By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — The builders of the 13-story mosque and community center near Ground Zero have turned to Twitter to defend the controversial project.
The @Park51 account, which takes its name from the center, initially just tweeted links to news articles and shout-outs to supporters, but it recently took on a more sarcastic and direct tone.
“You can let me know when you're done not listening,” @Park51 tweeted yesterday, after an extended back-and-forth with a Wisconsin libertarian who goes by @sockmonkeyrulz and warned that the center would host “stonings, beheadings, mutilations, rape, bestiality, homosexuality, pedophilia.”
To other detractors, @Park51 tweeted “Lol - good job at taking conversations out of context ^_^” and the more sedate “I don't think blanket statements like that are even remotely accurate.”
Oz Sultan, spokesman for Park51 and one of the main tweeters, said the opponents of the project set the tone of the conversation.
“There was so much hate speech coming at it that we decided to become snarky,” Sultan said. “The only thing you can do is use humor to deal with it.”
Sultan said he hoped the less serious tweets would defuse the tension and sensationalism that surround the controversial $100 million center. He intends to use Twitter more in the coming weeks to engage both supporters and opponents of the project around the country.
Twitter has given Sultan a more casual way to respond to things like Fox News host Greg Gutfeld’s inflammatory suggestion of a gay bar catering to Muslims next to the new Islamic center.
“It's simple,” @GregGutfeld wrote to @Park51 on Twitter. “If we can welcome a mosque near GZ, then you should welcome a gay Muslim nightclub near your Mosque. Why won't you?”
“Just out of curiosity Would you engage a priest or a rabbi the same way, with a bar?” @Park51 replied, and later added, “Greg, we're looking to open Interfaith dialog and build moderate Muslim communities. Hate speech doesn't help.”
Park51’s Twitter account has also attracted statements of support.
On Wednesday morning, a tweeter who goes by @JC_Christian asked, “@Park51, What can we do to help you fight the bigots?”
