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Two co-founders of the plan to build a Muslim community center and mosque in downtown Manhattan have begun exploring a new, and possibly competing, project: an interfaith cultural center that they said might be located at the currently proposed site, two blocks from ground zero, or elsewhere in the neighborhood. Daisy Khan, the executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, said on Tuesday that she and her husband, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, two co-founders whose involvement in the controversial community center plan was curtailed this year after a falling out with their real estate partner, might develop a...

A museum dedicated to Holocaust victim Anne Frank is expected to move almost next door to the proposed controversial mosque at Ground Zero, it was revealed today. The Anne Frank Center is reported to be about to sign a lease in the 20-floor glass and steel tower at 100 Church St. The building's windows overlook Park 51, the planned 16-storey Muslim community centre and mosque at 45 park Place, just two blocks from Ground Zero. The non-profit making Anne Frank Center, which is partnered with the museum in Amsterdam, is currently housed in a loft in SoHo's Crosby Street. Holocaust...

The Toledo Muslim Community Center, the city's newest mosque, quickly outgrew the West Toledo storefront where about 15 people began meeting two years ago and is holding worship services in the former J. Jeffrey Fretti Funeral Home on West Sylvania Avenue. The mosque, which has been drawing more than 120 people to its Friday Juma prayers, Muslims' largest weekly service, bought the defunct funeral home at foreclosure last September and is finishing remodeling of the 5,700-square-foot facility. The center's board recently hired an imam, or spiritual leader, from Egypt who previously served at Masjid Saad, another Toledo mosque.

CHINO - A number of residents who live on rural county land between Montclair and Chino oppose plans to build an 11,000-square-foot Islamic center in their quiet residential neighborhood. The Bangladeshi Sunni Muslim group, the Al-Nur Islamic Center, recently announced plans to move into their own building. Two years ago, they purchased 1.5 acres of land at 4797 West Phillips Ave. in the hopes of building a new two-story center, with a worship space, a dining hall, and a multipurpose room. They previously shared a building with other tenants in Montclair. The residents, who live on or near the two-lane...

The proposals would see the centre built on the former Citizens Advice Bureau site behind the current mosque. The town's Islamic trust said it has outgrown the mosque, which was built in 1983, and needed a new centre with modern facilities. People can comment on the plans until 20 April with Windsor and Maidenhead council set to decide in June. Fazal Awan, from Maidenhead Islamic Trust, said: "About 300 people used to come for prayers, now there are 700 people.

The distinctive minaret and golden dome will be absent, but a Muslim group — after months of controversy — won approval Tuesday to build a mosque near Willowbrook. A conflict between the religious group's right to practice its faith and the local community's concern about overdevelopment gave way to compromise when the DuPage County Board accepted a scaled-back proposal of the mosque from the Muslim Educational Cultural Center of America, or MECCA. After rejecting a call to send the matter back to the county's Zoning Board of Appeals for further study, the board signed off on the revised plan by...

TAMPA — The question of what law applies in any Florida courtroom usually comes down to two choices: federal or state. But Hillsborough Circuit Judge Richard Nielsen is being attacked by conservative bloggers after he ruled in a lawsuit March 3 that, to resolve one crucial issue in the case, he will consult a different source. "This case," the judge wrote, "will proceed under Ecclesiastical Islamic Law." Nielsen said he will decide in a lawsuit against a local mosque, the Islamic Education Center of Tampa, whether the parties in the litigation properly followed the teachings of the Koran in obtaining...

Chapel Hill, N.C. — The man behind a proposed mosque near Ground Zero in New York spoke at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Wednesday night. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf delivered the 2011 Weil Lecture on American Citizenship. During the lecture, he talked about the importance of Americans engaging with the Muslim community. He said the mosque is one way to help do that. "I'm committed to bridging relations between the country that I love and the religion that I love," Abdul Rauf said in front of a packed auditorium. Abdul Rauf, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was...

In a last-chance effort to stop the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque," opponents were in court Tuesday arguing the building where the mosque is to be built should be a historic landmark -- thus making it ineligible for new construction. "Why did they insist on building this mosque on the graveyards of our friends?" asked New York City firefighter Tim Brown, a 9/11 survivor who was among those that brought the lawsuit to New York State Supreme Court, along with the American Center For Law and Justice. "I'd like it to be an historical landmark to teach America about what happened...

Freepers...I actually have not heard any updates, court cases, or anything on this. What is the latest?

