Gov. Paterson will meet personally with the developers of the Ground Zero mosque this week in a bid to find them a new location, even as one of the project’s backers insisted yesterday that the current site is “nowhere near the World Trade Center.”
“The governor told me there’s a meeting,” said Rep. Peter King, (R-LI), who spoke with Paterson yesterday morning. “He told me that the builders and the leaders from the mosque” will be there.
A spokesman for Paterson confirmed efforts to set up a powwow, but would not discuss the purpose. But King said it would be to discuss getting the state’s help to find a new location for their proposed mosque and community center.
“He was hopeful [about] the fact that he was having the meeting and he was going to sit down with them, drawing them out to see if they want to do it or not,” said King, who has opposed a mosque so close to Ground Zero.
But one of the key players in the mosque,real estateinvestor Sharif El-Gamal, yesterday said there are no plans to relocate the $100 million project, slated for the site of a building that was hit on 9/11 by a hijacked airliner’s landing gear.
The proposed mosque and community center at 45-51 Park Place -- called Park 51 -- would be built a mere 560 feet, or two blocks, from the northern boundary of the World Trade Center site at Vesey Street.
“In New York, two blocks is a great distance,” El-Gamal said yesterday during an interview on NY1. “We are nowhere near the World Trade Center site.”
In the interview, El-Gamal also never described the project as a mosque, instead calling it only a community center. Once built, he predicted, it would be come “a landmark -- an iconic building that will have people come and visit from around the world.”
Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son Christian Regenhard died on 9/11, said El-Gamal should take another look at a map.
“It’s too close for comfort -- although we will never get comfort,” said Regenhard. “Certainly for family members, we consider the entire area sacred ground. It offends our sensitivity.”
The 13-story mosque and community center has drawn support from President Obama,Mayor Bloombergand local lawmakers, but has generated a national backlash thatRepublicansplan to tap in the upcoming fall elections.
Earlier this week, the liberal Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- in a tough re-election bid in Nevada -- broke ranks with Obama and said he opposed construction of the Ground Zero mosque because of its sensitive location.
Reid’s move leftWhite Houseofficials scrambling to downplay the political divergence.
“Senator Reid is a fiercely independent individual; it’s one of his strengths as a leader of the Democratic Party. So the President feels completely fine that he might disagree,” said White House spokesman Bill Burton.
El-Gamal, who has declined repeated interview requests by The Post, also told NY1 that he’s been surprised by the national reaction and political upheaval caused by the proposed mosque.
“It’s a really sad day for America when our politicians choose to look at a constitutional right and use that as basis for their elections,” he said.
One of the concerns among opponents is that the mosque’s Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, with extensive ties to Muslim nations overseas, will tap foreign sources for much of the gargantuan budget -- raising questions about whether some donors could harbor extremist views.
Rauf has told local audiences that he would raise the money domestically from foundations and members of his congregation as well as from selling bonds. In an interview overseas, he said he would also tap Muslim nations for help.
A post on Park 51’s Twitter site yesterday claimed that they will open their books when the time comes.
“We will disclose funding of the project in compliance with State and Federal law as well as vet investors with the Treasury,” according to the message.
The center would include a mosque, as well as classrooms, an auditorium, public pool and other amenities that would be open to the public, backers say, in a project they liken to the 92nd Street YMHA.