A group of progressive Muslim-Americans plans to build an Islamic community center two and a half blocks from ground zero in lower Manhattan. They have had a mosque in the same neighborhood for many years. There’s another mosque two blocks away from the site. City officials support the project. Muslims have been praying at the Pentagon, the other building hit on Sept. 11, for many years.
In short, there is no good reason that the Cordoba House project should have been a major national news story, let alone controversy. And yet it has become just that, dominating the political conversation for weeks and prompting such a backlash that, according to a new poll, nearly 7 in 10 Americans now say they oppose the project. How did the Cordoba House become so toxic, so fast?
In a story last week, the New York Times, which framed the project in a largely positive, noncontroversial light last December, argued that it was cursed from the start by “public relations missteps.” But this isn’t accurate. To a remarkable extent, a Salon review of the origins of the story found, the controversy was kicked up and driven by Pamela Geller, a right-wing, viciously anti-Muslim, conspiracy-mongering blogger, whose sinister portrayal of the project was embraced by Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post.
Here’s a timeline of how it all happened:
Dec. 8, 2009: The Times publishes a lengthy front-page look at the Cordoba project. “We want to push back against the extremists,” Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the lead organizer, is quoted as saying. Two Jewish leaders and two city officials, including the mayor’s office, say they support the idea, as does the mother of a man killed on 9/11. An FBI spokesman says the imam has worked with the bureau. Besides a few third-tier right-wing blogs, including Pamela Geller’s Atlas Shrugs site, no one much notices the Times story.
Dec. 21, 2009: Conservative media personality Laura Ingraham interviews Abdul Rauf’s wife, Daisy Khan, while guest-hosting “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox. In hindsight, the segment is remarkable for its cordiality. “I can’t find many people who really have a problem with it,” Ingraham says of the Cordoba project, adding at the end of the interview, “I like what you’re trying to do.”
(This segment also includes onscreen the first use that we’ve seen of the misnomer “ground zero mosque.”) After the segment — and despite the front-page Times story — there were no news articles on the mosque for five and a half months, according to a search of the Nexis newspaper archive.
May 6, 2010: After a unanimous vote by a New York City community board committee to approve the project, the AP runs a story. It quotes relatives of 9/11 victims (called by the reporter), who offer differing opinions. The New York Post, meanwhile, runs a story under the inaccurate headline, “Panel Approves ‘WTC’ Mosque.” Geller is less subtle, titling her post that day, “Monster Mosque Pushes Ahead in Shadow of World Trade Center Islamic Death and Destruction.” She writes on her Atlas Shrugs blog, “This is Islamic domination and expansionism. The location is no accident. Just as Al-Aqsa was built on top of the Temple in Jerusalem.” (To get an idea of where Geller is coming from, she once suggested that Malcolm X was Obama’s real father. Seriously.)
May 7, 2010: Geller’s group, Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), launches “Campaign Offensive: Stop the 911 Mosque!” (SIOA ‘s associate director is Robert Spencer, who makes his living writing and speaking about the evils of Islam.) Geller posts the names and contact information for the mayor and members of the community board, encouraging people to write. The board chair later reports getting “hundreds and hundreds” of calls and e-mails from around the world.
May 8, 2010: Geller announces SIOA’s first protest against what she calls the “911 monster mosque” for May 29. She and Spencer and several other members of the professional anti-Islam industry will attend. (She also says that the protest will mark the dark day of “May 29, 1453, [when] the Ottoman forces led by the Sultan Mehmet II broke through the Byzantine defenses against the Muslim siege of Constantinople.” The outrage-peddling New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser argues in a note at the end of her column a couple of days later that “there are better places to put a mosque.”
May 13, 2010: Peyser follows up with an entire column devoted to “Mosque Madness at Ground Zero.” This is a significant moment in the development of the “ground zero mosque” narrative: It’s the first newspaper article that frames the project as inherently wrong and suspect, in the way that Geller has been framing it for months. Peyser in fact quotes Geller at length and promotes the anti-mosque protest of Stop Islamization of America, which Peyser describes as a “human-rights group.” Peyser also reports — falsely — that Cordoba House’s opening date will be Sept. 11, 2011.
