The what now? Oh, right, that community center that everyone freaked out about three months ago and then abruptly forgot about entirely. Apparently, the developer behind the community center has applied for $5 million in federal grant money being doled out for the post-9/11 redevelopment of lower Manhattan. Since the Park51 project hasn’t shown any kind of financial viability, as required by the grant program’s guidelines, it doesn’t have a good chance of getting approved for funding, John Avlon of the Daily Beast suggests.
Nevertheless, the request itself is bound to get people up in arms all over again (although not as many people as before, because the election is over). If there’s anything that will reignite the passions of anti-mosque diehards, it’s the prospect of the federal government using taxpayer money to pay for the promotion of Islam. But in a way, this should be a welcome development for those mosque critics who were supposedly only concerned because they didn’t know where the funding was coming from. Or is the federal government just as unsavory a benefactor as Iranian mullahs at this point?
Mosque Money Shocker [Daily Beast]
