The Associated Press has told its writers to stop calling the Ground Zero mosque in New York City the Ground Zero mosque.
According to a copy of an "AP Advisory" posted on the Big Journalism website, the international wire service revealed it was directing its staff to say the project is "near" ground zero, "or two blocks away."
The plans by Imam Abdul Feisal Rauf and the Cordoba Initiative have drawn outraged protests from those who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks by Muslims who hijacked four jets and turned them into flying bombs, killing nearly 3,000 people in 2001.
Most of those deaths came in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers only a few hundred feet from the proposed site of the Ground Zero mosque, and one piece of a smashed jet's landing gear actually hit the building which is proposed to be replaced by a mosque.
Virtually all of the critics have noted that while the Muslims have a right in the United States to build a place of worship, they are exhibiting a high level of insensitivity to the victims' families by choosing that location.
The AP advisory came from Tom Kent, the deputy managing editor for standards and production.
According to Big Journalism, he wrote:
Here is some guidance on covering the NYC mosque story, with assists from Chad Roedemeier in the NYC bureau and Terry Hunt in Washington:
1. We should continue to avoid the phrase "ground zero mosque" or "mosque at ground zero" on all platforms. (We've very rarely used this wording, except in slugs, though we sometimes see other news sources using the term.) The site of the proposed Islamic center and mosque is not at ground zero, but two blocks away in a busy commercial area. We should continue to say it's "near" ground zero, or two blocks away.
WE WILL CHANGE OUR SLUG ON THIS STORY LATER TODAY from "BC-Ground Zero Mosque" to "BC-NYC Mosque."
In short headlines, some ways to refer to the project include:
_ mosque 2 blocks from WTC site
_ Muslim (or Islamic) center near WTC site
_ mosque near ground zero
_ mosque near WTC siteWe can refer to the project as a mosque, or as a proposed Islamic center that includes a mosque.
It may be useful in some stories to note that Muslim prayer services have been held since 2009 in the building that the new project will replace. The proposal is to create a new, larger Islamic community center that would include a mosque, a swimming pool, gym, auditorium and other facilities.
2. Here is a succinct summary of President Obama's position:
Obama has said he believes Muslims have the right to build an Islamic center in New York as a matter of religious freedom, though he's also said he won’t take a position on whether they should actually build it.
Meanwhile, Robert Spencer, the JihadWatch blogger who also has written "Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting American without Guns or Bombs," said that the site was picked because it is linked to 9/11.
"The idea here that will be widely understood is that this mosque is another triumphal mosque, another victory mosque [like] the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the site of the Temple Mount and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus," Spencer told WND today.
"The reason for the interest in this property in particular is its iconic status in relation to the 9/11 attacks. This is something the Imam Rauf has said himself. It's not something I'm attributing to him," Spencer explains.
"In his own words he said, 'New York is the capital of the world and this location close to 9/11 is iconic.' He was happy that his mosque would be at the site of the building [where] the wreckage fell on 9/11," Spencer said.
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