CB1 – which voted in favor of the project in May – and offered any further help.

The letter thanked Menin personally for “giving us an audience to share our vision of the Cordoba Center in Manhattan,” referring to the planned project.

“We are incredibly saddened by the media distortion on what this project actually is and to whom it serves,” Pavizi went on to write.

Menin, a major proponent of the development, said she never received the letter.

Bloomberg has been a vocal fan of building the project – commonly referred to as Park 51 – near Ground Zero, decrying opponents as foes of religious freedom.

His spokesman Stu Loeser today said Parvizi’s job is “to help groups navigate city government, and from helping prepare for a Papal visit to extending approval of a Sukkah in a midtown Manhattan park, this kind of assistance is typical of its regular work.”

Nazli Parvizi only helps favored groups navigate city government. When it comes to Queens, she's more likely to throw up roadblocks than help. And she makes a 6-figure taxpayer funded salary for this.

Mosque owners seek handout

From CBS 2:

The debate over the proposed mosque and community center at Ground Zero was heating up once more Tuesday. Those opposed to the project are furious after learning the developers of Park 51 have applied for grant money, CBS 2′s Kathryn Brown reports.

“I was shocked,” said 9/11 first responder Tim Brown. “I think it’s the middle finger to the families.”

Brown said the latest move by the developers was worse than a slap in the face. Developers sought $5 million in 9/11 development grant money.

The center will include a mosque, a gym and a daycare.

On their website, developers touted the need for grant money to help fund “desperately-needed programs like domestic violence support groups, Arabic lessons and immigration services.”

The buck will stop with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is in charge of the money. They’ve set aside $17 million for the cultural enhancement of the area around ground zero and, so far, they’ve received nearly 300 applications from a variety of nonprofits.

Mosque still not coming clean on "incident"

This is a followup from a previously reported story. In a nutshell, the mosque said on WPIX TV that the reported incident of a guy entering the mosque and peeing on prayer rugs never happened, then accepted a donation for new prayer rugs from an out of state rabbinical student. I wrote to the Voice about it, and they followed up on the discrepancy. Here is the second follow up from the Village Voice:

After a visit to the mosque last week, we've learned that the $1,185 donation by Barenblat for a new prayer rug was received and that the new rug has been installed.

We also got in touch with Barenblat, who told the Voice she'd spoken with her contact at Al-Iman, who informed her that Rivera did urinate on the rug inside the entrance to the mosque. Barenblat's contact, who asked to go unnamed, said that while the entryway is not used for praying on a daily basis, it is used for praying on Fridays and holidays when the mosque is at full capacity inside.

"Even if the scope of the damage isn't as great as was initially reported -- meaning if Mr. Rivera urinated on the rug in the entryway which is only sometimes used for prayer instead of urinating on all of the prayer rugs -- I still think the gesture of making the donation was worthwhile," Barenblat said.

So it seems the matter boils down to whether the entryway is considered "inside" or "outside" the mosque. During our visit, we were shown the spot where Rivera urinated, on a rug in the right-hand corner of the entryway -- definitely on the inside side of the door. This, of course, conflicts with the police report that identifies Rivera as having peed outside.

I call bullshit on this attempt at damage control.

DOB issues at mosque site

The New York City Buildings Department has confirmed multiple violations inside two of the buildings under construction for the planned Islamic center near ground zero, Fox 5's Linda Schmidt reported.

Now here's something to think about

From Gideon's Trumpet:

One of the best comments on that New York Mosque brouhaha comes from John Podhoretz, Editor of Commentary magazine, in the October 2010 issue:

“The proposal [to construct a mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan] has ignited a new culture war in the United States in which unusual lines have been drawn—with unabashedly secular liberals sternly admonishing religious conservatives about the transcendent importance of the freedom of religion. Suddenly, even property rights and building “as of right” have become sacrosanct to people and institutions who have opposed private projects in important locations all over New York City on the grounds that, say, they might cast a shadow at certain hours over a few hundred square feet in Central Park. And yet they feel free to express disgust at complaints about a mosque a few hundred feet from where the Twin Towers were destroyed—a building that would certainly cast a shadow over a Ground Zero memorial.”

But that’s how it goes in the land-use biz, doesn’t it? People whose hearts profess to bleed for the plight of the poor are usually in favor of the use of eminent domain for redevelopment which disposesses the poor en masse for the benefit of large corporations. They seem untroubled by the fact that the core feature of redevelopment is for the redevelopers to receive the taken land from which the poor have been evicted (and for which the public has paid top dollar), for peanuts or even free.

