Although backers of a mosque planned to be built steps away from Ground Zero still need millions of dollars to break ground, the legal system has given radical Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf the go-ahead to build:
The backers of the controversial "Ground Zero Mosque" have won a court fight clearing the way for them to build the mosque and community center complex two blocks from the site of the 9/11 terror attack.
In a decision on Friday that was made public today, New York State Supreme Justice Paul Feinman dismissed a lawsuit by former firefighter Timothy Brown who argued that New York City was wrong to allow the destruction of a 150-year-old building to make way for the Islamic center.
The ex-firefighter who was among those who responded to the terror attack on the World Trade Center said the old building had been struck by debris during the collapse of the twin towers and was a "living representative of the heroic structures that commemorate the events of that day."
In a 15-page decision Feinman wrote, "Mr. Brown's claim that his ability to commemorate will be injured, is not yet recognized under the law as a concrete injury that can establish standing. Such an injury, although palpable to Brown, is immeasurable by a court."
The American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative legal group which filed the lawsuit on Brown's behalf, said they plan to appeal the ruling.
Remember, Rauf has said America was an accessory to the 9/11 attacks, that Osama bin Laden "was made in the USA," and doesn't believe Ground Zero is hallowed ground.
On 9/11, the mosque site was protested as families who lost loved ones that day spoke out against the chosen location by Rauf and questioned the real motives behind the move: