Mosque and money

Saturday in New York close to 5000 people took to the streets in NYC to commemorate the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 with protests for and against the proposed Mosque at 41 Park Avenue.  In my opinion that was the wrong day for it.  People still in pain from the loss off mothers, fathers. children, husbands, husbands, wives, friends and lovers didn't need it. 




They didn't need a Gainesville minister named Terry Jones plan to burn the Qur'an in protest of the planned Mosque any more than they any more than they, need or for the most part want the Mosque.  To most Americans both are repulsive, however both are Constitutionally protected acts.

With all the hullabaloo, many Americans didn't notice another story developing around the Mosque, one that raises questions about how the developers acquired the site, the possibility of tax evasion or maybe just good old fashion blackmail..


From all accounts, the developers Sharif El-Gamal paid 4.8 Million to purchase the site in July 2009 to the Pomerantz family, owners of the building since sometime in the sixties. 

The next logical question is so what? 

The so what is they turned down $18,000,000 in 2007 from a developer named  Kevin Glodek and sold the property in 2009 for $4,800,000.  Before anyone asks the obvious, the 2007 offer was still on the table.  There's more,  This is what the NY Post found out:

 "He was not alone in his interest, with some 30 offers showered on the Pomerantz family in what was an overheated downtown real-estate market in 2007, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.

Yet Mitani previously told The Post the building, a former Burlington Coat Factory store that was damaged in the 9/11 attacks, was a tough sell. She said she was in debt and desperate to unload it after her husband's death and insisted she had no buyers other than El-Gamal.

Some of the offers were a mere flash in the pan, but others were legitimate, including a $17 million cash deal from one developer, the source said.

The attraction in this hot market was buying real estate that could be demolished, the source said. A second downtown mosque, not affiliated with El-Gamal, considered spending $18 million for 45-47 Place in early 2008. Park

But the Pomerantz family -- for reasons that remain unclear -- rejected the offers."


They took 70 percent less from El-Gamal than what Glodek offered.


Read it for yourself,  Mosque building owners nixed $18M offer before taking $4.8M one
By ISABEL VINCENT and MELISSA KLEIN Last Updated: 11:15 AM, September 5, 2010

Why would they leave 13,000,000 laying on the table? The best answer I can think of is they didn't. Inflation in property values since the 1960's would have left the estate owing a fortune in various taxes on the 13 Million, but if there was some under the table dealing going on not only would the Pomerantz family avoid the taxes, but the developer El-Gamel and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf would be spared some potentially embarrassing questions about the financing. Illegal business deals are still business deals, there has to be a benefit to everyone or there is no reason for the deal, and less reason to break the law and risk prison.


Why hasn't the Justice Department announced an investigation? Good question, possibly he's afraid of offending the Muslim world. It gets stranger, or maybe it doesn't.

Last week Imam Rauf was adamant, the Mosque project couldn't be stopped or even relocated without endangering the security of the United States.

The imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said on Wednesday night that if he had known how much strife would arise over his plan for a Muslim community center and mosque two blocks from the World Trade Center site, he would not have proposed it.


“If I knew that this would happen, that this would cause this kind of pain, I wouldn’t have done it,” the imam told Soledad O’Brien on “Larry King Live” on CNN in his first extensive televised remarks since the controversy ballooned after the project cleared its last legal hurdle last month. “My life has been devoted to peacemaking.”


But the imam said he could not withdraw the plan because that would embolden radicals of all faiths and create security risks for the United States and Americans abroad.


“If we move from that location, the story will be that the radicals have taken over the discourse,” he said. “The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack. And I’m less concerned about the radicals in America than I am about the radicals in the Muslim world.

Imam Says Moving Center Could Spur Radicals
By ANNE BARNARD, Published: September 8, 2010

That's from the New York Times, I hope you read it, because;


It turns out it can be relocated, for a price, it's no problem according to Hisham Elzanaty, one of the developers who says he's the actual site owner.. this from AP

Hisham Elzanaty, an Egyptian-born businessman who says he provided a majority of the financing to gain control over the two buildings where the center would be built, told The Associated Press this week that while he supports the concept, he needs to turn a profit.


He said one of the buildings is worth millions if it is redeveloped, and he intends to seize the opportunity. He said he would like to see the other building turned into a mosque, but if his community doesn’t come forward with enough cash for him to break even, he will turn it over to someone else.


“I’m a businessman. This was a mere business transaction for me,” said Elzanaty, a U.S. citizen who has lived on Long Island for decades, owns medical clinics in New York City and invests in real estate on the side.

AP Exclusive: Backers of NYC mosque appear divided
By DAVID B. CARUSO, Published: 9:05 PM 09/08/2010, Updated: 7:06 AM 09/09/2010

Once again. I'd suggest you read the entire article, we seem to have one principle suggesting all kinds of really bad things will happen if he doesn't get his Mosque where and how he wants it, and another principle saying it's all about money. If the 4.8 million was the real, honest to God price then Hisham Elzanaty isn't just trying to make a profit. He's out to make a killing. On the other hand, if there was some hanky panky involved in his purchase of the property, possibly he is trying to make nothing more than a reasonable profit.

When Donald Trump heard that Elzanaty was willing to sell the property, he made what most business people would consider a reasonable offer.  he offered to pay Elzanaty the 4.8 million, plus 25% and cover all Elzanaty's costs associated with the transaction.  A 25% NET Profit, on a one year real estate deal in a year when real estate is losing value.

He turned Trump down cold.

This is how Trump explained what transpired on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The idiotic suggestion that because Trump didn't allow himself to be blackmailed into giving this clown five times what he said he paid, Trump was unpatriotic, says something about MSNBC and the audience they cater to.

Is Trump right, do they believe they can hold the site for ransom?  I believe they could and would.  I'll use Glenn Beck as an example.  If the polls are right, 70% of adult  Americans want the Mosque Site moved, some much farther than others.    I don't watch Beck  but 3,000,000 other Americans watch him  everyday.  If he or someone like him were to announce a donation fund to buy the developers out they could probably come up with the money in a week. 

The problem is America would be being blackmailed..  Raul and all the developers are Egyptian or of North African decent.   There ancestors were the Barbary Pirates 

My other thought is, after the first of the year US House Member Issa is promising some investigations.  There's something very strange about the Money Trail,  There is a good possibilty that Holder will much more willing to look into things after the first of the year than he is now.

What do you think?