The Obama Administration-via the Department of State is using a Congressionally Authorized Program (The Ambassadors Fund) to fund Mosque Restorations all over the World. Why are we spending Taxpayers money to fund Mosques when we are borrowing 40 cents on the dollar to do it? I am calling on all Tea Party and Taxpayer Reform Groups to call on their Congressman and ask them to do something about this. The information on this abomination can be found on the State Departments own site: eca.state.gov/culprop/afcp/project_listings/search_results.cfm?search=mosque&submit=Search exchanges.state.gov/index.html exchanges.state.gov/heritage/afcp.html

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — The Islamic Society of Greater St. Joseph finally has a place to gather for worship. The society has moved into its new mosque, after worshipping for two years in a basement and then a storefront. Mosque president Ramadhan Washington says the public is invited to an open house on Saturday and Sunday to see the facility and learn about Islam. Washington says he hopes the open house will show visitors that the true teachings of Islam encourage peace and condemn terrorism. The St. Joseph News-Press reported Wednesday that the 3,000-square-foot mosque cost about $200,000 to...

Dear Congress, I don’t ask for much. I live quietly, I take care of myself, I donate to charities, I work hard and save my money. I don’t expect to see a dime of the funds I have paid into Social Security and Medicare when I retire, because I know that money is already all gone. It’s okay, I’ll probably get by without going on the dole, even thought my 401(k) is not nearly what it used to be… But since you’re looking for ways to cut spending here and there, I hereby request three small cuts. Oh, I know...

A Tulsa police captain has filed a federal lawsuit claiming his civil rights were violated after he was reassigned and placed under investigation for refusing to order officers to attend a voluntary social event at a mosque. Capt. Paul Fields claims he was ordered to assign police officers to attend a law enforcement appreciation day at the Islamic Society of Tulsa. Fields refused that order because he said it violated his religious beliefs.

Tulsa police officer files lawsuit over attending mosque event by: DAVID HARPER World Staff Writer Thursday, February 24, 2011 2/24/2011 8:58:19 AM Read the background documents related to the case. Related story: Tulsa police captain temporarily reassigned. A Tulsa police captain who refused to require that some of his subordinates attend an upcoming Law Enforcement Appreciation Day at a Tulsa mosque filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday, claiming that his First Amendment rights have been violated. Capt. Paul Fields also claims that Deputy Chief Daryl Webster - the sole defendant in the case at this point - retaliated against him for...

...Students and Alumni at the University of California in Los Angeles have started a campaign to build a masjid bordering their school to serve the needs of the Muslim population on campus. The idea isn’t uncommon, simply strolling around the periphery of the university one notices about a dozen churches and chapels, all supporting various campus-affiliated religious groups. One such building was recently commissioned by the archdiocese of the Catholic Church. The rub in the story reveals itself in the preliminary sketches based on the proposal found on their current website. In addition to community spaces, classrooms, a prayer hall...

Elermore Vale residents said property values would fall and business would suffer if a mosque was built in their suburb, during an occasionally heated public meeting last night. The $6.8million development proposed by the Newcastle Muslim Association has so concerned some members of the community that a Newcastle City Council forum at Elermore Vale, scheduled to discuss issues in the western suburbs, was almost completely devoted to the mosque plan. Concerns raised included traffic management, flooding, noise and the impact of the proposed development on the community. Luke Craddock said property values would suffer. ‘‘If this great monstrosity of a...

Video at link. http://www.wsbtv.com/video/25764282/index.html

BRENTWOOD -- When Mahtab Ahmad began leading her class on the Quran six years ago, her only student was a friend's daughter. Today, she teaches about 10 children each weekday at the newly established Brentwood Muslim Community Center. "We are forming a new community here," she said. "We come from different countries, with different languages and food, but a mosque is a multicultural place." The government does not track religious demographics, but recent census data indicate that Brentwood, which has a population of about 50,000, has seen a sharp increase in its Middle Eastern population over the past decade. In...

Cologne - Several dozen right-wing extremists protested on Wednesday as the top beams were added to Germany's largest mosque under construction in the city of Cologne. Ditib mosque federation said the building would not only be 'a home for the Muslim community,' but also a place to meet non-Muslims, at the topping out ceremony which traditionally marks the moment a building's roof structure is completed. 'This construction is not a one-way street - just like the process of integration itself,' said the Muslim federation, which receives funding from Turkey. The mosque, designed for 1,200 people, features a 37-metre-high dome and...