Ground Zero Mosque to Feds: Keep Us in Business

During the the lower Manhattan mosque debate, I predicted it would never be built. Developers now want millions from a post-9/11 recovery fund.

During the heat of the debate over the lower Manhattan mosque, I suggested that the whole scheme was a desperate stunt by a small-time property developer over his head, tempted by an imam looking for personal publicity. I predicted that the thing would never be built.

Well guess what the Daily Telegraph reported yesterday?

Ground Zero mosque developers apply for federal funding

The developers of an Islamic community centre and mosque near Ground Zero in New York have applied for millions of dollars in public money from a post-September 11 reconstruction fund.

The Park 51 group has risked reigniting a debate over its project by requesting the grant, which is reported to total $5 million (£3.1 million), from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

The odds that the group will receive the money are slightly below freezing, I should think. And anyway, even if they get the money, they're still $95 million short of budget. My guess is that $5 million is just enough to keep servicing the mortgage and paying themselves fees.