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'Plan to move Ground Zero mosque'
A MANHATTAN lawyer with ties to the Saudi royal family claimed King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia may try to move the controversial Ground Zero mosque to New York's West Village.Attorney Dudley Gaffin said the Saudi king might want to buy shuttered St Vincent's Medical Centre and transfer the mosque to a new Islamic cultural center he would build on a plot at that site, sources who heard Mr Gaffin's pitch said, according to the New York Post. The King would also save the hospital, reopening most of the units that closed when St Vincent's filed for bankruptcy on April 14, the sources said. They said Mr Gaffin was floating the idea to gauge what the reaction might be - and to ready a bid to rival the Rudin Organisation, which was trying to snap up St Vincent's in bankruptcy court with an eye on tearing down six hospital buildings for luxury housing. "He's asking what it would take to put in a bid," said one community leader who did not want to be identified. "He says the king wants to do this as a PR move - to save the hospital and move the mosque away from the World Trade Centre site," the source said. "He wants to show that Muslims can do good works." Posted by: tipper 2010-12-20 |
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