By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — More reporters than protesters showed up Friday for a demonstration against a plan to build a mosque near Ground Zero.
The demonstration, which drew seven protesters, coincided with the mosque’s weekly services on Park Place, where Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf hopes to build a new 13-story religious and community center.
The protesters had a bit of trouble finding each other on lower Manhattan’s crowded streets — “This is no way to organize a demonstration,” one middle-aged woman muttered as she looked for her brethren — but soon they were passing out bold-faced flyers and waving their red, white and blue banners.
“We’re not opposing Muslims building houses of worship,” said Leonard Volodarsky, 60, an Upper East Side resident who helped organize the protest through ACT! for America. “We’re opposing them building one right here.”
Most of the Muslims on their way to services walked past without stopping, but some paused to read the banners and flyers.
“They’re denigrating the Muslim people,” said Goumballa Mbaye, 60, a Harlem resident and congregant of the mosque. “You can be a Muslim and have a good heart. Being Muslim, you’re not supposed to be racist. You’re not supposed to kill nobody.”
While there is little the demonstrators can do to stop the mosque, the project does have to clear one city hurdle. The Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a hearing next month to consider landmarking 45-47 Park Place, the historic building that Imam Rauf plans to demolish.
That hearing is scheduled for Tues., July 13 at 2 p.m., although the venue has not been decided, an LPC spokeswoman said Friday.