Wrong address
Hundreds of protesters gathered at the wrong address to protest the building of the "Ground Zero Mosque".
New York, NY – Hundreds of protesters gathered Sunday at the wrong address in lower Manhattan to protest the building of “The Ground Zero Mosque”. The proposed building is actually a community center, and only about 15% of it will be used as a prayer space for Muslims. But it is this prayer space that has been wildly criticized by many extreme right wing media outlets, including Fox News. Protesters gathered at the World Trade Center site, just outside the Cortland Street subway station, to voice their outrage, unaware that the community center is actually planned to replace an abandoned Burlington Coat Factory store on Park Place, 3 or 4 blocks north.
Many passers-by were quite confused by the protest, and several spectators tried tell members of the crowd that the “mosque” was actually going to be a few blocks away. The angry crowd did not take well to being told they were wrong, accusing the spectators of being the agents of an Evil Empire trying to trick them into moving their protest away from sacred ground. “We’ve got a right to protest wherever we want, and you can’t stop us!” cried a man identified only as Al from Cincinnati.
“I was only trying to point them to the right location”, remarked Steven Driscoll, a resident of the Tribeca neighborhood. “But hey, if they want to protest here, that’s cool too. That end of Park Place isn’t really very attractive.”
The man behind the proposed community center, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, has been relatively silent throughout the controversy. Asked about his silence, he replied that he had no idea who was trying to build a mosque at Ground Zero, but isn’t him. The Imam added “I believe there is already a development plan for Ground Zero, and it doesn’t include a mosque. So I’m not sure what everyone’s complaining about.”
A group of people supporting the construction of the community center, and religious tolerance in general, were allowed to hold a demonstration a couple of blocks away at another erroneous location.