By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — The Anti-Defamation League opposes the 13-story mosque and community center slated to rise two blocks north of Ground Zero.
The Jewish civil rights organization issued a statement this week that echoed conservative politicians from Sarah Palin to Newt Gingrich in saying the center, now called Park51, is an unnecessary provocation.
“Proponents of the Islamic Center may have every right to build at this site, and may even have chosen the site to send a positive message about Islam,” the ADL said in the statement.
“But ultimately this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right. In our judgment, building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain — unnecessarily — and that is not right.”
The ADL, which was founded in 1913, condemned the “bigotry” of many of the people who oppose the mosque for religious reasons.
But the ADL also said the Islamic center’s backers should be investigated.
“Some legitimate questions have been raised about who is providing the funding to build it, and what connections, if any, its leaders might have with groups whose ideologies stand in contradiction to our shared values,” the statement said. “These questions deserve a response, and we hope those backing the project will be transparent and forthcoming.”
Supporters of the project were dismayed by the ADL’s stance.
"It is shocking that a group claiming to seek 'justice and fair treatment for all' would side with those engaged in one of the most egregious Islamophobic smear campaigns in recent memory," said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in a statement.
"We ask the ADL to reconsider and retract this ill-considered and divisive statement. With its shameful statement, the ADL is exploiting and fueling the rising level of anti-Islam sentiment in our society."
Paul Newell, Democratic district leader for the 64th Assembly district, also said he was disappointed by the ADL.
"The ADL of all people should know how important it is that we not persecute people based on religion," said Newell. "The ADL's position here goes against both American values and Jewish values."
Bill Love, 67, a Battery Park City resident and former national board member of the American Civil Liberties Union, called the ADL’s statement “absurd.”
“People were upset by the civil rights movement — would they have shut that down?” said Love, who has supported the project as a member of Community Board 1. “Money hasn’t even been raised [for the center] and [the ADL] is saying it should be investigated. Would they apply that to a synagogue?”
The ADL’s New York office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
