POSSIBLE SOLUTION TO GROUND ZERO MOSQUE ISSUE – AT 10:45 A.M. ET:  An idea is being floated that could possibly end the emotionally sizzling Ground Zero mosque controversy in New York City.  As you know, a Muslim group wants to put up a Muslim cultural center, including a mosque, within a block of Ground Zero, replacing a building that had been damaged in the 9-11 attacks.  Many, including family members of attack victims, object.

A solution may be coming.  From the New York Post:

A Manhattan lawyer with ties to the Saudi royal family is sounding out officials and community leaders about a plan to move the controversial Ground Zero mosque to the West Village.

Attorney Dudley Gaffin is claiming King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia might want to buy shuttered St. Vincent's Medical Center and transfer the mosque to a new Islamic cultural center he would build on a plot at the site, say sources who have heard Gaffin's pitch.

The king, worth more than $20 billion, would also save the hospital, reopening most of the units that closed when St. Vincent's filed for bankruptcy on April 14, the sources said.

They say that Gaffin, who heads his own firm in lower Manhattan, is floating the idea to gauge what the reaction might be -- and to ready a bid to rival the Rudin Organization, which is trying to snap up St. Vincent's in bankruptcy court with an eye on tearing down six hospital buildings for luxury housing.

COMMENT:  I'm always wary of Saudi influence, but at least some good would be done.  As long as hospital operations will not be influenced, in any way, by Saudi Arabia, this might be a way out of the mosque controversy, if not an ideal solution. 

Reopening St. Vincent's would help the area a lot more than another "luxury" apartment complex. 

December 19, 2010