Matt Sky (26) of Manhattan's East Village during the eighth day of his demonstration at the site of a proposed Islamic center and mosque at 45 - 51 Park Place in New York, NY on Tuesday, August 24, 2010. The mosque is being considered in the former Burlington Coat Factory, two blocks from the World Trade Center known as Ground Zero, and has caused a heated national debate. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
street parking" downtown scenario. No such luck on street parking, so after finding a reasonably priced lot at $18.00, my day of pounding the streets could begin in an intermittent rain. The day's assignments called for a bit of walking between both sites, as well as venturing down to Ground Zero to make a few location "filers" (right) and for me to personally get a feel of the scene there again. Nothing panned out at the Federal courthouse picture-wise, as it was only the first day of the trial, and by the time I'd spent about two hours between the mosque site and Ground Zero, I was able to leave the city and make it home by 2PM or so. The office had images by 4PM, and everybody was happy. Our take on the proposed mosque story is scheduled to run tomorrow (Thursday). Here's a few favorites from my "parachute" assignment into the city. Ironically, all my favorite images from the day were made with one camera (Canon 5D-MKII) with the 16mm - 35mm zoom. ~cg.
Tourists view ongoing construction at Ground Zero, the site of the former World Trade Center in New York, NY on Tuesday, August 24, 2010. A proposed Islamic center and mosque two blocks away has caused a heated national debate. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
Pedestrians cross Church Street at Vesey Street at Ground Zero, the site of the former World Trade Center in New York, NY on Tuesday, August 24, 2010. A proposed Islamic center and mosque two blocks away has caused a heated national debate. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
Mounir Bouabane at his falafel cart on West Broadway near the site of a proposed Islamic center and mosque at 45 - 51 in New York, NY on Tuesday, August 24, 2010. The mosque is being considered in the former Burlington Coat Factory, two blocks from the World Trade Center known as Ground Zero, and has caused a heated national debate. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
The site of a proposed Islamic center and mosque at 45 - 51 Park Place in New York, NY on Tuesday, August 24, 2010. The mosque is being considered in the former Burlington Coat Factory, two blocks from the World Trade Center known as Ground Zero, and has caused a heated national debate. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
Matt Sky (26, center) of Manhattan's East Village during the eighth day of his demonstration at the site of a proposed Islamic center and mosque at 45 - 51 Park Place in New York, NY on Tuesday, August 24, 2010. The mosque is being considered in the former Burlington Coat Factory, two blocks from the World Trade Center known as Ground Zero, and has caused a heated national debate. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record
Stephen Patti (83) of Brooklyn with his placards at the site of a proposed Islamic center and mosque at 45 - 51 Park Place in New York, NY on Tuesday, August 24, 2010. The mosque is being considered in the former Burlington Coat Factory, two blocks from the World Trade Center known as Ground Zero, and has caused a heated national debate. CHET GORDON/Times Herald-Record.Why do Muslims want to build a victory mosque at Ground Zero? This should give you some idea.
Islam's holiest shrine-the Kaaba, a cube-like building in Mecca-is an older pre-Islamic pagan Arab shrine. According to Islamic tradition the first building was constructed by Adam and rebuilt by Abraham (Ibrahim). The Black Stone, possibly a meteorite fragment, is a significant feature of the Kaaba. The Masjid al-Haram mosque was built around the Kaaba.
The Ibrahimi Mosque was constructed in Hebron, in 637 CE, over the second-most venerated Jewish holy site, the Cave of Machpelah-the Tomb of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The Dome of the Rock was built on the ruins of Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem, by the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik, 687-691 CE. Al-Walid, son of al-Malik, erected the Al-Aqsa Mosque at the southern end of the Temple Mount and also over the Basilica of St. Mary of Justinian, in 712 CE.
By no means is this practice limited to venerated Jewish holy sites. The Grand Mosque of Damascus was put up over the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in 715 CE.
On October 18, 1009, the Muslim Fatimid caliph Abu 'Ali Mansur Tariqu'l-Hakim destroyed, down to the bedrock, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a Christian church venerated by most Christians as Golgotha, the Hill of Calvary, where tradition says that Jesus was crucified. Gravestones were also destroyed. Muslim forces tried to dig up all the graves and wipe out all traces of their existence. The site is now within the walled, Old City of Jerusalem.
This practice continued through the centuries and was applied not only to Jewish, Christian and Hindu sites but other faiths as well. Late in the 20th century, in Libya, on November 26, 1970, the Catholic Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Tripoli was converted into the Gamal Abdel Nasser Mosque.
Two 1,400 year-old statues of Buddha in the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan were blown up in March 2001. This came after a fatwa (a religious edict), ordered by the Taliban directed all Afghan "idols" be destroyed as being anti-Muslim. In the Central Asian republics no Buddhist temples remain.
While not a religious site, the World Trade Center stood as a symbol of Western commerce, industry and civilization. Then came the horrors of the destruction of those twin towers on September 11, 2001. No doubt many prayers were said there both during and after the calamitous collapse.
In May 2010, it was announced that near the ruins of buildings reduced to rubble in the name of Islam, an Islamic mosque would rise. This fits the historic pattern of Muslim construction near or atop the ruins of their enemies' symbolic buildings as a mark of Islamic supremacy.