Ground Zero: Yes to mosque, no to church

This will make your blood boil. While New York City officials rush to build the Ground Zero mosquestrosity, a 15-story middle finger to America, they've allowed the rebuilding of the 95-year-old St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which stood at the base of the World Trade Center towers and was destroyed by Muslim terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, to be mired in obstruction and endless red tape.

The church has fought a 10-year-long sisyphean battle to rebuild that magnificent icon, but still can't rebuild, while the Islamic supremacist grifters behind the Ground Zero mosque have been helped by city officials to clear all obstacles.

In a letter to Christopher O. Ward, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, CeCe Heil, senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, charged that the Port Authority had "misrepresented the nature of its preliminary agreement with St. Nicholas Church, engaged in fraud while moving away from negotiations, relied upon defamation to mask its activities, and trespassed on St. Nicholas Church property without warrant or legal justification." Heil added that "the Port Authority's activities are a violation of St. Nicholas Church's rights under federal law 42 U.S.C. §1983 and the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution."

Heil accused the Port of "bad-faith dealings and obstructionist tactics towards the St. Nicholas Church" and charged that "the extensive delay caused by the Port Authority's bad-faith negotiations coupled with an arrogant attitude toward people of faith lead to the conclusion that the Port Authority's actions towards St. Nicholas Church are motivated by hostility toward religion – a violation of equal protection of the laws under both the U.S. and New York constitutions."

Contrast that to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's haste to build the cultural obscenity that is the Ground Zero mosque. He is even lobbying for 9/11 taxpayer funds for the mosque. The New York Daily News has reported that "Mayor Bloomberg's top deputies went to great lengths to help those trying to build a mosque at Ground Zero – even drafting a letter to the community board for them." The documents, emails and various exchanges between Bloomberg's office and the radical Ground Zero mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his colleagues showed evidence of collusion, inappropriate political support for the mosque and favoritism given to the project. Why did the mayor apparently break ethical rules for an imam who has radical ties and is a slumlord whose buildings were placed in receivership?

Evan C. Lambrou is a former editor of the National Herald, the country's oldest and largest Greek-American newspaper. He told me in an exclusive statement that it was "very disgraceful that the Port Authority has compelled the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese to file a federal lawsuit just to rebuild one of our churches. And it's simply astounding that people work themselves into such a frenzy about Park 51; that so many elected officials have rushed to defend development of an Islamic community center two blocks away from Ground Zero; and that virtually no one cares about the Port Authority's plans to exclude a Christian church from Ground Zero altogether."

According to Lambrou, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo could "order Mr. Ward and the Port Authority to remove roadblocks to church reconstruction, but he hasn't." Lambrou said that his entreaties to Cuomo and State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had largely been ignored, except for "one feel-good call from a press officer at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation assuring me that the 'Cuomo administration cares' and a message from an aide to Silver saying that he was 'concerned' about the church." Silver, Lambrou said, is "easily the most influential legislator in Albany," and yet he has taken "a hands-off approach, even though the church is in his Assembly district."

Lambrou says that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie "could also be helpful. He could, and should, weigh in on the debate, and come down on the side of the church." But "the lack of response to my concerns has been deeply disheartening. Orthodox Christian rights are being violated by a powerful public entity under their watch, and the people who should be defending us are doing nothing about it. … That indicates they're actually willing to relegate this innocent and historic house of worship to oblivion and, in so doing, perpetuate the tragedy of 9/11."

How does it do that? Lambrou explains: "This issue is a matter of a Christian minority's rights to rebuild one of its churches in that church's historic setting. To oppose that right is an obstruction of a minority faith community's religious freedom. If public officials support Park 51, they should also support Saint Nicholas Church. It's hypocritical to do otherwise."

We are going to stand against this hypocrisy at Ground Zero on Sept. 11. Book your travel arrangements now and be at our 9/11 Freedom Rally. Stand with us for freedom and human rights, against the Islamic supremacist Ground Zero mosque and for the rebuilding of St. Nicholas Church. It's a matter of justice.