Andrew Cuomo and his GOP challengers are splitting sharply on the hotly contested question of building a mosque near Ground Zero, even as they’re in surprising agreement on the need to cut taxes and spending.
Attorney General Cuomo said he favored building the mosque, which polls show is opposed by most city residents, including many who say it would be an insult to 9/11 victims.
Cuomo, who polls show is the overwhelming favorite to be the state’s next governor, said through a spokesman, “America is all about diversity and tolerance and, thus, we should let this project proceed, even though it may justifiably make some people uncomfortable and offend some of our sensibilities.”
Republican gubernatorial designee and one-time Long Island Rep. Rick Lazio “opposes the plan to build the Cordoba mosque across from Ground Zero, and shares the concerns of many over the [proposed mosque’s] imam’s view that Hamas is not a terrorist organization,” said his spokesman, Barney Keller.
“Rick views the questions surrounding the overseas sources of funding for this project as a potential security risk.”
Buffalo builder and megamillionaire Carl Paladino, a Tea Party activist expected to challenge Lazio in the GOP primary, said, “I am dead set against the mosque at Ground Zero because it’s an affront to Americans everywhere.
“It just doesn’t make sense to build a needlessly bold and insulting statement on hallowed ground where radical Islamists declared war on America.”
Meanwhile, Gov. Paterson weighed in, telling The Post he, too, favors construction of the mosque, as long as it’s not tied to a terrorist organization.
“Americans who practice Islam were among the thousands killed in the attack on our country on Sept. 11, 2001, and Muslim-Americans, like every other American, have the inalienable right to worship,” he said.
Cordoba House, comprising a community center and mosque, would be built at 45 Park Place, two blocks from the World Trade Center.