Plus: Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski pins primary hopes on absentee ballots
Donna O'Connor (center) national spokeswoman for September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, speaks Wednesday during a news conference organized by the Coalition of New York Neighbors for American Values in New York. O'Connor, who lost her pregnant daughter on Sept. 11, 2001, said, "We cannot bring back the family members we lost on 9/11, but we can try to recoup what is best about America," in her support for the proposed lower Manhattan Islamic center. Rabbi Arthur Waskow (far left), director of the Shalom Center, Susan Lerner (second from left), executive director of Common Cause New York, and Talat Hamdani (far right), a 9/11 mother who lost her son, a New York Police Department cadet and EMT, joined in support of the proposed Islamic center.NEW YORK (AP) — The planned mosque and Islamic center blocks from ground zero got a new boost Wednesday from a coalition of supporters that includes families of Sept. 11 victims.
New York Neighbors for American Values rallied for the first time at a municipal building near ground zero.
“I lost a 23-year-old son, a paramedic who gave his life saving Americans and their values,” Talat Hamdani said, and supporting the Islamic center and mosque “has nothing to do with religion. It has to do with standing up for our human rights, including freedom of religion.”
Among the nearly 2,800 people killed when the World Trade Center was attacked in 2001 were more than 30 Muslims, she noted.
Opponents of the Islamic center project argue it’s insensitive to the families and memories of Sept. 11 victims to build a mosque so close. Supporters cite freedom of religion. Continue reading
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