Ground Zero mosque may get $70 million, tax-exempt, public financing

Obama and Bloomberg were playing golf yesterday. Was this the topic of their “economic” discussion? Be sure the mosque at Ground Zero was discussed, but don’t count on the media or the Islamophiles who use your taxes to pay the jizya to be transparent about it. via Ground Zero Muslim center may get public financing:

(Reuters) – The Muslim center planned near the site of the World Trade Center attack could qualify for tax-free financing, a spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu said on Friday, and Liu is willing to consider approving the public subsidy.

The Democratic comptroller’s spokesman, Scott Sieber, said Liu supported the project. The center has sparked an intense debate over U.S. religious freedoms and the sanctity of the Trade Center site, where nearly 3,000 perished in the September 11, 2001 attack.

“If it turns out to be financially feasible and if they can demonstrate an ability to pay off the bonds and comply with the laws concerning tax-exempt financing, we’d certainly consider it,” Sieber told Reuters.

The mosque’s backers hope to raise a total of $70 million in tax-exempt debt to build the center, according to the New York Times. Tax laws allow such funding for religiously affiliated non-profits if they can prove the facility will benefit the general public and their religious activities are funded separately.

The bonds could be issued through a local development corporation created for this purpose, experts said.

The Islamic center would have to repay the bonds, which likely would be less expensive than taxable debt.

New York City’s Industrial Development Authority could not issue debt for the center because the state civic facilities law, which governed this type of financing for non-profits, was allowed to expire about two years ago.

The New York Post reports that Gamal has raided $10,000 so far, and their fund raising campaign kicked off while Faisal “One State” Rauf was on his taxpayer funded trip to the Middle East. Coincidence? Or has it become a taxpayer funded fund raising trip?

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is in Qatar yesterday on his US-sponsored trip while his Ground Zero mosque kicks off its $100 million fund-raising effort.

Sharif El-Gamal announced the start of the fund-raising drive at yesterday’s prayer sessions, which have been taking place since last year in the vacant Burlington Coat Factory that’s to be torn down to make way for the new center.

The Post also reports that Rauf’s new non-profit set up to collect the foreign funds, had it’s tax-exempt status shot down. Listening to NY state officials, it’s likely they will hold Rauf’s hand until he gets it and his victory mosque – at taxpayer expense.

…he ran into a hitch this week filing paperwork to create the charity because a key requirement — that he first obtain federal IRS tax-exempt status — was not met.

As a result, the charity application “is being held in abeyance,” said a source in the state Attorney General’s Office.

Also, city Comptroller John Liu is willing to consider approving tax-free financing for the center, a source said yesterday.

Here is the shallow New York Times article failing to question where a waiter gets $40M to buy properties in NYC:

Mr. Gamal hopes to raise $70 million through tax-exempt bonds, which religiously affiliated nonprofit groups can obtain — but only if they prove that the facilities will benefit the general public, with religious functions separately financed.

He wants to recruit a board of business and civic leaders — Christians, Jews and Muslims — to raise an additional $30 million to $40 million for the nonprofit’s stake in the building. Russell Simmons, the hip-hop mogul, has signed on.

Brokers said Mr. Gamal bid on other properties without success. One real estate executive involved in a purchase with Mr. Gamal said he took weeks to get financial documents that buyers typically assemble within hours.

Seems quite ironic that a year ago Russell Simmons “was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Slavery Memorial at the United Nations,” according to Wikipedia, and now he is funding and promoting an ideology that has a history of enslaving black Africans, to this day, and a building that will treat women and non-Muslims as second class citizens.

Simmons, like many Americans, must be oblivious to the role of Arabs and Islam in the slave trade, or he is intentionally ignoring it to fit his social agenda.

The Daily News provides more details on the thuggish Ground Zero mosque developer:

He pleaded guilty in 1994, 1998 and 1999 to disorderly conduct in Manhattan.

He also pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in 1990, DWI in 1992 and attempted petit larceny in 1993, Nassau County prosecutors said.

Details were unavailable, but a source confirmed a 1994 arrest for patronizing a prostitute.

His most recent arrest was for a Sept. 10, 2005, assault on a barber who sublet a Manhattan apartment from El-Gamal’s brother, Sammy.

El-Gamal allegedly cursed at Vassiliev, called him the Arabic curse word “sharmouta” and punched him in the face, breaking his nose and cheekbones.

When he was arrested, El-Gamal denied he socked Vassiliev, but conceded, “[Vassiliev's] face could have run into my hand,” court papers say.

Sound like these Islamic mobsters will build anything to help the general public?

Was reminded of our previous post – Developer of Ground Zero mosque threatens Muslim opponent – the mounting evidence of Gamal’s thuggish background warrants its own post.