Lots of opinion makers on the right read the Post, so it’s not surprising that, starting that very day, the mosque story spread through the conservative — and then mainstream — media like fire through dry grass. Geller appeared on Sean Hannity’s radio show. The Washington Examiner ran an outraged column about honoring the 9/11 dead. So did Investor’s Business Daily. Smelling blood, the Post assigned news reporters to cover the ins and outs of the Cordoba House development daily. Fox News, the Post’s television sibling, went all out.
Within a month, Rudy Giuliani had called the mosque a “desecration.” Within another month, Sarah Palin had tweeted her famous “peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate” tweet. Peter King and Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty followed suit — with political reporters and television news programs dutifully covering “both sides” of the controversy.
One of the most vocal opponents the planned Islamic community center in lower Manhattan believes the project has suffered fatal public-relations damage and will never be built.
“It is dead,” said Andy Sullivan, a New York construction worker who has spent much of the last year organizingagainst the project, which is known as the “ground zero mosque” or Park51. “They didn’t count on the public taking such a hard line against it.”
A spokesman for the real estate developer Sharif El-Gamal, who owns the property at 45-51 Park Place, insisted that the project is on track and that “nothing has changed.”
“The financing is moving forward,” said Park51 spokesman Larry Kopp, while declining to give details on the fundraising status of a project whose cost has been put as high as $100-$150 million.
Park51 has experienced two rounds of leadership changes in the past few months. First, El-Gamal announced in January that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf — who had been the public face of the project last year when it was the subject of a national controversy — would no longer be speaking on behalf of Park51. Then, a second imam, Sheik Abdallah Adhami, announced in February he was stepping down from a leadership role at Park51 that he has assumed just three weeks before. (That followed a controversy over remarks made by Adhami about homosexuality.)
To Sullivan, the loss of Rauf was the single biggest blow to the project. “They just went through two imams. Imam Rauf and [his wife] Daisy Khan have officially separated from Sharif El-Gamal. Rauf was the international figure that was supposed to draw all of this attention and fundraising capability. El-Gamal on his own is nothing,” Sullivan said.
The New York Times reported last week that Rauf and Khan are now considering trying to build an “interfaith cultural center”in the city, which would be separate from Park51.
The Times also reported that “no money has been raised” for the Park51 project. As early as last summer, media reports suggested that Park51 might never raise the money to get off the ground.
Kopp, the Park51 spokesman, maintained that the project is moving forward. “The common misconception was, because Imam Feisal was the face of the project, that he was calling the shots. He has never been the leader of the project,” he said.
Obsessive anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller is having another New York rally in support of bigotry and insanity. This time, though, there’s a twist: She is still protesting the imaginary “ground zero mosque,” but she also wants everyone to know that she’s in favor of Wal-Mart.
The giant retail chain that has successfully held the lead in America’s race to the bottom would like to expand into New York City. The City Council is against the idea. Geller, obviously, supports Wal-Mart, because liberals dislike Wal-Mart, and liberals love Muslims, and Muslims hate America, and so therefore Wal-Mart is good and loves America.
The beautiful thing about her little flier is how confusing and incoherent it is. It is anti-mosque, and pro-Wal-Mart, but the Wal-Mart happy face is wearing a veil, and there is an Islamic crescent in place of the style guide-confounding hyphen?
Also, Geller is the lady who decided to loudly boycott Dunkin’ Donuts because it had an ad in which spokesperson Rachael Ray wore a scarf that resembled a keffiyeh. Surely Wal-Mart has sold something with a crescent on it at some point. Look, you can buy a Quran for $5! And there’s even a Spanish version, for illegal immigrant terror anchor babies!
(Oh, wait, Geller already got mad at Wal-Mart for something Muslim-related in 2009, because she is impossible to parody. But it wasn’t really their fault, because they were sued by CAIR, so she has forgiven them.)
New York is expected to get a foot of snow tonight, which should make for a really fun protest of a City Council hearing that has already been postponed.
Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene
More Alex Pareene.
Canadian singer Justin Bieber performs in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Tuesday Oct. 19, 2010. (AP Photo/THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)(Credit: AP)
Here’s a quick update on the strange tale of the Justin Bieber boycott by foes of the “ground zero mosque” that I reported last week.
Leading mosque foe Andy Sullivan, who signed onto the boycott after being taken in by a hoax report that Bieber had spoken out in support of Park51, has now apologized to Bieber, his fans, and his family.
