Ground Zero Mosque Foes Vow to Continue Fight

(Aug. 3) -- Jimmy Riches can't protest the proposed Islamic mosque near ground zero, because he died in the Sept. 11 attacks nearly a decade ago.

So Jim Riches Sr. says he'll stand against the controversial New York City project on his son's behalf.

"Our sons can't speak for themselves, so we'll speak for them," Riches, 59, told AOL News today in a phone interview.

Riches, who is also a retired deputy chief of the New York City Fire Department, said the mosque should be stopped. "We're not going to give up," he said.

The plan by a Muslim group to build an Islamic community center just blocks from ground zero got a major boost today, when the city refused to grant landmark status to the 152-year-old building where the Islamic community center is to be erected.

But the father's persistence highlights the deep, emotional resistance to the mosque from families whose loved ones died in the terrorist attacks, opposition that is unlikely to recede as construction on the center moves forward.

"I lost my son Joseph," Bill Doyle, 63, told AOL News today. Doyle, whose 25-year-old son worked at the financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, said it was offensive that the mosque would likely be complete before a memorial for his son and those who died with him. "It's almost like they have their own memorial," he said.

Doyle also said he's worried that the community center may become a meeting site for radical Muslims. "The people themselves might be OK, but will it become a breeding ground for terrorism?" he said.

The Cordoba Initiative, the project's sponsor, has said that the community center is a place for moderate Muslims to meet and is open to people of all faiths.

"We will continue going forward with the project," Cordoba Initiative spokesman Oz Sultan told CNN today. "It's a project that will build bridges." Sultan said the group is "committed to promoting positive interaction between the Muslim world and the West." Sultan did not immediately return calls today for comment.

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission did not discuss those concerns at all today, when it ruled 9-0 that 45-47 Park Place is simply not architecturally important enough to be worthy of historic landmark protection and can be demolished.

"I do not think that 45 Park Place exhibits by itself the special character or aesthetic interest required of it to join the rare company of the other 1,000 individual landmarks in the city of New York," commissioner Frederick Bland said at a public hearing on the issue.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg heralded the commission's decision again defending the proposed mosque. "To cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists," he said this afternoon. "Part of being a New Yorker is living with your neighbors in mutual respect and tolerance."

Still, the project has unleashed a torrent of criticism from national and local politicians and religious groups, who say the mosque would be an insult to the memory of those who died in the attacks.

The Anti-Defamation League surprised many today when its came out against the mosque, out of respect for the families of 9/11 victims, and because of concerns about the source of its funding. The ADL wrote that "legitimate questions have been raised about who is providing the funding to build it, and what connections, if any, its leaders may have with groups whose ideologies stand in connection to our shared values."

That sentiment was fueled in part by the controversial views of one of the religious leaders working on the Cordoba Initiative, Imam Faisel Abdul Rauf. In a "60 Minutes" interview after the Sept. 11 attacks, Rauf said that "United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened," The Associated Press noted.

Bloomberg called the ADL's position "totally out of character with its stated mission," according to a report in The New York Times.

But others raised questions as well about whether any of the center's sponsors are connected to terrorism. Rick Lazio, a Republican candidate for governor in New York, was one of the first public figures to react to the city's ruling today.

"Just attended Landmarks Commission vote to greenlight Cordoba Ground Zero Mosque," Lazio wrote on his Twitter feed. "The fight to get answers on funding goes on. No rest."

Even Sarah Palin waded into the debate last month when she took to her Twitter feed to ask all "peace-seeking Muslims" to reject the community center. "pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts," she wrote.

After today's vote, the developer is free to tear down the building near ground zero, and the community center and mosque are likely to be built on the site. It's unclear how long it would take to build the center, because not all of the fundraising for the $100 million project is complete yet.

Regardless, the structures may come to stand in the shadow of vocal opposition from families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks. Those families vowed today to continue their fight against the mosque, which they say is an affront to the memories of their dead loved ones.

"I picked up my son's body parts," Doyle, a retired New York City fire chief who helped lead the recovery effort at ground zero after the Sept 11 attacks, said today. "You ask our families what they think about the mosque and they don't even say 'yes and no,'" he said. "The reaction is, 'Are they out of their minds?'"