Mosque may be moved further east

That's interesting. I thought it had to be in close proximity to Ground Zero and that it wasn't a mosque. So everything we've heard were lies?

Why do they get a pass?

From the NY Post:

The building slated to become a mosque and community center near Ground Zero now hosts weekly prayer services for several hundred worshippers despite two open violations for "immediately hazardous" conditions, The Post has learned.

The safety violations -- for holes in floors and the lack of an automatic sprinkler system -- were issued by city inspectors Aug. 3 and Sept. 1, but that hasn't stopped owners of the 152-year-old building from getting temporary permits from the city to use it.

"The two violations will not impact the current temporary place-of-assembly permit, which allows the space to be occupied," said Buildings Department spokesman Tony Sclafani.

This crap doesn't fly in NJ. From Fox 5:

Ground Zero mosque imam Feisal Abdul Rauf must reimburse Union City, N.J. officials for costs associated with keeping an off-duty police officer on guard at one of his dilapidated apartment buildings, The Jersey Journal reported Friday.

Rauf was ordered to pay $12,960 to city authorities who were fired up after having to front the ten days¿ worth of pay earned by the officer keeping fire watch while the imam made repairs ranging from faulty fire alarms to moldy bathrooms and bedbugs.

Over 200 health and fire code violations were found in the building, and Rauf has until Oct. 9 to fix them. Union City is suing the religious leader for ignoring some 30 tenant complaints from 1996 to 2010.

Shady mosque accepts donation for incident that never happened

Okay, please watch this (yes, I know it's old news):



Now read this: Woman Raises $1,180 to Replace Urinated-on Prayer Rugs in Queens Mosque

Yeah, I asked the same question. "How the hell does a mosque that had their attorney tell all of us out in TV land that the incident never happened take money from someone from out-of-state who mistakenly and understandably assumed that the original widely circulated news reports were true without first setting the record straight?"

I for one was not allowing this to go by without comment! (Very unlike me, I know...)

So I wrote to Jen Doll at the Voice and she wrote a lengthy detailed follow up. Kudos, Jen.

I'm really hoping video footage of this mosque on 9/11/01 turns up. If the rumors are true, I would LOVE to be the one to break that story.

Shady mosque developers update

From the NY Post:

The religious leader behind the proposed mosque near Ground Zero has been slapped with a lawsuit in Union City, NJ, where officials have accused him of ignoring dozens of violations at two rundown apartment buildings he owns.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's buildings, with a total of 48 apartments, have been the targets of more than 30 health and safety complaints, among them mold, uncollected garbage, bedbugs, odors, dirty hallways and a lack of heat, the lawsuit says.

One of the buildings has been boarded up by Rauf since a blaze on Feb. 8, 2008, that broke out after Union City had issued a dozen fire-code violations there.

"He's a terrible landlord who's unresponsive to the residents who live in his building," Mark Albiez, a spokesman for Union City Mayor Brian Stack, told The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, which first reported the lawsuit.

From CBS:

A New Jersey judge has demanded that the imam who wants to build a mosque near Ground Zero produce documents proving he is fixing numerous alleged problems at two apartment buildings he owns in northern New Jersey.

State Superior Court Judge Thomas Olivieri told a lawyer for Feisal Abdul Rauf to submit the documents by Thursday afternoon.

Olivieri chastised Rauf’s lawyer for being unprepared and failing to produce documents to prove work was being done to fix the apartment problems, 1010 WINS’ Steve Sandberg reported.

Attorney Tomas Espinosa told the judge Wednesday that some work is under way at the buildings.

“The legal process will show that my client is an honorable man,” Espinosa said.

Rauf did not attend the hearing and his attorney said the imam made the decision because he has been under stress due to the Ground Zero mosque controversy.

From the Daily News:

The developer of the Ground Zero mosque is being bounced from his SoHo office, the Daily News has learned.

Sharif El-Gamal, who runs the real estate firm Soho Properties and is heading the project two blocks from Ground Zero, was slapped with eviction proceedings last month after tallying up $39,000 in back rent, a Manhattan Housing Court filing shows.

The management company that runs 552 Broadway, where El-Gamal leases space, said in the filing that he was warned in July and given until mid-August to pay up.

But when the August deadline passed, management company Royal Crospin Corp. filed the eviction notice.

It's not the first time El-Gamal's company has fallen behind in rent.

Royal Crospin sued Soho Properties last year for nearly $89,000 in back rent. El-Gamal's firm paid $56,000 to settle.

Even before eviction proceedings began, El-Gamal's lease was to expire this Oct. 31.

Soho Properties said it has had a number of problems with the leased space, but expects to settle out of court.