Sullivan, a Brooklyn-born construction worker who will be touring in opposition to Park51 this year, published the apology on his blog, Blue Collar Corner:
It seems a wrong needs to be righted and the fault is my own. My 911 Hard Hat Pledge to band together fellow Americans to stand in defiance of the very hurtful and distasteful Ground Zero Mosque had spawned a Face Book Boycott. One of my volunteers out west began it and I approved it. It simply put either people and or groups on there who were outwardly in supoport of the Ground Zero Mosque. Some of the culprits were Jon Stewart, Mike Bloomberg and GQ magazine to mention a few.Well it wasn’t till Justin Bieber came out on it that garnered attention. The individual running the site had read an article referencing Tiger Beat’s magazine interview with Bieber where he had informed them his support of it. Well it turned out the interview was a fake but we didn’t find out until quite recently. Weeks ago I did several interviews with media on it and said my children who were fans were upset and my 8 year old took down her posters in her room and my boy said he will not be going to any Justin Bieber concerts after this. My kids are 11 and 8 but if you are a borderline Boomer you know that’s like 18 and 25 by today’s standards. My children were free to make up their own minds regarding Bieber and I respected their convictions. I did not demand or restrict anything in any way I felt that this was an important way for them to get a taste of what it’s like to make an adult decision.
So in closing I offer my most genuine apology to Justin Bieber his family and his fans. If I have caused any grief or pain I am terribly sorry. I for one know what that can do to someone and their family. I also hope this does not detract from our” Sacrificed Survivors” cross country Tour where will be be taking on Imam Rauff and his Pro Ground Zero Mosque Band of propagandists. The Tour begins the 15th of January in Dearborn Mich. Stay tuned I am sure the sparks will be flying.
In an interview with Salon last week, Sullivan referred to Dearborn, which has a large Muslim population, as “Islamoville.”
Bieber’s publicist, by the way, never got back to me in response to questions about the teen star’s actual views on the mosque, and the hoax.
Punch the terms “Park51″ and “Ground Zero Mosque” into Google News’ timeline creator and this is what you get:
To be sure, Google News is a blunt instrument for measuring volume of press coverage. But the timeline nevertheless conveys a lot about the strange, still somewhat inexplicable burst of coverage surrounding what became known as the “Ground Zero Mosque.”
The story began inorganically, with misleading framing pushed into the mainstream by a right-wing blog and the New York Post. It evolved into the national political obsession of the summer and, finally, into a midterm election issue. And then, just like that, it disappeared.
The course of the media coverage had little to do with the facts on the ground at 49-51 Park Place in lower Manhattan, the proposed site of the mosque. To review what happened:
News of the proposed Islamic community center first broke in a front-page New York Times piece in December 2009, but it garnered very little attention. The attention it did receive — including from the likes of Fox News — was positive. Then in May, when the project was facing some local bureaucratic hurdles, anti-Muslim blogger Pamela Geller stepped up her coverage of what she called the “Monster Mosque” of “Death and Destruction.” The New York Post adopted Geller’s perspective on the project: that it was something to fear and defeat. (See Salon’s detailed timeline on the origins of the story here.)
The first peak in the coverage came when a wave of national Republican figures weighed in. Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty each took shots at the project and its organizers. Sarah Palin took to Twitter to call on “peaceful Muslims” to “pls refudiate.”
Meanwhile, the proposed community center had gotten all the necessary regulatory approvals — though there were (and still are) serious questions about whether the organizers could raise the money needed to make the project a reality.
Again, very little about the project itself shaped the media coverage. There were distortions that are, at this point, well known: A mosque was only a small part of the proposed center; it was not at ground zero, but a few city blocks away; the organizers had been operating a progressive mosque in a nearby neighborhood for many years; there were no links to terrorism; lead organizer Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf had in fact worked with both the Bush and Obama administrations promoting the United States in the Muslim world.
The second peak in coverage came in mid-August when President Obama weighed in at a press conference, citing religious freedom. Those comments gave political reporters an excuse to keep writing about the story for weeks.
But then, after a last gasp in October in the run-up to the election (including a few memorable anti-mosque campaign ads), the story all but disappeared. What changed? Well, on the ground, exactly nothing. The organizers had not changed their plans. Fundraising continued.
There can be no single explanation for why a news story of this magnitude disappears. But, given the timeline here, it seems likely that the electoral calendar played a role. National Republicans who used Park51 as a bludgeon against Democrats suddenly were less interested in talking about the project after the election. In addition, there was suddenly action in Congress again after Nov. 2. And political analysts turned their focus to what Washington would look like with a Republican House majority in 2011.
