News - National
9/11 family members divided over mosque near WTC
Posted: Aug 20, 2010 6:28 AM by Bea Karnes, News First 5
Updated: Aug 20, 2010 7:37 AM
In the debate over plans to build an Islamic cultural center blocks from ground zero, political leaders often cite the feelings of the Sept. 11 victims' families.
But the thousands of relatives of the nearly 3,000 victims have no single representative and no unified voice. The conflict is dividing a group that in many ways has never been united.
Talat Hamdani's EMT son was killed at the World Trade Center. She says that as a Muslim, she feels that members of her faith are being targeted and that opposition to the mosque is a strike against religious freedom.
Former FDNY deputy chief Jim Riches - whose son was killed at the trade center disagrees. He says the planned project is like putting "a Japanese cultural center at Pearl Harbor."
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