The Real ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ Was on the 17th Floor of the World Trade Center’s South Tower

The other non-story about Islam which is designed to raise peoples’ anger level, the “Ground-Zero” Mosque, has been pretty much shown to be a right wing media creation (and this). The outrage that Muslims would defile the memory of the WORLD Trade Centre by citizens of the US is such bullshit.

I emphasised the word WORLD in my previous sentence because that is exactly what the World Trade Centre was about: people from all countries and religions worked there.

And, surprise of surprises, even Muslims died on 9-11. I am putting a partial list of Muslim 9-11 victims at the end of this post.

But the real kicker is that the Real ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ Was on the 17th Floor of the World Trade Center’s South Tower!

The New York Times (10 September 2010) had an article about this prayer room and how Muslims were an accepted part of life at the World Trade Centre Complex.

Opponents of the Park51 project (AKA “Ground Zero Mosque”) say the presence of a Muslim center dishonors the victims of the Islamic extremists who flew two jets into the towers. Yet not only were Muslims peacefully worshiping in the twin towers long before the attacks, but even after the 1993 bombing of one tower by a Muslim radical, Ramzi Yousef, their religious observance generated no opposition

“We weren’t aliens,” Mr. Abdus-Salaam, 60, said in a telephone interview from Florida, where he moved in retirement. “We had a foothold there. You’d walk into the elevator in the morning and say, ‘Salaam aleikum,’ to one construction worker and five more guys in suits would answer, ‘Aleikum salaam.’ ”

According to the NYT, the prayer room was not the only example of Muslim religious practice in or near the trade center. About three dozen Muslim staff members of Windows on the World, the restaurant atop the north tower, used a stairwell between the 106th and 107th floors for their daily prayers.

“It is a shame, shame, shame,” Mr. Mamdouh, 49, said of the Park51 (“Ground Zero Mosque”) dispute. “Sometimes I wake up and think, this is not what I came to America for. I came here to build this country together. People are using this issue for their own agenda. It’s designed to keep the hate going.”

Given the vitriolic opposition now to the proposal to build a Muslim community center two blocks from ground zero, one might say something else has been destroyed: the realization that Muslim people and the Muslim religion were part of the life of the World Trade Center. If anything, the Park51 project is a perfect rememberance of the World Trade Center and its ability for people of all races, creeds, and colours to work together in one place. In addition, there were innocent Muslim victims of 9-11: let’s remember them and keep in mind that the majority of Muslims (or Christians) are not fundamentalist assholes. If anything, the protests by fundamentalist Christians are just as bad as the original attacks since they reenforce the Muslim World’s negative stereotypes of the US.

The World Trade Centre was a place for tolerance. Acts of intolerance made in the pretense of preserving the “Memory of 9-11” are total bullshit especially when you remember that the Real ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ Was on the 17th Floor of the World Trade Center’s South Tower!

Here is the Partial List of Muslim 9/11 Victims:

Note: This list is as yet incomplete and unconfirmed. It has been compiled from the Islamic Circle of North America, the Newsday victims database, and reports from other major news organizations. The victims’ ages, employers, or other personal information is included when available, along with links to further information or photos.

Samad Afridi
Ashraf Ahmad
Shabbir Ahmad (45 years old; Windows on the World; leaves wife and 3 children)
Umar Ahmad
Azam Ahsan
Ahmed Ali
Tariq Amanullah (40 years old; Fiduciary Trust Co.; ICNA website team member; leaves wife and 2 children)
Touri Bolourchi (69 years old; United Airlines #175; a retired nurse from Tehran)
Salauddin Ahmad Chaudhury
Abdul K. Chowdhury (30 years old; Cantor Fitzgerald)
Mohammad S. Chowdhury (39 years old; Windows on the World; leaves wife and child born 2 days after the attack)
Jamal Legesse Desantis
Ramzi Attallah Douani (35 years old; Marsh & McLennan)
SaleemUllah Farooqi
Syed Fatha (54 years old; Pitney Bowes)
Osman Gani
Mohammad Hamdani (50 years old)
Salman Hamdani (NYPD Cadet)
Aisha Harris (21 years old; General Telecom)
Shakila Hoque (Marsh & McLennan)
Nabid Hossain
Shahzad Hussain
Talat Hussain
Mohammad Shah Jahan (Marsh & McLennan)
Yasmeen Jamal
Mohammed Jawarta (MAS security)
Arslan Khan Khakwani
Asim Khan
Ataullah Khan
Ayub Khan
Qasim Ali Khan
Sarah Khan (32 years old; Cantor Fitzgerald)
Taimour Khan (29 years old; Karr Futures)
Yasmeen Khan
Zahida Khan
Badruddin Lakhani
Omar Malick
Nurul Hoque Miah (36 years old)
Mubarak Mohammad (23 years old)
Boyie Mohammed (Carr Futures)
Raza Mujtaba
Omar Namoos
Mujeb Qazi
Tarranum Rahim
Ehtesham U. Raja (28 years old)
Ameenia Rasool (33 years old)
Naveed Rehman
Yusuf Saad
Rahma Salie & unborn child (28 years old; American Airlines #11; wife of Michael Theodoridis; 7 months pregnant)
Shoman Samad
Asad Samir
Khalid Shahid (25 years old; Cantor Fitzgerald; engaged to be married in November)
Mohammed Shajahan (44 years old; Marsh & McLennan)
Naseema Simjee (Franklin Resources Inc.’s Fiduciary Trust)
Jamil Swaati
Sanober Syed
Robert Elias Talhami (40 years old; Cantor Fitzgerald)
Michael Theodoridis (32 years old; American Airlines #11; husband of Rahma Salie)
W. Wahid