The media, too, decided that a proposed Islamic community center in Manhattan was not deserving of daily, granular coverage. Looking back now, it’s pretty good evidence of a manufactured story when coverage spikes and then vanishes, even as nothing has fundamentally changed.
In 2011, the “ground zero mosque” story will probably live on — but primarily on Fox News and Pamela Geller’s blog. It’s unlikely that anyone else will pay much attention ever again.
Andy Sullivan, a construction worker and Brooklyn native, has been one of the loudest opponents of Park51, the planned mosque and community center near ground zero. Founder of the 9/11 Hard Hat Pledge — under which construction workers vow not to work at the mosque site — Sullivan has been a regular presence on television, known for wearing his signature American flag hard hat and talking tough about radical Muslims.
So it was quite a surprise this month to read that Sullivan has set his sights on a new target: Canadian teen pop superstar Justin Bieber.
Mosque foes recently started a boycott of Bieber after he made comments in support of the mosque project in an interview with Tiger Beat, a teen fan magazine, Sullivan told WYNC earlier this month. Now, his 8-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son have been banned from attending Bieber performances.
“I informed them, ‘Hey guys, guess what? Justin Bieber spoke out for the ground zero mosque,” Sullivan explained to Salon in an interview. “My little girl took down his poster and said she didn’t want to have nothing to do with him anymore. These are my kids. They’re living this thing.”
A Facebook page has been set up by an ally of Sullivan publicizing the boycott of Bieber and several other pro-mosque celebrities. It has attracted nearly 500 fans.
Intrigued by the idea that Bieber would weigh in on one of the most polarizing political issues of the day, I began looking for his interview with Tiger Beat.
The magazine does cover Bieber obsessively (“Justin Bieber Dodges Dating Selena Gomez Question!” and “Did Justin Bieber Grow a Mustache?” are two recent features). But I couldn’t find any sign of an interview on Park51. There is, however, a post on the website CelebJihad.com purporting to describe a Tiger Beat interview. It reads in part:
In an interview with Tiger Beat, the pop sensation stressed that freedom of religion is what makes America great, and went on to say that those who oppose the Mosque are motivated by bigotry.
“Muslims should be allowed to build a mosque anywhere they want,” the singer said. “Coming from Canada, I’m not used to this level of intolerance, eh.”
Bieber went on to say that Muslims are “super cool,” Christians are “lame-o-rama,” and that the mosque will help “start a dialogue” with all religions about which Justin Bieber song is the most awesome.
“I was like seven when September 11th went down, and frankly I’m surprised people are still going on about it. Move on, already!”
Celebjihad.com seems to specialize in softcore celebrity porn, but poke around a bit and you find this disclaimer:
CelebJihad.com is a satirical website containing published rumors, speculation, assumptions, opinions, fiction as well as factual information
I was able to reach the proprietor of the site, who confirmed that the Bieber item is in fact a hoax. “[T]he fact that some people take it seriously is hilariously depressing,” he said in an e-mail.
It’s a hoax, though, that has spread around the Web, and succeeded in taking in several anti-mosque activists. They recently discussed the issue on the wall of the Facebook boycott page:
Megan Alpert: Why is Justin Beiber on Boycott companies for ground zero?? He’s a kid. lol
Cynthia Bloemer: That stupid dhimmi kid spoke out for the Mosque. Idiot kid!
Megan Alpert: That’s crazy Cynthia. I totally missed that all together.
Administrator: Justin took an adult position and spoke out in support of the mosque in tigar beat magazine. He one of the most influential teen sensations, reaching millions of impressionable kids. If he is going to play like the big boys he better expect some back lash…
Megan Alpert: Well then he is leading all the young teens into a funny way of thinking. He was just a baby when the attack came upon us. He has no clue what we are up against. He is very lost.
Walter H Steinlauf: Justin Beiber is “fishing in DEEP water” now. I eat people like that for breakfast.
Bieber’s publicist did not immediately return a message seeking comment about the hoax and Bieber’s views on the mosque.
Blogger Pamela Geller and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf 
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Andy Sullivan 
A flier from Atlas Shrugs blogger, Pamela Geller 
Canadian singer Justin Bieber performs in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Tuesday Oct. 19, 2010. (AP Photo/THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)(Credit: AP) 
Justin Bieber. Inset: Andy Sullivan 
