On Tuesday, New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to deny landmark status to a building slated for demolition and the space used for a new Islamic community center and mosque. The decision clears the way for the center to be developed by the Cordoba Initiative two blocks from Ground Zero.

“The World Trade Center site will forever hold a special place in our city, in our hearts,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. “But we would be untrue to the best part of ourselves, and who we are as New Yorkers and Americans, if we said no to a mosque in lower Manhattan.”
Join the discussions about the project and views expressed by newsmakers such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or “Islamism”, a term used to describe an extremist who is Muslim. Also, Beliefnet blogger Aziz Poonawalla comments about Anti-Defamation League opposition to the Park 51 project.