There's a new explosive revelation that the man who provided most of the funding for the Cordoba building was a large contributor to Hamas.
Hisham Elzanaty donated thousands to the Holy Land Foundation, later shuttered by the feds because of its Hamas ties. Muslim Brotherhood front CAIR, ISNA, ICNA, MAS, et al, were named unindicted co-conspirators and Muslim Brotherhood fronts in the Holy Land trial (the largest terror funding trial in history).
Armaros opined, "Criminals, crooks, fraudsters, thugs and terrorist apologists. Nothing suspicious ...... Rauf could eat a baby live on MSNBC and they still would call stopping him "Un American". "The baby was attacking him"
More Mosque Revelations NY Post hat tip armaros
So now it transpires that a key money- man behind the proposed Ground Zero mosque is a one-time supporter of a group shut down by the feds because it was a front for Hamas.
No wonder the mosque's principal imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, refuses to discuss the project's finances.
Or, for that matter, refuses to speak harshly of Hamas -- an Iranian cat's-paw that's long been one of the deadliest Islamist terrorist organizations operating in the Mideast.
It was reported last night that Hisham Elzanaty -- an Egyptian-born businessman from Long Island -- provided a big chunk of the $4.8 million needed to buy the building that will be demolished to make way for the mosque.
Among other things, Elzanaty runs a Bronx-based medicial supply company that had to refund more than $300,000 in Medicaid payments in 2004-2005.
In 1999, he donated thousands to the Holy Land Foundation, later shuttered by the feds because of its Hamas ties.
All of this is, as they say, enough to give one pause.
But we doubt it will truly surprise any among the 71 percent of New Yorkers found this week by Quinnipiac University pollsters to oppose the mosque.
Mayor Mike and others think they are bigots, but most seem to have asked -- and answered to their own satisfaction -- a fair question:
How close to the scene of that deadly Islamist attack on America is too close to build a mosque?
Answer: The proposed site was close enough to have been hit by a landing-gear assembly from one of the crashed airliners on 9/11 -- and that's way too close.
They're also nervous about the project's backers -- even before Elzanaty popped up -- deciding that, with those folks involved, anywhere might be too close.
As The Post reported yesterday, Rauf has been catching iffy tax breaks since 1998 for an organization run from his wife's Upper West Side apartment.
How'd he do it? By telling the IRS the one-bedroom digs were actually a mosque where 500 people prayed daily.
These are only the latest revelations about the mosque's backers, who've run up a cumulative record of petty crime, slumlording and tax-scamming.
MYFOXNY.COM - A Fox 5 investigation by Charles Leaf revealed ties between a terrorist organization and Hisham Elzanaty, an investor in the property where a group plans to build a community center and mosque two blocks from the world trade center site.
Now some political figures are intensifying they call for an official investigation into the project's funding.
"Your investigations are making this whole thing much more troubling," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. "This is becoming more troubling by the day."
Elzanaty and real estate developer Sharif el-Gamal were involved in the deal to purchase the old Burlington Coat Factory site in Lower Manhattan for $4.8 million in cash.
Fox 5 uncovered and confirmed with his attorney that Elzanaty, an Egyptian born long island businessman, contributed $6,000 a Muslim charity called the holy land foundation in 1999.
But the federal government shut down the charity in 2001 and accused it of funneling money to Hamas, a designated terror organization. Elzanaty's attorney said his client believed he was contributing money to an orphanage.
Tax records show that NBA star Hakeem Olajuwon, the Microsoft Corp., and a medical equipment company owned by General Electric also donated money, equipment or services to the foundation in 1999, the Associated Press reported.
When a federal grad jury indicted the foundation's leaders, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft said that the case was not "a reflection on the well-meaning people who may have donated funds to the foundation."
However, media reports questioning the charity's possible ties to Hamas had appeared as early as 1993, the AP reported.
Fox 5 News asked the office of state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo if it would investigate, but a spokesperson declined to comment.
Posts
