Developer of Park51 mosque near Ground Zero willing to talk about moving
Sponsors of the proposed mosque near Ground Zero are not slamming the door on Gov. Paterson’s idea to build the center someplace else.
“We are open to a conversation to find out more on what the governor has in mind,” the center, Park51, said in a Twitter post yesterday.
While mosque opponents charge the chosen site is insensitive to 9/11 victims, Paterson doesn’t oppose the planned location.
He suggested earlier this week it might ease tensions if the center was further away from Ground Zero, and raised the possibility of offering state-owned land.
“I would hope that whatever spirituality exists would compel the developers to sit down and have this conversation,” Paterson said on WOR’s “The John Gambling Show” yesterday.
Mosque developer Sharif El-Gamal has said the group is interested in hearing from Paterson but added that “this has always been about serving lower Manhattan.”
He did not return calls and emails yesterday.
Meanwhile, in another Twitter post, Park51 attacked GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio, a fervent mosque critic, as “islamiphobic.”
Lazio spokesman Barney Keller rejected the claim.
“Rick Lazio has made it very clear from day one that this isn’t about religion. It’s about transparency and this mosque and this imam,” Keller said.