Recently, the SLA [State Liquor Authority] notified three businesses on West Broadway that it is moving to revoke their liquor licenses. All four establishments are in the vicinity of Masjid al-Farah, a Sufi mosque in a nondescript two-story building at 245 West Broadway. According to the state’s Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) law, liquor licenses are prohibited for establishments that are on the same street and within 200 feet of a building ‘occupied exclusively as a school, church, synagogue or other place of worship …’ …Given the small and almost invisible nature of the previous mosques does it sound like there's a demand for a $100 million dollar 15-story building with a 500 seat auditorium and a swimming pool? And the area where this would be built is a commercial banking district with very few residents. Given Islam's prohibition on collecting interest on loans I can't imagine there are a bunch of Muslim bankers in that area that need a mosque to run to in the middle of the day.
Tribeca Tavern owner Greg Kosovoi said that for 10 years he was unaware that a mosque was next door. Eric Benn, co-owner of the 11-year-old Bubble Lounge, said the same.
‘None of us knew there was a mosque there,’ he said. ‘What kind of research are we supposed to do? Do we knock on every single door?’
The building at 245 West Broadway, open for services twice a week, has no signage other than the following four lines, in small print, on the door:
Dergah/Nur Ashki Jurahai/Sufi Order/Masjid al-Farah
A report written by an SLA investigator and obtained by the Trib concludes that the building is indeed a mosque, but states: ‘There are no signs or any indication that there is a Mosque located in the building.’
This is a victory mosque, celebrating the deaths of 19 "martyrs" who hijacked the 9/11 planes. Nothing more, nothing less.
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