Calm outside New York mosque on eve of 9/11 anniversary (Feature)

By JT Nguyen Sep 10, 2010, 23:48 GMT

New York - Two New York policemen stood in front of the mosque at 45-47 Park Place, which was closed Friday for the regular weekly noontime prayers for the first time since it opened to Muslims in Lower Manhattan.

There was no explanation from the head of the Islamic congregation in the area, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, nor any of his assistants. They were not in the building, which has been the target of fierce protests in recent weeks by opponents of plans to build an Islamic community centre there.

The mystery deepened as groups of demonstrators who obtained authorization from City Hall to stage yet more protests also vanished. The handful of people defending freedom of religion, who are found on most days in front of this location, were also absent on Friday.

The Ramadan month of fasting ended Thursday evening and Muslims in the United States were Friday celebrating Eid-al-Fitr.

The calm outside the New York mosque was in sharp contrast to the media frenzy in the city of Gainesville in Florida, where obscure pastor Terry Jones, who leads the Dove World Outreach Centre of about 50 people, had threatened to burns Korans on Saturday.

Since Thursday afternoon, Jones has wavered over carrying out his plans, which sparked protests in several countries and widespread condemnation from political and religious leaders across the world.

Late Thursday, Jones claimed to have cancelled the plans in exchange for alleged commitments from Rauf to change the location of the mosque and to meet with him Saturday. But Rauf made clear that he had neither spoken to Jones nor made any such commitments.

On Saturday, government officials led by US Vice President Joe Biden and families of the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks will meet at the World Trade Center's hallowed ground to remember the nearly 3,000 people killed that day.

A New York mosque has existed peacefully just four blocks from Ground Zero, long before the terrorist attacks. And Muslims have been praying at a makeshift mosque at the site of the planned cultural centre since last year.

Instead of demonstrations Friday, the only presence outside the so-called Ground Zero mosque were television crews and groups of reporters who stood by cooling their heels. With the absence of both protesters and the usual supporters of the mosque, the reporters attempted to interview each other.

A German television journalist looked in vain for people to talk to, finally managing to grab the rare tourists who ventured away from the site of the destroyed World Trade Center, two blocks away.

Brian Vitelly, one of the owners of the Amish Market food chain at 53 Park Place, said he was not bothered by the prospect of a mosque next door. He said the media has been making more noise than the protesters since the controversy of a mosque near Ground Zero exploded two months ago.

'There have been 20 media representatives for every protester,' he told the German Press Agency dpa. 'It's a dynamic area here, with large corporations and offices on this street.'

'The dispute over the mosque does not hurt nor help my business and others,' Vitelly said. 'We have our clients every day. The businesses here are not concerned at all by the mosque.'

Vitelly said that on most days there had been two or three supporters and two or three protesters. He has a good clientele from the offices nearby, tourists and the large number of construction workers at the World Trade Center site.

At his newspaper kiosk across the street, Ismail (no last name), said there had been no demonstrations this week and the area was calm.

'I don't have any problems selling to residents in the area,' he said. 'The mosque is not a problem to businesses here.'

Park Place is an unremarkable street despite its recent reputation, unlike Vesey Street, close by. There, tens of thousands of tourists, office and construction workers throng the area and streets surrounding the 16-acre site of the destroyed World Trade Center.

More tourists flock to the small Saint Paul Church, where firefighters and residents in the area took refuge in the days following the attack in 2001.

The church still has messages left by people searching for relatives who may have been killed when the 110-storey twin towers collapsed nine years back.