Jewish Group Fights Ground Zero Mosque

The planned mosque and Islamic community center two blocks from where the World Trace Center attacks took place on September 11, 2001, continues to get flak from protesters—this time, the Anti-Defamation League, the nation’s top Jewish civil rights group. The project, the ADL says, is “counterproductive to the healing process.” The ADL’s main concerns are where the project’s funding is coming from and whether the organization behind the plan, the Cordoba Initiative, is associated with “groups whose ideologies stand in contradiction to our shared values.” The plan’s other opponents include Sarah Palin and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich. There are also supporters, though, like New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “We believe it will be a place where the counter-momentum against extremism will begin,” Daisy Khan, wife of Cordoba’s director, told The New York Times. “We are committed to peace.” A city community board voted largely in favor of the project last spring.